Shark Attack 2 (2000) by David Worth

Director: David Worth
Year: 2000
Country: South Africa/USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Sharks

Plot:

After a captured Great White escapes, a former biologist and a victim's sister from a sea park find their quarry is part of a school of genetically-engineered sharks created years ago in a secret government project and must team with a reckless TV-show host to stop them from attacking more in the community.

Review:

This turned out to be quite a fun if slightly cheesy killer shark effort. What really works here is the fact that this one gets some nice shark action throughout here as this one has plenty of action along the way. It even manages to switch nicely from suspenseful to cheesy, as the opening ocean-going attack on the sister and the first attack on the worker in front of the tourists come off as highly suspenseful scenes as the ocean attack features the stalking through the wrecked ruins while the tank attack is based off the struggle to get out of the water before being eaten as the whole thing is in front of children and a news-crew.

There's also plenty of cheesy action here that comes off very nicely, from the capture of the shark as well as the escape attempt of it swimming into the sea afterward, while the film's two big highlight scenes work in a nice mixture of both as the underwater cage attack works with the brutality of the sharks' relentless banging into the cages and the slow realization of the flimsy cage not holding them out with the goofy shark heads coming through and dragging them away, while the other big scenes here is the great attack on the surfing contest where the high body-count and the action are immensely fun and enjoyable that gets fun again with the relentless action here that it comes off rather well. Even the finale in the cave-ins incredibly thrilling battling with the different creatures in and around the caves, even though this here does come with what is the film's only real flaw here in the laughable special effects here.

While it's not the fault of the live-action stock footage which comes off really well and is integrated nicely into here, overall there's little else here that works about the sharks. The CGI looks best here where it's not noticeably obvious, but the prop-heads are pretty cheesy-looking, never once betray their rubber nature, and always configured into the same position that carries on for each scene that runs itself into the ground by featuring the same thing which really ruins the effect. These here are what hold this one back considerably.

Overview: ***/5
An enjoyable and fun creature feature, this one comes off like a fun enough sequel for those that appreciated the first one for the most part. Fans of the first one or those that are curious about the genre will have a lot to like here while most others that didn't appreciate the style or approach of this or the original should heed caution.