Bait takes place in an Australian (I think) seaside community. A tsunami hits the area, and a waterfront grocery store is flooded, trapping the surviving customers inside the store and in the parking garage. Josh (Xavier Samuel) is a former lifeguard who now works as a stockboy. He had to give up his former life when he was best friend was killed on the job. As it turns out, his ex-fiance and sister of that friend, Tina (Sharni Vinson), just happens to be in the store that day. Doyle (Julian McMahon), a man who is being blackmailed, had come in to rob the store, only to be confronted by Todd (Martin Sacks), a police officer who had come to the store to collect his daughter, Jaimie (Phoebe Tonkin), who had been picked up for shoplifting. She'd also been there to see her boyfriend, Ryan (Alex Russell). As the survivors climb on top of the shelving to get out of the water, they soon realize two things, 1) the main entrance is blocked and 2) a large great white shark has been swept into the store. Meanwhile, Heather (Cariba Heine) and Kyle (Lincoln Lewis) are trapped in the parking deck with a second shark. As the water levels continue to rise, the desperate people must figure out how they can get past these man-eaters and leave the store.

The problem with Bait is that it takes this neat idea and does little with it, despite having six (yes, six) writers on board, one of whom worked on Deep Blue Sea. Once we get past the character introductions and the tsunami, the story falls into three categories; the people arguing amongst themselves or the people discussing ways to escape or the people facing issues created by the tsunami. As this is a shark movie combined with an Irwin Allen-esque disaster film, the survivors also have to deal with injuries and things like downed electrical wires in addition to the shark. There is also a lot of emotional turmoil going on. Josh has to deal with seeing Tina again. Despite the problems at hand, Todd feels like he must keep an eye on Doyle. Also, Todd has to look after Jaimie. For many of the scenes, the shark in the store is merely an afterthought. Bait turns into an odd variation of the siege movie where the people are trapped in the house while the zombies circle outside. They argue and fight and every once in a while someone falls in the water and gets eaten. Which brings us to one of the plot points I had a lot of trouble with -- We learn in Jaws that sharks has slow digestive systems, so why are we asked to believe that a 12-foot shark would continue to eat person-after-person without getting full or losing the urge to hunt. Can't sharks just swim around without bothering anyone? (At least in Deep Blue Sea their aggression was explained.)

Despite these problems, Bait is a serviceable entry in the killer shark movie sub-genre. The production design works well here and the crew did a good job creating the flooded grocery store. Some of the CGI effects are good, but a few show why I prefer an animatronic shark. While the movie certainly could have used more shark action, the moments where the characters fall into the water are suspenseful. I think that we go into any modern shark movie with a grain of salt, knowing that it won't be Jaws. Bait doesn't come close to that classic, but it's still light-years ahead of things like Jersey Shore Shark Attack.

Bait offers an inordinate amount of pomeranian action on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 27 Mbps. The image is sharp and clear, showing only minor grain at times and no defects from the source materials. The colors look good and the image is never overly dark or bright. The HD transfer does show some seams with the CG effects, most notably in the final shot. The image has a nice amount of depth, even in this 2D version, but the picture is a tad soft at times. The Disc carries a Dolby TureHD 7.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.5 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The track really brings the environment to life, as we hear the various sounds from the store, from the drips to the water lapping against the shelves. The stereo effects are detailed and show good separation. The surround effects are good during the attack sequences. The tsunami scenes impresses with both good surround and subwoofer effects. (This Blu-ray Disc also includes a 3D version of the film, which was not screened.)

The lone extra on the Bait Blu-ray Disc is a "Storyboard Gallery" which allows us to view over 200 storyboards from the film, so that we can see the planning behind the shots for a good chunk of the film. (I have to assume that the inclusion of both the 3D and 2D versions on one Disc reduced the amount of space left for extra features.)