Review of Sharktopus (2010) by Kim P — 03 Apr 2011

It's been awhile since a movie has surprised me the way that "Sharktopus" has. I've grown largely disillusioned with this new wave of killer aquatic animal movies that started with "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus" a year or two ago. Sure, "Megapiranha" was worth a laugh or two, but I've found most of these films to be far too boring and plodding to do justice to their bombastic titles.

Enter "Sharktopus." The first thing that caught my eye actually came during the DVD menus. They featured a scene from the movie that made it look like this thing may have had a competent special effects budget. It wasn't Industrial Light & Magic quality or anything, but certainly leaps and bounds above what you'd see in, say "Crocosaurus." Sadly, the monster doesn't look that good throughout the entire movie (there are some scenes where the rendering quality of the creature takes a nose dive), but more often than not, the sharktopus actually looks decent.

And while this movie does have its share of talky stretches, they're usually so blatantly tongue in cheek, hammed up, of just plain bad, that I couldn't help but like them for all the wrong reasons. Bottom line: if you're looking for a fun, cheesy monster flick, "Sharktopus" is one of the most entertaining choices to come out in years. It's not perfect, but you could do a lot worse with other recent releases in this little sub-genre.