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Shark Attack (1999) (TV) More at IMDbPro »

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
This was quite bad, 29 July 2001

Author: Psycho Mantis from Hässelby, Sweden

Casper Van Dien breaks a new record in looking shabby in this movie, although he is supposed to be a marine biologist. If you can buy that, you will probably be able to handle the rest of the movie as well. "Shark Attack" tells the story of Van Dien going to South Africa (where just about everyone seem to be a hustler), to look for his missing friend. He finds out that his friend became shark food, and tries to find out why the sharks have started to behave so aggressively in this particular area. He gets help by another expert, Corinne, who loves to run around in her bikini while trying to solve the case.

If you are looking for really bad acting, check out "Shark Attack". You won´t believe your eyes. The effects are awfully lousy, unless you find rubber sharks convincing. The script contained so many old cliches that I lost count of them, and that is not too good. Right from the start it is quite obvious who is good and who is evil.

These kind of films can be so bad that they become entertaining, but "Shark Attack" is not fun at all. Man, I´d rather watch an episode of "Baywatch" than this kind of crap. Why somebody felt it was necessary to make a sequel to "Shark Attack" I have no idea.

* out of * * * * *

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Extremely dumb but enjoyable, 28 August 2000

Author: obiwan-27 (lckrause@gmail.com) from New England

Casper Van Dien, last seen battling giant bugs in STARSHIP TROOPERS, now gets to take on sharks in the aptly named SHARK ATTACK. Once again it's the humans who are the *real* bad guys, and Van Dien soon finds himself in more trouble than he bargained for. The acting is pretty bad all around, although the mad scientist is amusing and has some good one-liners. The plot is fairly meaningless until the very end, when everything gets impossibly complicated. It's like a Bobbsey Twins mystery gone bad. Complementing the acting and plot portions of the film is second-rate documentary footage that the producers probably sneaked out of the Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" reject bin. If you like BAD movies, you should enjoy this one. If you don't enjoy B movies, try JAWS instead.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Go and watch Jaws or Deep Blue Sea, 13 September 2001
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

Unlike most opinion I think the sharks are realistic - the reason being the majority are seen as stock footage that so obiviously has no relation to the actors in terms of the scene. This film manages to have shark attacks with no tension or excitment - Casper Van Dien is constantly throwing himself into the waterwith a knife or something to take on the sharks - and never even looks worried. Jenny McShane runs round in little briefs etc - it's obivious why she is included in the cast. This is so lame that it provides no enterainment at all. Shark attacks bring out a basic fear in all of us - that this film manages to bring NONE of that to the screen is really bad.

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Fun but flawed, 6 June 2008
Author: slayrrr666 (slayrrr666@yahoo.com) from Los Angeles, Ca

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Shark Attack" is a certainly fun if flawed killer shark movie.

**SPOILERS**

In Cape Amanzi, South Africa, Steven McKray, (Casper Van Dien) is astonished to learn of a series of shark attacks and goes to investigate. When Lawrence Rhodes, (Ernie Hudson) introduces him to old friend Dr. Miles Craven, (Bentley Mitchum) he tells him moire about the attacks, including the death of a friend. Meeting up with Corinne Desantis, (Jennifer McShane) the sister, they dive to find out that the sharks attracted to a specific area of the bay through an outside chemical hormone introduced into the sharks that drives them into a frenzy. When the thing is revealed to be about finding an oil reserve in the bay and using the attacks as cover to force the residents out of their land, they try to find the one responsible before more of the community is attacked by the sharks.

The Good News: This here wasn't that bad of a film. One of it's best aspects is that there's a lot of encounters with the sharks, and that leads to a lot of fun. The shark attacks, which don't have much of the time, do get really interesting when they occur, such as a thrilling encounter out at sea with a boat-full of partying residents that leaves a survivor with a serious leg bite. Other encounters, such as the one near the shipping wreck or in the bay near the lab has some more fun in store. One of the overall best scenes in the film is the lengthy cage-diving scene, which are incredible. Packed into a ten-minute sequence is a continuing series of scenes where they try out converters on the sharks, and it all leads to never-ending scenes of sharks banging into the cages with them trapped inside, making for a tense and uneasy encounter. The dives done into the waters are always uneasy, although the night-time ones are a little more-so for the inherent virtue of when the occur. The last big part of this is the great action that occurs in here, and there's a lot of it. There's two really fun chases, a multi-car chase through open-fields which includes a lot of gunfire, high-speed weaving, crashes and more, as well as a boat chase that is really exciting. Lots of objects get blown up and destroyed in both, making them even more fun. There's also the final raid on the villain's hideout, which is great. Packed with gunfights, fist-fights and brawling, lots of deaths and even more destruction that occurs, it's pretty exciting and ends with the helicopter scene, which is really fun and makes the film even better. All of these make the film what it is.

