Well it’s another Shark Week and I feel that in tribute to
the annual tradition of Sharks on film I feel the need to give you a listing of
my top 5 Shark films.
Currently the big hype is the film Sharknado that has played
on the SyFy Channel and I have seen the flick and it’s not as bad as I thought
that it would be and yes that is a cheesy flick.
Now I am going to do this list in reverse. Most sites will
play the list as a countdown but there is a simple reason that this is just a
list and not a countdown.
That reason is that the #1 Shark movies is also one of my
favorite movies of all time. As a matter of fact this movie ranks on the top of
many lists.
You guessed it that flick is the original Jaws.
I would like to go on a detailed review of the film but I
did that last year when the film was released on BluRay.
Here is the review.
That being said I have to include the sequel Jaws 2 on the
list.
Stephen Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss were off shooting
Close Encounters…Or they just didn’t want to do the movie, and Roy Scheider had dropped out of The Deer Hunter and he was
told that Universal would let him out of his contract if he did Jaws 2 so Chief
Martin Brody is back on Amity Island to battle another Great White Shark that
has come to munch on teenage day sailors and water skiers.
Joining Scheider is the rest of the returning cast of Murray
Hamilton as Mayor Larry Vaughn, Lorraine Gary returning as Brody’s faithful
wife Ellen, and Jeffrey Kramer as Deputy Jeff Hendricks.
After two divers are killed by a Shark but no bodies are
found and then a woman on a water ski and the driver of the boat are attacked
causing the boat to explode destroying all evidence of a Shark Attack.
While all of this is happening Amity Island is in the middle
of a summer real estate sale and Mayor Vaughn who is under the influence of
Lynn Peterson who is buying up the entire island to cover up all evidence of
the Shark.
Brody becomes crazed trying to prove the fact that there is
a shark eventually costing him his job however Brody’s son Mike and his friends
take their sailboats out and Brody has to retrieve them before they become the
Shark’s main course.
Now I do enjoy this flick after all it is on the list. I find it a nice touch that after the attack on the water-skier the shark's face is burned giving him an even more sinister look. I call him Freddy the shark.
I do also have some issues with the flick such as one part where I have to admit that I am no Marine Biologist but I don't think that a shark's mouth bends like it does.
I feel the need to point out that after Jaws became the
first Summer Blockbuster many other studios began with the rip-offs. Soon after
Jaws 2 was released an Italian film was released with a plot all to similar to
Jaws.
The film was titled Great White.
The plot of Great White was so similar to Jaws that
Universal sued the makers of the film preventing the film from receiving a
release in the United States market but the film can be found online.
Another of the films that were released in the aftermath of
Jaws was Orca: The Killer Whale.
To what I feel was a joke in the opening of Orca the titular
whale kills a Great White Shark making the statement that the Killer Whale was
better than Jaws.
Jaws 2 responded to this shot by featuring a dead killer
whale early in the film that had a bite taken out of him implying that this was
the fate of Orca.
Another film that was released that makes the list is Tintorera:
Killer Shark.
A Mexican/British film Tintorera is far more a drama than a
horror film.
The plot follows a man that moves to a Mexican fishing
village looking for a life of leasure soon finding himself in competition for a
woman’s affections with a local shark hunter. Soon the two become friends and
begin hunting for Sharks together eventually beginning a threesome relationship
with a woman.
While all of this is happening a giant Tiger Shark is going
around the village killing swimmers eventually crossing path with our main
characters.
The most interesting aspect of Tintorera is the fact that a
real Tiger Shark is used in the filming and not a mechanical shark.
Definitely a movie recommended for the Drive-in crowd.
One of my guilty pleasures that came along long before the
SyFy corny shark films is the Shark Attack film series. The third entry to the
saga is Shark Attack 3: Megalodon.
The plot follows John Barrowman and Jenny McShane as they
are battling a baby Megalodon that has been forced out of his part of the ocean
where they have survived for millions of years by geography. A series of oil drills
has released the Megs into the open ocean and our duo must hunt it and
eventually kill it.
It is after they kill the beast when they discover that the
shark that they were hunting is just the baby and that the Mother is also out
there.
Trust me that this flick is cheesy and fits the line of so
bad that it is good.
The creation of the giant Megalodon was done with stock
footage of a Great White added to the images of people in the water. Spielberg
would be proud.
The movie is also infamous because of John Barrowman
improved line to McShane with the best pick up line in the history of pick-up
lines.
I guess that when you are looking death in the face you just
want to get down to business.
Also to mention in Shark films is one of the more
frightening shark movies to be made since Jaws is the Reef.
When their boat capsizes a group of vacationers are stranded
in the middle of the open ocean four of them choose to make a swim for land
because the boat is going to sink. Along the way the group begins to be stalked
by a giant Great White Shark.
Filmed in Australia the film features beautiful scenery and ironically
the use of the open ocean to give the film the claustrophobic feel that the
movie needs as well as real footage of a Great White Shark and CGI and clever
editing for the attack scenes.
The fact that the film follows the characters the whole time
gives us the suspense that the characters are feeling in the movie.
Definitely a must see for shark fans.
The final flick on my list of Shark Movies is one of my
personal favorites and that is Deep Blue Sea.
Directed by Renny Harlin and featuring an outstanding cast Deep Blue Sea is a flick that I never tire of seeing.
Some issues I'm willing to let go such as the fact that the Tiger Shark dosen't look like a Tiger Shark. Speaking of which the Lisence Plate in his mouth is the same plate found in the belly of the tiger shark in Jaws, The owner of that car has some problems.
After a scientist discovers the cure for Alzheimer’s in the
brains of Mako Sharks a scientist alters the shark’s brains making them larger
so that they can experiment with their brains. As a side effect the Sharks gain
intelligence.
Visiting the facility is Samuel L. Jackson, the billionaire
that is there to inspect the experiments and the crew that is performing them.
Thomas Jane is the shark wrangler that has been brought in
to handle the sharks and notices the shark’s suspicious behavior, and LL Cool J
as the religious cook Preacher who honestly steals the movie.
The two best scenes in the movie are the scenes where Samuel
L. Jackson meet’s his demise in the Jaws of the shark.
The other scene is LL Cool J’s prayer before they have to
face the sharks.
Many others will point to the scene with Saffron Burrows
killing a shark and the fact that she does it in her underwear.
I also like LL Cool J’s music video for the film.
Honorable mention
goes to these flicks
Open Water from 2004 featuring a couple that was left
stranded in the ocean by their scuba diving boat and having to make it through
the night among the sharks and the elements.
Megashark vs Giant Octopus from 2009 which the title
explains itself.
12 Days of Terror, The dramatic movie about the infamous Shark Attacks in the Jersey Shore during the summer of 1916 that served as the inspiration for Jaws
Finally Lucio Fulci’s Zombie that features the famous Zombie
vs shark scene.
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