Director: MaJaMa
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Moving out to meet his brother, a man looking to use the experience to get their childhood dream shark movie script finished find themselves in a killer shark movie when they’re hunted by a floating CGI shark throughout the town and must rely on the director and their wits to escape the creature.
Review:
This one was an incredibly enjoyable effort. Among the film’s best qualities here is the exceptionally knowing series of movie-making satire aimed at the ludicrous nature of killer shark movies. Giving a wrap-around narrative of a mockingly pretentious filmmaker presenting a tale about a woman getting killed by a land shark in a delirious spoof of a big slasher movie, this goofy tone is set right away where the film uses him continuously in the role of a narrative force. Breaking the fourth wall to comment on the action to come, this provides not only plenty of hilarity by him being completely at odds with the characters in the scene but goes about commenting on the tropes found in killer shark movies as he helps the brothers understand what’s going on, either by showcasing footage from elsewhere in the movie to actually sing a pop-up graphic to explain how the movie rules work. This happens at various points throughout the film and provides absolutely hysterical work every time.
That also features into the rest of the film which is absolutely gut-busting the entire time. The mock host playing the director is incredibly funny, as are the vast majority of the side characters they meet who are completely oblivious or unable to realize the danger in this surreal environment. The hard-luck lifestyle compared to his brother’s giddy enthusiasm creates even more to life, much like the insane goofiness that emerges in the second half with the idea of giving the shark sentience and the ability to speak. Being allowed to converse with the designer and reveal her new plans of attacking humanity based on her creation creates the impressive feat of venturing so far into ludicrous territory in a perfect manner for this type of film, being so hilarious in conception and execution that it adds to the extremely fun and funny nature of the film. Added alongside the gut-busting talkshow interlude, a series of great running jokes and various other gags and statements creates a wholly humorous offering.
Finally, on top of all that the film manages to include a stellar offering of action scenes featuring the various sharks. The opening’s parody-nature starts this off in fine form, moving onto the encounter with the neighbor and finally the house attack that works some impressive stalking and chasing around the notion of a floating CGI shark in their house. The extended chase through the neighborhood with the shark chasing them through the power plant parking lot, through alleyways and into the local ills and streets works plenty of comedic moments as well as the continuous appearances of the shark as a threat. The finale at the beach is a bit too overlong but still comes off perfectly for this kind of film, and when given far better CGI for the main shark than expected while the other sharks look appropriately cartoonish this all comes off fun. When added together with a fine brotherly-love side-story as they come together perfectly, there’s so much to like here as the main flaws will be reliant on your personal tolerance for this kind of cheese.
Overview: *****/5
An enjoyable silly and fun over-the-top comedy that has a lot of funny moments and enough action to keep it interesting, the only real issue with this one is a personal issue with one’s own tolerance for this level of intentionally bad cheese. Those who enjoy that kind of deliberately bad cheese or just enjoy killer shark movies will be enthralled with this one, while those that don’t care at all for either will be absolutely annoyed and irritated with this one.
Comments
Post a Comment