Review of Sharknado (2013) by Harry W — 04 Feb 2014

As any halfwit could predict, nobody goes into Sharknado expecting Citizen Kane. They go in looking for cheap thrills and laughs directed at the intentionally cheap qualities of the film. But the only way to dictate if it it's a good bad like Mega Shark vs. Crocasaurus or a terrible bad like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus is to actually watch it. So I did.

Sharknado is clearly a ridiculous film and because of that it has become a cultural phenomenon and one of the few films of its genre to find much appreciation with critics.

Elements of it are good and many are bad. Yet what's good about it is bad in mainstream cinema while what's bad about it is that what's good about it isn't on screen enough.

To simplify it, the script is poor but entertaining because its laughably poor as a film like this should be scripted. And the acting is low calibre as well, even though Sharknado is one of the first of the genre to actually feature a lead which has experienced some considerable success in films during a recent time. That star is Tara Reid who was one of the stars of 3 films of the American Pie Quadrilogy. Even she manages to deliver a cheap performance in Sharknado, but its still appropriate to the context of the fact that Sharknado is a bad film.

But the problem with Sharknado is that it doesn't have enough of the Sharknado in it. It's all about sharks attacking in other ways which has all been seen before, but little about the Sharknado itself which makes it rather dull. See, the problem is that the scenes between the action sequences are extensively dull periods of poor dialogue and just boring waiting around for something to happen. Then again that's pretty much predictable in Sharknado, but its still disappointing.

Really, Sharknado has some cheap fun to it from its cheesy premise and the fact that its so bad its good, but it falls short of Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus and never really remains focused, so its hard for the viewers to.