Director: Michael Oblowitz
Year: 2005
Country: Aruba/USA/Germany
Alternate Titles: Shark Man
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Invited to a private island, pharmaceutical representatives inspecting a scientists' claims of newfound breakthroughs in genetic research find the trip is a ploy to feed them to a genetically-modified human/shark hybrid and must try to get away alive.
Review:
This here was quite a decent enough creature feature overall. What tends to really help this one is the fact that the creature here allows this one to ready-made way to work out a natural excuse for the viciousness of the attacks throughout here which is quite fun here. The ability to mix a shark into a human form is a rather novel idea here and manages to come off nicely with all the scientific jargon established throughout here that makes the revelation of the creature's deformity all that much better here as it does comes with the added bonus of featuring greater brutality here which enhances the action considerably.
From the opening attack on the divers that's incredibly vicious, the group's escape from their holding cell with the pouring water coming in with the creature in with them and the suspenseful stalking in the jungle where they have to deal with the guards and the traps present but also the creature running loose with them gives this a rather strong semblance of action filled with great violent creature action along the way, while the big finale is the film's highlight for its grandiose action inside the lab with the specimens and the creature getting involved as well to a great finish.
Even better is the fact that there are other great action scenes here that involve the guards' attempts to contain them, from the boat ambush and eventual gunfight, the brawling around the lab, and the helicopter attack in the jungle where they try taking them out with the gun that makes for an overall enjoyable and impressive series of attacks that bumps up the action even more. Along with the great design for the creature that looks quite imposing when it's visibly on-screen and moving around, these here are the film's great points overall.
Among the few flaws featured here is the fact that the creature basically disappears in the middle of the movie and almost becomes a complete afterthought as the main part of the film at that point turns into an admittedly fun action movie that pushes the creature out of the film and is hardly ever seen during that point. It's his own movie, yet he's almost reduced to a cameo appearance, based on screen time. As if that also wasn't bad enough, he's hardly ever seen no matter where in the film, as there are only a couple of times that there's a clear shot of the monster, making it hard to tell what it looks like, which is a clear shame as it has a great design and cool look to it.
As well, there's the rapid-fire editing used every single time it appeared. The camera jerks and tears around from side to side quickly so that you can't see what is going on and can only assume someone has been killed when the water turns red, and as it's used for every single attack, and it leads to a lot of headaches trying to figure it out that only ends up sucking a lot of the fun out of watching the monster attacking people due to a far more commonly-utilized blur of motion.
The cast here is also somewhat disappointing. Only Combs seems to be really aware of the type of film he's in, ranting and raving in that grandiose pomposity that only he can provide in his numerous speeches about what the research means to him and his much danger the rest of the group is in. Busey is horribly out-of-shape for an action role like this and looks awkward during his encounters while Tylo is called upon for little else than to provide eye candy or get menaced and require rescuing whenever the situation calls for it. While the storyline here is a little weak despite the nice work involved, otherwise it's not all that bad.
Overview: ***.5/5
Serving well as an action film involving a dangerous mutation on the loose and the race to stop it rather than more of a straightforward genre effort around the same premise, this one can be fun in the right mindset but does have enough to turn off some viewers. Those who appreciate this kind of cheesy genre effort of curious about it might find a lot to like here while most others who are turned off by the style of approach here should need caution.
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