Commentary: You think escaping a Cyclops is hard? Try outwitting a giant cave shark in 'The Devil's Mouth'

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Set us as preferred In a summer dominated by a retelling of history’s most well-known monster-plagued sea voyage, “The Devil’s Mouth” may seem like a mere bagatelle, a non-Imax drop in the brine ‘n’ blood-splattered hero’s journey.Like Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” this ultimate vacation nightmare features a fearless leader, known for cleverly getting the team out of all sorts of jams, who refuses to heed any cautionary advice (Why not follow the tried and true way back to Ithaca? Why not listen to the tour guide when he says it is time to go now?) to the disastrous detriment of all.Unlike “The Odyssey,” however, “The Devil’s Mouth” features a mondo and super-hangry shark (honestly, how did Homer miss that one?).And not just any shark, a mondo, super-hangry bull shark that’s able to survive in salt and fresh water.As a member of the generation permanently turned into ocean-phobes by “Jaws,” I want to thank director Jeff Wadlow and screenwriters Aja Gabel and Myung Joh Wesner upfront for this bit of piscine trivia; now I have to worry about rivers and lakes too.In a cheeky bid for “Shark Week”-adjacency, “The Devil’s Mouth” (which made it onto the 2019 Black List) debuted Wednesday on Amazon Prime Video, right in the middle of Discovery’s annual weeklong paean to the dead-eyed predator we all love to fear.

Like pretty much every good, bad and ludicrous shark film ever, “The Devil’s Mouth” opens with carefree revels.In this case involving a quintet of carefree, Jägermeister-loving young folk who are celebrating their college graduations with a trip to Thailand.With ‘The Odyssey,’ Christopher Nolan put a spotlight on Imax 70mm and the hierarchy of premium formats.

Which is applaudable but not a future theatrical business model.While negotiating a boat cruise, the group dynamics become instantly clear: Max (“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Befo...