Half-brothers Jeff (Joel Hogan) and Josh Miller (Josh Potthoff), along with Jeff's girlfriend, Megan Murphy (Megan Peta Hill), are applying for a part on a Survivor-like reality show, and they are working on their application video. Their plan for impressing the show's producers is to film the trio doing a surface cage dive in the shark-infested waters off the coast of Australia, but when a freak wave capsizes the boat, they will have to find a way to survive and hope that searchers will somehow find them before they die, either of exposure, the circling sharks, or their own mistakes.
The film doesn't start off on the water though. About the first third of Open Water 3 is preamble as the friends make their way from America to visiting Josh's Australian cousin Greg (Pete Valley) before they finally make their way onto the ill-fated boat. During this time, we not only get to learn more about Jeff, Josh, and Megan, but we learn more about their relationships. For one, Jeff is planning on proposing to Megan on the show, but what also gets captured is evidence of an affair between Megan and Josh. You can expect all of this to come up when the three are stressed to their limits while trying to stay afloat, and, of course, when it does, their situation only gets worse.
Open Water 3: Cage Dive's special features include a lengthy behind-the-scenes featurette about the making of the film and a commentary with Hogan, Potthoff, and writer/director Gerald Rascionato. The Blu-ray also comes with a ton of deleted scenes and outtakes, though, in both cases, these are clips from the characters' camera that didn't make it into the final film. Why some are classified as deleted scenes and others as outtakes is beyond me, and quite frankly, the movie isn't hurting by having them left on the cutting room floor.
Found footage-style movies rarely appeal to me, but Open Water 3's attempt to make it more of a news report about the capsized boat and recovered footage lessens most of those aggravations. There are still plenty of moments where I can't help but ask why the characters are still holding onto the camera, but many of those events are immediately followed by someone asking the cameraman the same question. With the film also acknowledging the absurdity of the situation, it almost makes the problem okay. While not the best movie out there, if you are looking for a thriller involving three characters that end up making some really stupid mistakes, then look no further; Cage Dive fits the bill. Just rent it or something. I really can't see purchasing this movie or watching it a second time.
