Super Shark (2011) by Fred Olen Ray


Director: Fred Olen Ray
Year: 2011
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks

Plot:
When an oil-drilling machine revives a prehistoric shark buried beneath the sea floor and begins dining on surfers and residents of a small sea-side town, the locals and the military band together to stop its rampage before it gets too dangerous.

Review:

Overall this was an uproariously cheesy and enjoyable effort that manages to contain a large amount that really works. The main element of this that works comes from a healthy cheese level throughout this one that has a lot of different elements to play within here. Starting off with the shark, the ability to make this thing far more dangerous with the ability to walk on land with a very specialized adaption that seems logical and nicely implemented into the overall design is rather nicely done and works quite well here, which is even worked into the film to provide numerous action scenes that are highly enjoyable, rousing and really entertaining.

This allows for plenty of good times here with the usual assortment of both short and long scenes. The shorter attacks all come from the really enjoyable surprise ambushes throughout here, from the boat attack on the pleasure divers, the multiple beat-front attacks on the group along the beach and the small military attacks gobbling on the soldiers throughout the beach which manages to give this a really solid based here for some even better long attacks that have a lot of great points about it. The opening destruction of the oil rig that frees the shark is a lot of fun, the military attacks on the beach and out to sea in the submarine are a lot of cheesy action as they attempt to track it before engaging and bringing up the goodness here of the finale back on the beach where not only the shark walking around on land battling the walking tank that is amazingly cheesy in concept and execution.

All of these elements here hold this up over the film's few problems. The main issue here comes from the film's rather flimsy science fiction here in regards to the physiology of the shark and its behavior, which not only explains the ability to hop around on dry land for extended periods without needing to breathe air or the utterly laughable plot device of the radio crackling that doesn't really come off all that well. It just doesn't make any sense and isn't really features known to live beings to transpose them into a creature like this. As well, the film tends to run through the attacks quickly while letting the early parts featuring the back-story for a lot of the meat-fodder to be extended to really bring the film to a little lopsided pacing. Combine that with some atrocious CGI work, which looks fine in execution in most cases but because of the action required tends to give itself away, and it's a mildly- flawed and entertaining effort.

Overview: ***.5/5
A perfectly over-the-top example of the cheesy killer shark in action at the height of its execution, overall the few small factors that come into play against this one are really to be expected in such a genre effort like this one. Give it a go if you're a fan of this kind of style or the creative crew here while most others, especially those who don't appreciate any of the positive factors employed here, should heed extreme caution.

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