Even Berry in a bikini can’t salvage this sunken wreck

With Michael Caine added to our rogue’s gallery, we’re on a roll now. Next up, we’ve got none other than the star of “Catwoman” herself, Halle Berry as Kate, a freediving shark expert whose business is struggling to stay afloat after a tragic accident in which one of her crew died. “Dark Tide” is the story of how, the once dubbed ‘shark whisperer’, a year later Kate is still haunted by the memory of the attack and unable to get back in the water. As the debts mount up and the bank prepares to foreclose on her boat, her ex-husband Jeff (Olivier Martinez) introduces her to a thrill-seeking millionaire who, along with his teenage son, is looking for the ultimate adrenaline high: diving with great white sharks. Against her better judgement, Kate agrees to take the job.

I will admit my first thought on seeing this was that Berry fancied a South African holiday with her new squeeze Martinez and it turns out I was half right: this was the film on which the pair met. Aside from the tabloid title-tattle, though, this has little to recommend it.

Throughout all the Shark Weak films so far, there’s been one constant: no matter how shoddy, amateurish or downright stupid the films have been, there’s always been a modicum of fun to be found but that’s exactly the element missing in this dull and dreary thrill-less thriller. It’s a slick and glossy production, probably the best so far in this slog through the cinematic shark-based slurry, but even the decent effects work (blended with some skill with the usual stock footage) can’t seem to inject any life into proceedings.

It may, of course, be a case of too many cooks spoiling the chum given this is a film where producers outnumber the speaking cast but it shouldn’t be possible to make a film about sharks this boring yet “Dark Tide” somehow manages it.