Toxic Shark

Hot garbage but my friends and I only watched it for Eric Etebari because we loved him as Dallas.

Admittedly I am a sucker for creature features, and I have always been fascinated with sharks. So of course I do sit down to watch the shark movies that I stumble upon, regardless of how silly the title might make the movie appear. And lets face it, "Toxic Shark" hardly screams top notch movie.

And the fact that this is a SyFy movie hardly works in favor of the movie in general. Although in all fairness, then SyFy do put out the occasional impressive movie. And who knows, "Toxic Shark" might happen to be one such movie, despite its goofy title.

The characters in the movie were rather annoying and seemed to be more stupid than necessary for the purpose of entertainment. I disliked many of the characters portrayed in the movie, as well as the dialogue they were dishing out.

Now, I am not saying that it was the acting that was bad, but it was the characters themselves, so writer Ashley O'Neil hardly created outstanding or lovable characters for the movie. The acting talents performed well enough with the limitations imposed on them by the script and storyline.

The sharks were, well, lets just say that it was different having sharks being able to project a squirt of acidic substance out from a protrusion on the head towards their prey. Yeah, that was the shark concept here. And the CGI effects for the shark were bland, as one has come to expect from SyFy movies. The CGI effects work well enough for their intend, but it didn't look all that realistic. So don't expect an impressive display of Hollywood special effects here. Some of the shark scenes were nice, but the majority was plagued by questionable CGI that couldn't pass for realism.

And true to so many other questionable shark movies, then they opted to have the sharks growling here like ferocious beasts. No, just no! Why do they go for that approach? Sure, I get that it is for dramatic effect as silent killers are not always a crowd pleaser. But having sharks growl like angry bears just doesn't work. It makes the scene seem stupid and amateurish.

"Toxic Shark", was unfortunately, every bit as generic and mass produced as you would expect from a shark movie from SyFy. It is still fun enough to watch, don't get me wrong, just don't expect to be impressed or terrified of going back into the water after having witnessed the somewhat questionable CGI animated sharks tear through the visitors at a single's retreat.

And while "Toxic Shark" isn't the best of movies in the shark creature feature genre, then it wasn't among the worst either. There are far, far worse sharks movies available, many of which also brandish the SyFy logo.

Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of SyFy's output, even when taking it for what it is or at least trying to be (which it rarely succeeds at doing). There is always curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and something compulsive about their output's badness. SyFy do oddly enough have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out.

There are far worse SyFy films than 'Toxic Shark' and certainly far worse shark attack films. 'Toxic Shark' is one of those lacklustre and far from good efforts of theirs (wouldn't say that it is one of their best even), but it is not a dreadful or unwatchable one, actually showing a little effort and some mild fun which does already put it above their usual standard.

Good things are outweighed by the bad things, but that there are any at all is nice to see. The opening sequence is pretty fun, and does indicate at least a guilty pleasure film, and there are a few witty lines too (already making it better than the usual terrible writing in a SyFy film). Plus the scenery is nice.

Mostly the script is poor, mostly very banal, overly cheesy and without much natural flow, and the characters are not very interesting or rootable ones (a mix of bland and annoying or even both). Having said that, the acting (though far from exceptional) is better than that in most of SyFy's output, doing an ok job with what they have and not being as amateurish as feared.

Visually on the other hand, only the scenery passes muster. 'Toxic Shark' does look both drab and garish and that it was made in haste and with minimal budget is obvious. The shark effects are not as bad as in a lot of other shark attack films, but they are still cheap, looking goofy and incomplete. It does hurt the impact of the attack scenes, which have no tension, suspense or menace at all (the unintentional humour being tiresome and predictable by now), and the shark, which is too goofy to be scary and too bland to be fun. The overused gratuity of the content is another factor.

As said already, the writing is mostly poor and the characters, despite the actors' best efforts, don't make much impression. The story is too thin, not much of one at all actually and with such a deja vu feeling throughout, and silly, also dull at times due to some extraneous padding and lack of emotional investment. Personally thought the zombie subplot didn't fit that well and was particularly silly.

Overall, one can do with far worse but still pretty lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Better than Jaws I love how the deal with the shark way better than in the movie made by Steven.

Chances are if you're watching a SyFy shark week show you already pretty much know what you're getting so I'll just briefly sum up:

The Good: The main cast is a little better than average. Personally, I like my schmaltz better when the cast attempts to play it straight than the more campy Sharknado fare. Kabby Borders in a bikini is worth braving the endless adverts. The shark eating effects are the usual video game violence level so, you can just smile and guess who will be next.

The Bad: The peripheral cast of screamers is not so good. The "Toxic" in Toxic Shark involves injuries to cast members that are more of the gratuitous blood bath genre which for which I do not find myself smiling.

Conclusion: I'll have this one on again while I'm doing the dishes.