Shark Zone - Tod aus der Tiefe

In 1712, the "Santa Cruz" is sidetracked by a storm while sailing for the Americas. The ship sinks. Hundreds of yeas later, handsome young Dean Cochran (as Jimmy Wagner) joins his father and an expedition diving for diamonds rumored to have gone down with the ship. A tragic shark attack occurs, but Mr. Cochran survives. Ten years later, Cochran is head man in a San Francisco beach community. He has a beautifully-proportioned wife, Brandi Sherwood (as Carrie). They have a cute son, Luke Leavitt (as Danny). Due to his traumatic experience, Cochran has bad dreams about sharks...

After a swarm of killer sharks massacres a bunch of swimmers, Cochran wants to close the beach. Because there is a lucrative fiesta planned, business-minded mayor Alan Austin (as John Cortell) wants the beach open. Velizar Binev (as Volkoff ), a persuasive Russian, wants Cochran to help him find the "Santa Cruz" treasure. Since the diamonds went down in the "Shark Zone", it could be dangerous. This unexciting re-hash of "Jaws" (1975) looks like it was cobbled together from various sources. Appearing very choppy; it might have been the best they could do, under the circumstances.

*** Shark Zone (10/14/03) Danny Lerner ~ Dean Cochran, Alan Austin, Brandi Sherwood, Velizar Binev

I gave it a 1 because I couldn't give it a 0. The Syfy channel seems to lean a lot more to fantasy with their "original" movies than the realm of science fiction.Great Whites are solitary hunters.There is no natural way they would hunt in packs. Yes several might show up for investigative purposes or to feed on something big like a whale carcass but never as a school. The growling, especially underwater, is more fantasy. Great Whites do not growl. Even though the gestation period is unknown, the growth rate of Great Whites are extremely slow. They eat mostly fish until about 10-12 feet in length. So even though the main sharker mentions it a couple of times it has no bearing on the attacks. I may seem like I am too exacting about these matters but they are so well known where I live that I think it could have been written closer to real life since they were using known locations and sharks.

This is easily the worst movie I've ever seen, but it is the kind of awful that makes it oh so worth the price of admission. I have never witnessed worse acting all around as real-life couple Brandi Sherwood and Dean Cochran (how are those for porn names?) scrape the very bottom of the acting barrel to great comedic effect.

A summary of the plot is quite unnecessary, as it is really a horrible Jaws pastiche- think greedy mayor, disgruntled but ever-hopeful hero guy trying to protect his family and add a goofy subplot involving predictably nefarious Russian diamond-hunters and you get the idea. The film is basically a composite of pre-recorded shark footage from the Discovery Channel (in fact, most of these scenes are played SEVERAL times within a few minutes) meshed with fake looking death scenes. And oh, are there a lot of death scenes. I've never seen a higher body count in a shark movie, and I have made an effort to see as many as possible. Definitely a case of quantity reigning victorious over any semblance of quality, but I digress.

A more warranted review of this movie would detail the numerously ridiculous and consequently wonderful mistakes:

Wagner, a so-called shark expert, informs the mayor that these pesky sharks are related to the Jurassic sharks of 50 million years ago. News flash: The Jurassic period ended 145 million years ago.

Sharks do not growl.

It is rare to see Great Whites together, but I'll be damned if they aren't chilling with their bros all up in this Shark Zone in about every sequence.

During several of the attack scenes, you can see the flesh of some animal used as bait tied to a fishing line. Well, gee, no wonder Wagner is only batting about .010 in terms of saving the many hapless victims. I guess all of the budget was spent on erasing the Discovery Channel logo from the footage.

The final shark scene in the pool features a SURFBOARD with a shark painted on the bottom.

How could a Spanish ship crossing the Atlantic ocean sink in the Pacific outside of San Francisco? Must have been one hell of a storm.

During Wagner's dream, his wife is dragged out of the boat by a shark that has crashed through the bottom. She is dragged into the water but somehow manages to splash and drip water from her submerged hands and arms.

Overall, my feelings about this movie are mixed. While it offers countless thrills in terms of sheer laughable entertainment, the truly scrate-awful acting and egregious errors render it nothing short of the worst movie ever made.

To begin with the plot. But hey what plot? Lots of sharks somehow gone completely crazy so they kill everyone on their way. "Great" script. Only man who can stop them all is Jimmy Wagner (Dean Cochran). Excellent so we've got some sort of Bruce Willis type of character against sharks. Only difference is that Bruce Willis is great actor and he doesn't act in this type of movies (read:"z" type of movies). This movie is category for its self and I don't know how people who worked on this one call themselves professionals. From director to actors completely disaster. Disaster of epic proportions. Please avoid this "movie" if you can by all means. 1/10

This movie is better than one might imagine at first glance... A breezy, gory romp... Lots of shark attacks and mayhem... Good, clean fun for those of us who love these kinds of movies... Unfortunately, the lovely Jenny McShane isn't in this one, but one Brandi Sherwood supplants her quite nicely...

Enjoy!