Film Review: Sharknado (2013)

SYNOPSIS:

When a freak hurricane swamps Los Angeles, thousands of sharks terrorize the waterlogged populace. And when the high-speed winds form tornadoes in the desert, nature’s deadliest killer rules water, land, and air.

REVIEW:

Syfy channel has a way of bringing up the quirky and absurd, though in this case you should be thanking the masterminds “The Asylum” for another helping of sharky nonsense. Yep… they raised the bar with 2009’s “Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus” and have been slinging the shark, alligators and giant beasts at us ever since. This latest one, which really by all standards is nothing new from this camp (however you might say they kept the sharks down to size) added a Twist! Yep, that twist being a shark-filled tornado film appropriately titled “Sharknado“.

“Sharknado” really comes down to “another reason to go viral with odd trailers and clips”, however with special effects that are decent but not mega studio level it still manages to stay entertaining and absurd. Quick takeaway? Well it’s not to love, but you certainly will have a few reasons to roll your eyes and giggle.

How did this all start? The film opens up on a massive ocean tornado (or hurricane which seems more likely) that has plucked several schools of traveling sharks from the ocean’s bed. As an pirate operation closes a deal we are thrust right into a mass of flying man-eating sharks. Sounds interesting? Ok, well with any massive disaster movie, you need plenty of disasters. The arrives in the form of first a hurricane, tidal waves and then a more refined small group of shark-infested tornadoes. Each time disaster hits, a batch of sharks are brought into the mainland to gobble up everything in their path. Swimming pools, streets, living rooms, backyards….just about anywhere that the coast can seep into the main lands including the sewers.

Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, who seems to frequent these lovely “off films” quite often, holds it together to let the special effects really take the lead here. Though the underlying story here really begins at Fin’s (Ian Ziering) bar (yep his name is fin, small play on names of course). As his bar becomes under attack by sudden storms and flying sharks, it’s time to take to the road and save his dysfunctional family. Along for the ride is Nova (Cassie Scerbo), George (John Heard), and Baz (Jaason Simmons) who hightail it across L.A. to rescue Fin’s family from sharks and weather. This premise “is” the premise which resides alongside the all too frequent approaching of sharks flying thru the air.

Tara Reid who stars as Fin’s ex wife April, manages to keep to her character, which fittingly is often annoyed and distracted. Though I couldn’t figure out if it was her character that was annoyed or just that her career has now sunk to bit parts in silly shark movies? Regardless, she is now part of the Asylum group with Tiffany, Brooke and Debbie (hmm…..lets get them all together for a onscreen cat fight). Cassie Scerbo keeps things sexy sporting short shorts and one to many rounds of shotgun firing as the bar maid Nova (but still kick ass for those taking notes.

The movie ramps up from hurricanes into tornadoes which happen to contain thousands of man eating sharks. The ongoing gag here is the violence and gore which flips from sharks getting blown in the head to heroic feats of shark annihilation. My favorite being the chainsaw slice as a great white approaches.

“Sharknado” is no award winner, and barely makes it past its Syfy style roots, however it is interesting which is why it has become a quick underground hit to check out this weekend. My guess is…. DVD’s will soon follow as the filmmakers try and bank off the Internet craze to sell a few copies. For collectors, well if you own “Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus” and “2-Headed shark Attack” then your going to have to add this as a conversation piece addition. For now, let’s just roll with the fun and pretend that we are easily entertained.

Sharknado (2013)