The Bad News: There was a couple of problems to this that hold it down somewhat. The main feat is that the sharks, for all their encounters, are rarely mentioned in the middle segment of the film and fade into the background during these scenes, focusing more on the false lead of the cancer study that soon turns into the oil scam. During this, the sharks are absent as it's all done on land, leaving it to be relatively dull for lengthy portions while there's no shark action, leaving them with little time in their own film, as the longest stretch is the cage-diving sequence. Outside of that, the attacks are over quite early, which is another flaw. The sharks are very easily able to be repelled or escaped, and from the knowledge that they're engineered to be angry and better killers, they have very little actual deaths that they're responsible for. Most of the attacks shown in the film are escaped, which compared to the ones that were mentioned as fatalities before is a little strange. It makes them seem like far less reliable killers since the victims know are able to get away when before they couldn't, and that's not what you want in a creature feature. That's the most detrimental feature of the film, the lowering of the shark's capabilities in a far-more reduced manner than they should to accommodate the plot. The last flaw is the shark effects, which, as to be expected, is terribly uneven. Thankfully, no CGI is present but there is the matter of the real shark stock footage that is used for most of the scenes. They're fine if never once able to keep a constant perspective, either changing in size from scene-to-scene or even species as well. The other part is that the mechanical ones look rather nice but are too stiff, rarely moving and used mostly just to make sure that something is there. It's obvious to pick these out and they lower the scene somewhat. Otherwise, these are the film's problems.

The Final Verdict: With a couple of good points and some detrimental flaws to it, this one ends up being rather fun with some problems. Give it a shot if you enjoy action-packed killer shark films, a fan of the genre or find these kinds of creature features interesting, otherwise there's better ones out there.

Rated R: Violence and Language

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Shark Attack? Where's the sharks?, 23 September 2006

Author: gothicgoblin1334 from Paris, France

What a pointless film about genetically mutated sharks. First of all, there are barely any sharks and this film and the gore is crappy low-budget like the ONE shark that comes in at the end. Otherwise, it's a really sh-tty, bad, low budget, typically modern, horror film that makes real good cinematic horror genius like Mario Bava role in their graves. How could there be a big scam for this made-for-TV movie? Yes, this is a made-for-TV crap-shack which you know, knowing this is a made for TV film that there's not going to be much good quality. If you want a shark movie, go watch "Jaws" or even "The Deep" but not Shark Attack. Because despite the title, it's a poor excuse to make money off the SCI-FI channel.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
3 thing you should never do!, 24 July 2009

Author: atinder from United Kingdom

There is only one word to say about this movie and that is boring. The plot: A marine biologist heads for Port Amanzi in Africa after his friend, Mark DeSantis, is supposedly a victim of a fatal shark attack. DeSantis had been conducting research on a series of shark attacks in the area prior to his death and now his friend, along with DeSantis' sister, takes up the research and finds that the sharks may not be the only threat in Port Amanzi. 3 Things you should never do.

1)Buy this movie. 2)Watch this movie. 3)Don't watch it again just to review it.

The worst think about this movie was that the shark was real underwater and every time come above sea level it was fake, i don't even get me started on the fake blood!. There is one good thing i can say about this movie is the acting from small part of cast is Okay.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Shark Attack, 18 January 2009

