Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens

The first two 'Sharknado' movies were not great and had a lot wrong with them, but they were guilty pleasure fun as long as not taken seriously. 'Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!' however was a let-down, it lacks the fun and charm of the first two as a result of being too self-aware and trying far too hard, really wanted to not take this seriously and view it as a guilty pleasure but it was just too amateurish and tired.

With 'Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens', the amateurish-ness and fatigue are multiplied and highly indicative of that despite starting off in guilty pleasure fashion the novelty has worn off and well thin now. The previous film may have lacked charm, fun and energy, though the fun came in occasionally, but 'Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens' is completely devoid of all three and has so many other things wrong too. Even when one tries to take it for what it's trying to be, which it manages to fail at.

Ian Ziering is likable and charismatic in the lead role, he plays it straight but still looks like he's having fun with the role. There is some nice scenery, an energetic and eerie music score and some of the references are fun and inspired, when they aren't being over obvious or dumb.

Very little else works. Tara Reid continues to be unspeakably awful, her facial expressions look so expressionless and very forced in the few times she tries, her line delivery is mechanical and she constantly looks ill at ease. The dizzying amount of cameos and the quality of them are nowhere near as entertaining as in the first two outings, not just the too deadpan approach but also that they're poorly written and feel too random and brief. Some also downright irritating, especially Jedward whose "annoying factor" from their joke act 'X Factor' days has not changed a bit. David Hasselhoff didn't seem comfortable and neither did Gary Busey.

Even for low-budget, 'Sharknado 4' is very shoddy stuff. The scenery is pretty good but the film is shot in a very rushed-looking and drab way, editing is sloppy as well as choppy and the shark special effects are typical dreadfully artificial Asylum/SyFy fare. Regarding the shark attacks and death scenes (none being good enough to even reach "reasonably fun" level), that the sharks have little personality let alone menace hurts them and even more so the unintentional silliness comes at the expense of thrills and suspense, which are nowhere in sight, and gets tiresome. The film is directed flatly, the energy and enthusiasm in the pacing is missing and there are too many cardboard characters that are difficult to give a toss about. The first two films had some great funny lines, but the script here contains nothing remotely amusing or memorable and instead feels stale and tiresomely cheesy.

'Sharknado 4' is even more of a pale retread than the third film, with very little maintaining interest and instead having numerous scenes leading nowhere It's further not helped by trying too hard being dopey fun and in the process taking itself too seriously at times that any life is sucked out, then including new ideas, like the different kinds of "nados", intended to be fresh but are just cheap and ridiculous.

Overall, a less than extravagant awakening and feels tired. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Just like we'd come to expect from the series, SHARKNADO 4: THE 4TH AWAKENS is campy B-movie-esque fun. A ton of crappy CGI, tacky one-liners and over-the-top acting.

Watch it only after you've seen the other three installments, and only if you liked those. This one definitely caters for fans. No time is spent whatsoever introducing any of the characters—everything is taken for granted.

If you do like the series, you're up for all kinds of -nados this time, bouldernados, sandnados ... lots of deliberate play with its own themes, infused with self-aware irony. I enjoyed watching this, although as far as B-movies go, I don't like the fact that they're now making a "B-movie" for the sake of making B-movie... while also catering to a mainstream audience. Some of the genuineness of true B-movies is definitely lost.

There are a couple of stabs directed at Star Wars (and one on Star Trek). But riffing on something popular does not make your movie really good. On the other hand, I don't think anyone will ever accuse the Sharknado movies of being intellectual or really something with gravitas (no pun intended of course).

There are quite a few cameos and star appearances (one from a fellow actor from another beast Scy-Fi movie with different animals as beasts. Btw. that other movie worked way better for many different reasons. So while CGI still is not anywhere near current tech, I don't reckon this will break the movie for you, if otherwise you liked it. It is really low and has me still wondering how there are still more of these to come ... Part 5 is confirmed for 2017

Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens seemingly had a different tone and atmosphere than the previous films of the series. And the reason for the backlash and criticism is that it is quite different. It isn't as good as the others but it's different in various ways and the writers and team should be applauded for trying something quite different. It's not great but still watchable.

This film felt less like a shark horror comedy and more like an action and superhero film. Enjoyed that this film takes place 5 years after the events of the third film where Tara Reid suffered serious injuries, and although they somewhat remade Tara Reid into a sort of terminator/superhero figure, it was over the top but different.

It moves at a quicker pace yet does feel a little rushed. It is more ridiculous with the inclusions of different type of tornadoes they have merged (we hear "Firenado, Lightningnado, Sandnado"). It is over the top, silly but we come to expect it by now. Overall it really is not that enjoyable, funny or fresh as the previous three but there is still some charm.

As a rewatch 04/30/23' opinions remain same. Some solid moments but overall not very enjoyable.

As most of the readers of my reviews might have noticed, I am a guy with very mixed taste. Not only I watch theater releases and must-see movies but I also watch obscure movies that nobody would ever seek, movies that were popular for a while and then fell into oblivion, and very awful movies. I have a confession: despite my huge knowledge in bad movies I have never seen the previous SHARKNADO entries but watched this one in particular for completing the movies of a particular cast member. Now I can go to the review.

When the movie begins we are told that the Sharknado phenomenon has been stopped by an invention of the Astro-X that also managed to resurrect Colonel Shepard (David Hasseloff). His son Fin travels to Las Vegas for meeting the nephew when suddenly a tornado destroys a shark aquarium and causes a new sharknado that kills various Vegas people, and they gradually become bouldernados (made of boulders), oilnado (made of oil), a firenado (made of flames), a cownado (made of cows), a lightningado (made of lightings) and a nuclearnado after hitting a nuclear plant. April Wexler (Tara Reid), who was transformed in some sort of cyborg thanks to her dad (Gary Busey), goes with Colonel Shepard and the gang for stopping all the nados and freeing the people swallowed by sharks after they are all swallowed by a whale.

The plot, as crazy as might sound, was funny in some points and it didn't made me cringe for the fact that I was watching it. The acting was at times bland (especially by Reid and Steve Guttenberg) and at times ok (by Carrot Top, David Hasseloff, Gary Busey and the late Gilbert Gottfried). The CGI was decent, and the sharks especially were very adorable to look at (except when at the end they are cut open). What was annoying was the dialogue because at times it didn't even make sense, neither some of the actions of the characters.

So it's bad but not that much because it can actually entertain. Perfect watching for killing one and a half hour or for having some laugh at the ineptness of it.

FYI... 4 of the cast members of this (Tara Reid, Bo Derek, Carrot Top and Gary Busey) put me likes on my comments on their posts on Instagram since November 2022. Perhaps they read my review and thought I liked it just for them, who knows?