Director: Jorgo Papavassiliou
Year: 2004
Country: Germany
Alternate Titles: Hal-Alarm auf Malorca
Genre: Sharks
Plot:
Still troubled by the death of his wife, a helicopter pilot feels worried about his daughter being out in the open water after a series of incidents lead him to believe that a massive killer shark is in the area, and teams up with a biologist to track down and kill the beast patrolling the waters.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable genre effort. Among the more enjoyable elements present here is the highly enjoyable and quite fun amount of shark action within this one. The fact that it's out rather early and is known to the one guy makes for a lot of rather fun ambush attacks to occur in the beginning as the shark takes out several tourists and other victims which are all written off as freak incidents. The main action scenes here, with the scientists out trying to capture the creature and taking the fight to it on the open water which results in a fun protracted battle with the guns on board as well as the fun race to the beach in order to rescue his daughter in the jet-ski competition, is all sorts of fun. Granted an over-the-top resolution to everything and a decent-looking shark, this works nicely.
As well, the rest of the action here isn't too bad and has a lot to like. With the film going for the mixture of shark-based creature feature action and some more traditional Action film elements, there are some impressive scenes here including several rather energetic car-chases that feature some more exaggerated stunt-work than would be expected in a film like this. That carries over into the explosive finale which has some grander stunts than would be expected as well as giving the film a rather touching conclusion that ends everything on a positive note.
There isn't a whole lot to dislike here but it does have some issues. One of the biggest problems here is the rather odd and somewhat disjointed pacing that takes place throughout here. Rather than build-up suspense about the series of accidents taking place slowly leading to the idea of the shark being out there, the fact that he knows immediately based on a single accident that admittedly seems out of the ordinary but has very little about it to suggest his theory would automatically be true. Likewise, the action stops in the middle of the film to deal with his romance with the scientist or trying to disprove his wild accusations which bring the focus away from the killer shark who is out and about from the very beginning.
The other real issue to be had with the film is the rather obvious and continuous clichés throughout that seemed to be taken from several films and wrapped into one film. The whole concept of the prestigious scientist attempting to experiment with sharks as a means of cancer-cure research is an arc stolen completely from another film entirely, while the exploits of the scientist to rescue her imprisoned friend takes every cue possible from yet another beloved genre film. Riffs from wholesale dialog exchanges and the race to save the beach from the shark and much more are quite obviously lifted and taken from other films, leading to parts where it loses itself in these elements. Otherwise, this one isn't that bad.
Overview: ***.5/5
A far better killer shark film than expected with some fun creature feature action and a lot more solid action throughout here, this is a fun genre effort that holds itself up over its few minor issues rather nicely. Give this a look if you’re a fan of these kinds of creature features or curious about this one while most others should heed caution with this one.
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