Author: Scarecrow-88 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Action hokum concerning a marine biologist, Steven McKray(Casper Van Dien), who convinces his boss to fund a trip to South Africa where a series of unusual, grisly shark attacks have occurred. The fishing village, owned by an unscrupulous businessman, Lawrence Rhodes(Ernie Hudson) collecting on foreclosures, has fallen on hard times due to the alarming increase in these shark attacks on tourists and fishermen. McKray was to meet up with an old friend who went on numerous shark-hunting expeditions, Marc Desantis(Cordell McQueen), and finds that he has died under horrifying circumstances, his arm found in the belly of a shark. Joining forces with Marc's disgruntled sister, Corinne(Jenny McShane)and likable live-wire fisherman, Mani(Tony Caprari), who drives his truck and boat on full-speed always, Steven will seek answers regarding his best friend's death which seems like more than just an accidental dive gone terribly wrong. Monitoring a former colleague Dr. Matt Craven's(Bentley Mitchum)shark experiments, Steven soon discovers that he is attempting to find a cancer cure but the side-effects prove that such procedures are ethically, and more importantly, physically, wrong. And, Steven, studying sharks that are active in the area of the village, discovers that they are being controlled..motivated by a mechanical source and have abnormal defects, some organs much larger than they are supposed to be, not to mention uncharacteristic behavior brought on by Craven's experimentation. But, is Craven ultimately the villain of this film? As Steven pursues the truth, he and Corinne become endangered by a corrupt police, willing to kill them to keep their silence as they discover the truth about a shady oil deal in the works. It'll be up to Steven to uncover the truth, to shed light on the underhanded tactics concocted by greed without remorse for innocent blood shed.

The shark action is relatively tame..the photographic documents of such attacks are more grisly than what happens to innocents attacked in the water of this film. A lot of quick cutting between the faces of frightened victims and sharks underwater swimming towards potential human meat, blood used to relate whether or not someone has been ensnared within the mouth of the lurking predator. The film resembles those goofy actioners from the 80's we so know and love where the heroes and villains are black and white with only Craven given any shades of gray. Hudson chews scenery as he does his cigar as the town shark, in a suit and tie, attempting to play nice when anyone can see he is corrupt to the core. Van Dien does his usual mugging, a perfect direct-to-video hero for the B-movie market. He suitably fills the role of the crusader out to find out the truth. Mitchum is smarmy as the crooked scientist with dreams of a Nobel prize and millions if he can perfect his experiments and create a cancer cure. Jenny McShane is your typical free-thinking independent woman, a diver and love-interest for Van Dien, fulfilling the requirements of "damsel in distress", and used as a negotiating piece when evidence is collected on villains..she also looks great in a bikini, which doesn't hurt. There are lots of shootouts and hand-to-hand combats between the fishermen and the police at the end which many might find exciting, although I found the whole orchestrated set-piece rather surreal and humorous. Also features a boat chase, explosions resulting, and Van Dien gets to show that every investigating marine biologist might ought to study martial art techniques.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Technically I can't comment on this film...., 31 May 2004
Author: alex (negativec07) from Plymouth, England

....as my DVD player stopped playing it after about an hour. I am in no doubt however it was doing me a favour, saving me before my brain had totally rotted. Luckily I did get to see the car chase, which contains quite possibly the worst editing I have ever seen in my life (the police are driving and old Alfa Romeo 33, which suddenly changes to a mark 1 Ford Sierra, then back to an Alfa, then crashes as a Sierra! Do these people even watch the film when they've finished making it? The cars don't even look remotely similar!)

But I digress. As you've probably worked out by now I hate this film. Even if it has got Ernie Hudson in it (who will always be a God in my eyes for appearing in Ghostbusters.) Most of the movie has nothing to do with sharks, just corrupt cops. I guess they'd run out of money by this point so you get the good old 'z-list actor throwing themselves around in the water whilst someone lets off red food dye' trick. Unless your life depends on it, do not watch this film. And even then only do if you've got a lot to live for.....

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4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Painfully bad, 5 August 1999
Author: Pat-88

The worst shark movie ever made. Yeah even better than those two god-awful Jaws sequels: Jaws 3D & Jaws The Revenge. Check this out: Some people trying to catch a huge white shark at a small lake. That's odd, they usually appear in the ocean. If anyone have seen a shark in a river or lake before, please tell me.

If you thought the shark looks fake in Jaws. This shark looks so fake, your eyes will pop out. Did I already mention you about the bad acting? Pretty lousy, you ask me. Don't watch it. It's not worth your time. I am really sorry that I've wasted my time on this stupid movie.

No Stars

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Casper Van Dien with killer sharks., 15 July 2009

Author: kirk-246 from United States

One of the most underrated creature features ever made, 'Shark Attack' is an action packed monster fest that actually does a good job at entertaining.Sure, it's not as good as 'Jaws' or 'deep Blue Sea' , but at least it got the job right.So why is this movie getting so many negative reviews? I liked it.I didn't love it,but I found it to be enjoyable.The real stars of the movie are Casper Van Dien from 'Python' and Jenny McShane from 'Shark Attack 3: Megalodon'.They both did a really good job in the movie and should do another creature feature together.Although not excellent, this movie does deliver plenty of action and entertainment.

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