Dinoshark

Visually, the movie is pleasant to watch, and one may not feel it was a total waste of time. But the movie was all too predictable. With a few clues, anyone could have sketched out the script. One knew well in advance who the next victim would be. A cheesy B-movie, but they didn't even try to throw in some twists or turns. For the most part, the CGI dinoshark was well done, except for the killings. Some of the acting was almost competent, but some of the real young children seemed totally ignorant of their roles. It seemed like they were tying too hard to root the movie into plausible science.

I have made no secret about disliking a vast majority of Syfy's output, I find a lot of cheesy effects, terrible acting and forced dialogue complete with the odd bit of novelty value if in the right mood. Dinoshark is not among the worst of their efforts, as the creature is surprisingly adequate in design and the opening sequence sets the film up quite nicely. Plus the locations are quite nice, shame though about the choppy editing. However, apart from the creature the effects are really quite cheesy, the gore especially does look very fake. The film also has a predictable story, which I was expecting actually though on paper it had a somewhat daft but intriguing idea, but it is also a sluggishly paced story complete with scenes that are either useless, scenes that feel more a spoof movie than anything else with a scene reminiscent of one from Megashark vs. Giant Octopus, or completely devoid of suspense. The dialogue is forced and contrived, I agree 100% about the "food made with love" line, which in my mind is one of the most groan-worthy lines ever on film celluloid. The direction is flimsy, and the acting doesn't fare much better especially the lead actress who can't act even if her life depends on it, yes even from Roger Corman, not helped by the fact that none of the characters are compelling, likable or written well. The attack scenes are also badly staged with no build-ups whatsoever, and the music score is little more than a badly done rehash of the likes of Jaws. Overall, it is a terrible movie, but I'll be kind in that Syfy have done much worse. 2/10 Bethany Cox

After a piece of ice thaws near Alaska, the prehistoric dinoshark makes its way to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico to harass the tourists. And, of course, eat them.

The cover on this film is a bit misleading. What you see is a shark with the head of a T-Rex. In the actual film, though, what you get is basically just a shark (albeit one with a rocky, tough skin). And the graphics are just as bad as any other SyFy film.

If this film has anything going for it, that would be Roger Corman as Dr. Frank Reeves. Not that he is a good actor, but it is nice to see a legend like Corman showing his face -- especially since he is the producer of this trash. Lead actor Eric Balfour is just average. I could praise him for past work (the "Texas Chain Saw" reboot), but he was poorly cast here. Playing a Mexican local, he has no Latino blood in him and speaks with a Boston accent (despite being from LA).

Does this film have a global warming message? Hard to say. Clearly the dinoshark arrives because the ice caps are melting, but the film never explicitly states why. Could be man, maybe just an earthquake shook it loose. Either way, the real problem is that a shark survives being frozen for millions of years, not the global climate issue.

Although I thought "Sharktopus" was way over-hyped and poorly made, I have to say it is better than "Dinoshark". This film really has nothing going for it, unless you want to listen to the audio commentary and hear Corman try (and fail) to defend it.

Global warming causes ice shelf to calve releasing prehistoric beasty into the modern world. So right off the bat SyFy Channel doesn't want to be accused of originality so they use a pretty overused monster trope, and then they decided that they don't want to accused of being entertaining either so they gave us a film that is 90 minutes of sheer boredom as the dinoshark swims and kills with not an ounce of self awareness or winking at the camera that a film of this genre kind of relies on to be successful. When your a TV movie and can't have actual gore or gratuitous nudity you have to make up for it with a fun and clever script, this film didn't even bother with a script at all. Eric Balfour (Skyline) has got to be the most boring of leads imaginable, and he heads a cast of mostly overdubbed Mexican actors. Pathetic.

Eric Balfour's character describes seeing this horned creature attacking about, later the lead girl looks up stuff on the "internet" and finds artists renderings of a horned prehistoric shark. Strangely the dinoshark that we get in this movie does not have the horns described by Balfour or like the one in the drawings. I guess the CGI team didn't bother reading the non-existent script either.

Roger Corman should be ashamed to have his named attached to a piece of dung like this. It's not even bad/fun, it's simply boring/bad.

In an arctic region, melting glaciers cause the release of an ancient baby "Dinoshark". Three years later, the now monstrously adult beast turns up off the Alaskan coastline. It eats a diver and, apparently, develops a taste for human flesh. Migrating southward brings "Dinoshark" to tourist-rich Puerto Vallarta, Mexico which has a good food supply. Handsome young "Fin Seeker" tour boat captain Eric Balfour (as Trace McGraw) is the one who first realizes the danger and tries to stop the carnage. "Dinoshark" could disrupt the community's annual fiesta...

You would expect legendary low-budget producer Roger Corman to excel in Syfy Channel shark movies, but the expert fails to make the most of this assignment. "Dinoshark" is sloppy and substandard, even for the genre and TV movie outlet. As if to rub salt in the wound, Mr. Corman contributes a lackluster acting role (as Frank Reeves). The Corman fun is missing. Likable in the lead, Mr. Balfour is left holding the water. His attractive co-stars are led by beautiful blonde Princeton graduate and water polo captain Iva Hasperger (as Carol Brubaker).

*** Dinoshark (3/13/10) Kevin O'Neill ~ Eric Balfour, Iva Hasperger, Aaron Diaz, Roger Corman