Eagle vs Shark

Eagle vs Shark is a quirky New Zealand comedy in the same vein as Napolean Dynamite, however without a lot of the sweetness of Napolean. In fact while the movie is pegged as a comedy, the story centers on some fairly serious themes, a sons desire to get the attention of a distracted Dad, unforgiveness, complete lack of self esteem, a family’s dealing with suicide, and the treatment of the socially awkward.

The story centers on two social outcasts; Lily a shy till operator at Meaty Boy hamburger joint and Jarrod, an emotionally stilted video game salesman. The two meet daily at Meaty Boys approximately at midday when Jarrod purchases his lunch. The meeting is to the joy of Lily and to the obvious lack of awareness and interest of Jarrod. When Jarrod invites Lily’s co-worker, not her, to his party Lily takes the plunge and gate crashes with her brother. The dress up party gets participants to dress up as their favorite animal; Lily dresses as a shark, Jarrod an eagle, hence the movie title. It’s at the party that Jarrod finally notices Lily after her skills in video gaming is revealed and a romance of sorts begins. The two take a trip to Jarrods home town where he hopes to take revenge on a child hood bully. Once there, he abandons her to his family, to whom she connects well with, whereas he struggles with the family relationship.

I found Eagle vs Shark a laugh out loud comedy, but with the movie based on two such socially awkward characters beware the laughs can feel a little guilty.

Reviewed by: Di Campbell.
Rating: PG – Contains Violence & Offensive Language.
Duration: 86 mins.
Genre: Comedy.
Actors: Jemaine Clement, Joel Tobeck, Loren Horsley, Craig Hall.
Director: Taika Waititi.
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: Available now.