Review of Sharknado (2013) by Kyle L — 15 Jul 2018

Cheesy, hilariously bad to a fault, brainless but entertaining. Sharknado is a prime example of the so bad its good films to turn your brain off and just have a good time with this film if ever you get bored with the more recent big budget disaster film flops.

Sharknado is the story of a group of people who are struggling to survive a tornado filled with sharks in Los Angeles as the destruction worsens from time to time. During the course of the disaster, Fin Shepard, a bartender and surfer who runs a bar near the beach saves his ex-wife and kids as the Sharknado began hitting the city, causing mass destruction and casualties at the same time.

When I first heard of this film, I couldn't help but laugh at how ridiculous the premise is thanks to my Auntie from New Jersey, Wetwet P. Resurreccion, I get to enjoy this true guilty pleasure film for the fun of it.

This is one of the better Disaster films that are more entertaining and stupid in a good way than Hollywood's lousy overbudget films like Independence Day and its even dumber follow-up Independence Day: Resurgence.

This is a film for Hollywood to take note of what they are doing with their own Disaster films because Sharknado shows its proof on how an entertaining Disaster film works despite of its pure American Cheese execution.

I admit that when I watched this it has some of the dumbest moments (Sharks in the tornado sounds stupid but in a good way, using chainsaws to fight the sharks which is even dumber but fun) combined with ridiculous aesthetic CGI effects that are terrible in its own right but not wasted like the ones that the Independence Day films did, then you have a pure guilty pleasure film that is worth watching for the best reasons.

Sharknado is one of those movies that despite its idiotic concept, works in its own right as we get to see how this concept comes into play without ruining it and in my opinion. This was successful enough for it to spawn more sequels.

Its such a surprise how a super low budget movie shot under a million dollars became so successful and finds an audience wanting more for this gloriously cheesy franchise. Even me, I get to enjoy this and I am keen to watch the follow ups as each film is revealed to be cheesier than the last when people watch it.

There are so many scenes that are extremely ridiculous but good in its own way (The opening scene where the fishermen get slaughtered by the sharks, every single scene where the sharks are flying around biting people, the first time we see the use of chainsaws against the sharks filled with ridiculous CGI blood and the finale where the main characters drop a bomb on the tornado) and if you want more, then this film is just the beginning as the follow-ups doubles the American Cheese with more ridiculous and creative ways on how people get killed during the Sharknado as each film gets bigger from one film to the next while also becoming more idiotic in a good way.

The acting is decent at best here, all the cast did a fine job with their performances in this film like Ian Ziering as the leading man Fin Shepard. Tara Reid is great as the ex-wife of our hero, April Wexler.

The late John Heard delivers a solid performance as George the alcoholic and Cassie Scerbo delivers a good performance as Nova Clarke, the bartender who works at Fin's bar and she is very attractive, sexy and cute at the same time combined with a good charisma.

Director Anthony C. Ferrante did a really nice job with his work on this film along with screenwriter Thunder Levin (Who would later on help create this franchise) and they created a movie that is dumb fun in the best way and I am looking forward to see how they handle the sequels next to see what other ideas they did for the later on films just for the fun.

Overall, Sharknado is the movie that is perfect to turn off your brain and have a guilty pleasure time watching one of the better Disaster films than Hollywood's excessively lousy overbudget Independence Day films.

This film gets an 8.7/10.