No Way Up (2024) Dir: Claudio Fäh
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Full disclosure, this Claudio Fäh directed film did not look like it would be good, nor have reviews been kind to it. However, the premise; a plane crashing in the ocean, plus sharks, sounded fun. That said, the film's tagline was; "Brace Yourself", and that's certainly what I tried to do.
I actually thought that the film's soundtrack was solid, but the sound mixing was just horrendous, especially during the crash sequence. It was really messy there on in, pretty much anytime there was a sound other than the dialogue.
The writing was pretty terrible, it must be said. The screenplay was full of clumsy, unrealistic dialogue and painful amounts of exposition. The characters weren't particularly well written either, with the only interesting character barely appearing in it.
The CGI was not amazing, however, with a budget of $2 million, I'm more than willing to let that slide. The set was actually quite well constructed - it certainly looked like a plane under water. I guess the fact that the water didn't seem at all cold was a let-down, it definitely ruined any remote and dwindling chances of realism.
The story had an interesting premise, but failed to do anything interesting or creative with it, instead relying on poorly written tropes and clichés. There were so many contradictory or nonsensical scenes, and most of the characters made unrealistic and ridiculous decisions that only made them look brainless.
I can't really pretend like anyone gave a particularly good performance, but the most adequate ones came from the trio of Sophie McIntosh, Grace Nettle and Phyllis Logan. Aside from them, the acting was all quite poor, though I'll still give mentions to the likes of Will Attenborough, Jeremias Amoore, Manuel Pacific, Colm Meaney and James Carroll Jordan.
Overall, this was never going to be a great film, but I think my low expectations helped me to find some enjoyment in it. Despite its many, many, flaws, it wasn't the least enjoyable film I've ever watched. I'll never watch it again, but, surprisingly, I don't really regret watching it.
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