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Overall Rating : 3.5/10
Directed By : James A. Contner
F. Murray Abraham (Blood Monkey)
Armand Assante (American Gangster)
Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill Vol. 2)
John Schneider (Smallville (TV) )
Supplied By : Genius Products
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : May. 28, 2008
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| PLOT When bodies begin missing in the coastal town of Full Moon Bay, fisherman Daniel Wilder discovers the culprit: a swarm of mutant Great White sharks, forty strong, cutting through the waters with one horrifying purpose—to kill. As tourist season quickly becomes feeding time, Daniel enlists the help of his wife Brooke and marine biologist Amy to save the locals and bring some calm before swarm. |
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| THE REVIEW The small fishing town of Mull Moon Bay is disrupted when it's townspeople receive word of a new resort development, headed by businessman Hamilton Lux. Lux plans to buy everyone's property and evacuate them, in order to use the land. To some surprises, many of the residents are all for the idea....but not one Dan Wilder, Full Moon Bay's top Fisherman. Dan along with his wife Brooke refuse to give up their residency, this of couse angers Lux. As a matter of retalliation, Lux and his gooms dump toxic was into the towns bay, in hopes of elinatinating the town's fish population, and to furthermore, make people want to leave Full Moon Bay and relocate. Yes, the chemicals would kill the domestic fish, but what both Lux and the townspwople people don't realize is that thespill has attracted a different kind of fish - the Great White Shark, not 1, not 2 but a whole swarm. As they invade Full Moon Bay, the danger grows appearent as people begin to be attacked and mauled. Before long, the bay is surrounded and the only means of survival left, may lie in Dan Wilder himself. This film originally aired as a 2 part miniseries on the Hallmark Channel, starting on May 25th, and on June 3, 2008 it will be released as part of Genius Products. "Man Eater" line of films. The Man Eater series revolves around films in which animals or any other form of nature attacks. With this, their 7th release in the series, they release SHARK SWARM. As you might've guessed, SHARK SWARM is indded about killer sharks........and as the title suggests, a swarm of them. Bur never really being a big shark fan myself, I didn't know if could get into it, it was that, and another reason, the other reason being that on it's DVD SHARK SWARM runs for nearly 3 hours! This makes SHARK SWARM the longest running film in th Man Eater series(so far) while the others have all ran closer to 90 minutes or shorter. With that said, SHARK SWARM to me was just a little above mediocre at best. The plot is nothing major, in fact it's pretty basic and not too original. I mean just how many films have there been in which a mob boss or corporate figure tries to cease a town's property for his own gain and expansion? I know I for one have seen this scereario played out on both film and TV. Yeaah sure they through in the angle with Hamilton Lux dumping the chemicals in the lake, thus attracting the sharks to Full Moon Bay.....but how is this any different than a pharamone agent that is spilled that attracts bees in a like film, starring bees in place of sharks? I guess the point i'm trying to make here, is that, Creature Features such as these are so interchangable and alterable to any setting, it's almost like we are fed the same thing, just in a different enviorment, and of course a different type of a force of nature. But getting back to the film, I will say that it's production value looks much higher for a TV movie, which is a credit to good cinematography. There is also some direction here by James A. Contner that is really not bad. Contner is a veteran in the field for directing for TV, helming more recent shows such as BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and CHARMED, so he knew how to direct the project, and as a result, this film looks better than most TV movies. But it did have things working working against it. It's first probably is it's lackluster story, those looking for something new and exciting here, probably will not find, And come on, just how many times can something be spilled into water, causing someone or something to freak out? We got this setup in films like ALIGATOR in 1980, and yes, even in THE TOXIC AVENGER in 1985(well, that chemical spill was caused by one person's own mishap, but you get the idea). But you do have to give credit to the film's star John Schneider, however. No matter what the project consists of, I have always thought that Schneider does gis best to create the best performance he can for a particular role, and yes I have seen him fight of aligators and bats, so maybe, sometimes he is given little to work with, but at least he stays in there(afterall, he is probably the hight paid in these flicks anyway). SHARK SWARM is a film that gets off to a decent start, but then slowly declines into dullness. I believe that this is due to it's occationally long and drawn out patches of dialogue, and most certainly it's runtime of nearly 160 minutes. whether it be split into two parts(such as it aired on Hallmark), or not, I feel that a Creature Feature that is nearly 3 hours is ridiculously too long - that is unless it can keep you intersted. |
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| GORE
METER 3/10 A dismembered hand, a lot of shark chomping going on, but most of it happens really fast or off screen. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4.5/10 The score is actually quite fitting to the film's action and works good. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, I wasn't too enthused about SHARK SWARM after seeing it, and felt it dragged on a little too much. , \as much as I did try to stay interested, it just didn't have much to keep me interestedafter the first hour or so. This DVD will be released on June 3, 2008 |
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