Leofwine_draca
An appalling would-be thriller in which a series of hackneyed, virtually bloodless shark attacks take back seat to a sub-standard conspiracy thriller story with a premise that bears more than a nod to DEEP BLUE SEA. The end result is a bland, boring movie which won't even appeal to bad movie lovers, only to those with only the lowest of tolerance levels. Set in Africa (but we never learn whereabouts), SHARK ATTACK doesn't even exploit any local colour in its predictable story of two people going up against the authorities, instead wasting what could have been a good premise with shallow material which has been written to death already.Casper Van Dien takes the leading role and is as wooden and charmless as ever, adding absolutely no personality to his "hero". Jenny McShane is almost as bad as the partner/love interest, who runs around in a bikini a lot but otherwise is unmemorable. The second-billed Ernie Hudson pops up in what amounts to a cameo role as the unsurprising bad guy, and while it's nice to see Hudson as the baddie for a change, you won't help but feel short-changed at the lack of screen time he occupies.R-rated only because of the strong language that occasionally pops up, the goriest that SHARK ATTACK gets is in scenes where sharks are autopsied and their internal organs removed and examined. The various underwater attacks (while paying their inevitable dues to JAWS) are poorly-staged with the minimum suspense and excitement, and the sharks fail to be very menacing. The film only seems to pick up for the violent, showdown climax between baddies and a gang of fishermen (!), which is undoubtedly enjoyable for how long in lasts. Unfortunately we have an hour and twenty minutes of unrelenting tedium to sit through before then, when even the genre staples of car chases and shoot-outs are staged without relish. Incredibly followed by a sequel a year later, so I guess somebody must have liked this movie. Fans with taste should, however, give it a miss.
SanteeFats
Hey guess what? This movie is not good. The top billed star gets killed almost immediately. Casper Van Dien is at best a B movie actor and this is no exception. Although he is a lot better than the two killer cops, especially the one who laughs like a maniac when he cuts or busts someone. At first I thought Dr. Craven was one of the bad guys. Turns out he was just ethically challenged. Ernie Hudson does a decent job as the rich but evil town magnate. At the end did anyone NOT see him getting killed by one of the sharks? This is so much a B movie that vehicles, boats, and helicopters just start blowing up towards the end. I like the guy Manni. Good enough acting and I liked his accent. At the end of this movie the fishermen come to the rescue and everyone except Dr. Craven is saved, well almost. Craven is killed but he is a good guy at the end. I also like that everyone with a sidearm is using a revolver. What security person or cops use them now days instead of an automatic?
atinder
There is only one word to say about this movie and that is boring. The plot: A marine biologist heads for Port Amanzi in Africa after his friend, Mark DeSantis, is supposedly a victim of a fatal shark attack. DeSantis had been conducting research on a series of shark attacks in the area prior to his death and now his friend, along with DeSantis' sister, takes up the research and finds that the sharks may not be the only threat in Port Amanzi. 3 Things you should never do.1)Buy this movie. 2)Watch this movie. 3)Don't watch it again just to review it.The worst think about this movie was that the shark was real underwater and every time come above sea level it was fake, i don't even get me started on the fake blood!. There is one good thing i can say about this movie is the acting from small part of cast is Okay.
slayrrr666
"Shark Attack" is a certainly fun if flawed killer shark movie.**SPOILERS**In Cape Amanzi, South Africa, Steven McKray, (Casper Van Dien) is astonished to learn of a series of shark attacks and goes to investigate. When Lawrence Rhodes, (Ernie Hudson) introduces him to old friend Dr. Miles Craven, (Bentley Mitchum) he tells him moire about the attacks, including the death of a friend. Meeting up with Corinne Desantis, (Jennifer McShane) the sister, they dive to find out that the sharks attracted to a specific area of the bay through an outside chemical hormone introduced into the sharks that drives them into a frenzy. When the thing is revealed to be about finding an oil reserve in the bay and using the attacks as cover to force the residents out of their land, they try to find the one responsible before more of the community is attacked by the sharks.The Good News: This here wasn't that bad of a film. One of it's best aspects is that there's a lot of encounters with the sharks, and that leads to a lot of fun. The shark attacks, which don't have much of the time, do get really interesting when they occur, such as a thrilling encounter out at sea with a boat-full of partying residents that leaves a survivor with a serious leg bite. Other encounters, such as the one near the shipping wreck or in the bay near the lab has some more fun in store. One of the overall best scenes in the film is the lengthy cage-diving scene, which are incredible. Packed into a ten-minute sequence is a continuing series of scenes where they try out converters on the sharks, and it all leads to never-ending scenes of sharks banging into the cages with them trapped inside, making for a tense and uneasy encounter. The dives done into the waters are always uneasy, although the night-time ones are a little more-so for the inherent virtue of when the occur. The last big part of this is the great action that occurs in here, and there's a lot of it. There's two really fun chases, a multi-car chase through open-fields which includes a lot of gunfire, high-speed weaving, crashes and more, as well as a boat chase that is really exciting. Lots of objects get blown up and destroyed in both, making them even more fun. There's also the final raid on the villain's hideout, which is great. Packed with gunfights, fist-fights and brawling, lots of deaths and even more destruction that occurs, it's pretty exciting and ends with the helicopter scene, which is really fun and makes the film even better. All of these make the film what it is.The Bad News: There was a couple of problems to this that hold it down somewhat. The main feat is that the sharks, for all their encounters, are rarely mentioned in the middle segment of the film and fade into the background during these scenes, focusing more on the false lead of the cancer study that soon turns into the oil scam. During this, the sharks are absent as it's all done on land, leaving it to be relatively dull for lengthy portions while there's no shark action, leaving them with little time in their own film, as the longest stretch is the cage-diving sequence. Outside of that, the attacks are over quite early, which is another flaw. The sharks are very easily able to be repelled or escaped, and from the knowledge that they're engineered to be angry and better killers, they have very little actual deaths that they're responsible for. Most of the attacks shown in the film are escaped, which compared to the ones that were mentioned as fatalities before is a little strange. It makes them seem like far less reliable killers since the victims know are able to get away when before they couldn't, and that's not what you want in a creature feature. That's the most detrimental feature of the film, the lowering of the shark's capabilities in a far-more reduced manner than they should to accommodate the plot. The last flaw is the shark effects, which, as to be expected, is terribly uneven. Thankfully, no CGI is present but there is the matter of the real shark stock footage that is used for most of the scenes. They're fine if never once able to keep a constant perspective, either changing in size from scene-to-scene or even species as well. The other part is that the mechanical ones look rather nice but are too stiff, rarely moving and used mostly just to make sure that something is there. It's obvious to pick these out and they lower the scene somewhat. Otherwise, these are the film's problems.The Final Verdict: With a couple of good points and some detrimental flaws to it, this one ends up being rather fun with some problems. Give it a shot if you enjoy action-packed killer shark films, a fan of the genre or find these kinds of creature features interesting, otherwise there's better ones out there.Rated R: Violence and Language
