The Last Jaws - Der weiße Killer

The Last Shark otherwise known as Great White was quite a controversial movie around the time of it's release.

Considered a Jaws (1975) ripoff and even released as a faux Jaws sequel in Japan (Complete with Jaws in the title) a lawsuit unsurprisingly hindered it.

Ranked in many worst movies ever made lists I expected something a lot worse than this. In fact truth be told it looks about on par with Jaws itself and almost managed to spawn a sequel.

Telling the story of a coastal resort that comes under attack from a great white shark during a wind surfing contest it's pretty generic stuff but not all that awful.

The effects are considerably better than I expected, the performances are okay and if it weren't for the fact it was so unoriginal it might be considered a passable film.

In a world awash with terrible shark movies, this isn't actually one of them.

The Good:

SFX are great for its time

The Bad:

No originality

Soundtrack keeps sounding like Dolly Parton is about to regale us with 9 to 5

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The confederates were big wind surfing enthusiasts

By walk out of the hospital I'm pretty sure he meant that she'd hop

Helicopters can't land on water

When it was released, The Last Shark (aka Great White) got quickly pulled from theaters due to threats of a lawsuit from Universal Studios, producers of the Jaws movies. Having seen the film on DVD, I can see why. The writers of The Last Shark basically watched the first two Jaws movies and stole every good scene from them, even going so far as to clone characters.

All the main elements from Jaws are here. The gnarled seaman...check. The heroic everyman...check. The corrupt government official who tries to cover up the attacks...check. Even some of the attack scenes mimic specific scenes in Jaws I and II.

These things are made worse by the fact that the Italian studio behind this film had nowhere near Spielberg's budget. Consequently, we have an obviously fake shark model that appears every time the shark sticks it's head out of the water, which is quite often. The underwater shots are accomplished by a mixture of stock shark footage and very fake looking stop motion animation.

Making things even more ludicrous is that the shark appears to be intelligent, engaging in uncharacteristic shark behavior such as trying to trap people in caves with rocks and using ropes as tow lines. At times, it comes across as a comedy.

The Last Shark would actually be pretty great if it had a better editor: the heroes leave port to kill the shark and return unsuccessfully so many times it will make you seasick. However, this is still an enjoyable Italian rip-off of Jaws (and Jaws 2, for that matter), featuring some decent attack sequences and gory moments, not to mention Vic Morrow as a hilarious ersatz Captain Quint.

One great thing about the shark in this film is that it appears to be jet-propelled (at least that's what it sounds like when its conical head breaks the surface) and has the ability to blast watercrafts fifteen feet into the air. Hilarious! If you're looking for camp, The Last Shark certainly doesn't disappoint.

And, while the animatronic shark isn't on par with Bruce from Jaws, it's not bad for a knock-off.

Holy CRUD! I couldn't wait to see this flick since I heard it was yanked from theatres by Universal for being such a Jaws rip-off. Good Lord... if they even LET it play it wouldn't have cut the mustard. There ARE some cool directorial elements (like the wide slo-mo) but I think they belong elsewhere...like >another movie. This film is so bad, with an awful Soundtrack, that I kept my finger on the fast forward button after the first 8 minutes. James Franciscus looks as great as ever... he and Morrow both try...Morrow a bit TOO much with an overly acted "Quint" impersonation. There is a great scene on a shattered dock and part of the finale is not to be missed because it's so damned hysterical; But despite it's one or two laughs and it's serious attempts by the director and editor to save it, The Last Shark is bad to The Last Frame. A combination of Tentacles, Piranha and Jaws all rolled up into one hell of a rotten script. As usual, though, an "A" for effort.

A quaint little beach town is terrorised by a bloodthirsty great white shark.

Universal Pictures' Jaws law suit aside, the film became the 72nd highest-grossing film in Italy 1980-1981. Enzo G. Castellari's offering suffers from the usual Italian ripoff trappings poor editing and ill-fitting music. Sadly the cut away stock footage of sharks really spoils an already chummy film. That said, it has some redeeming features including some of the shark special effects and James Franciscus performance.