La notte degli squali

David Ziegler (Treat Williams) is an American beach bum living on the Mexican shore with his buddy and business partner Paco (Antonio Fargas). Unfortunately, a lot of melodrama is about to be dumped in Davids' lap because his brother James (Carlo Mucari) got mixed up with a shady businessman, Rosentski (John Steiner), and figured to get rich by secretly recording the phone calls that Rosentski had made to the President of the U.S.! James mails David a CD he's made of these incriminating phone calls. The bad guys recruit Davids' ex-wife Liz (Janet Agren) to try to persuade David to hand over the CD, holding her debts over her head as a means of motivating her. David must ultimately battle the goons that Rosentski sends after him, and *also* do battle with a local one-eyed great white shark (named "Cyclops" by the natives) which has become a kind of personal nemesis for him.

Mediocre, fairly dull time waster could possibly have been more entertaining on a "so bad it's good" level, but very crude direction (by Tonino Ricci) and even cruder editing (by Gianfranco Amicucci) prevent the movie from being more fun. That isn't to say that there aren't some very amusing moments here and there, and things do pick up a little during the whole fight / pursuit sequence in the jungle. The music score by Stelvio Cipriani is fun even if it's not one of his best. The use of locations, at the least, is adequate. Williams doesn't look too happy to be here, but Fargas is rather engaging, Swedish beauty Agren offers some appreciable eye candy, and Steiner, the ubiquitous Brit character actor of so many Italian exploitation items, is a passable villain. And as one can see the story is pretty damn silly.

By the way, unless the word "shark" is used for its multiple meanings, the viewer should be aware that there's actually only one killer fish in this thing.

Five out of 10.

Night of the Sharks is an odd creature, based on it's name and cover you'd amost think *Drumroll* that it was a shark themed movie right? Wrong.

Instead we have a generic action film where a shark just happens to pop up a couple of times but is a side character and none of the plot has anything to do with it.

Starring the underappreciated Treat Williams and Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas this Italian made film has a lousy rating on IMDB and truth be told it doesn't even deserve that.

With a plodding pace that didn't keep my attention in the slightest Night of the Sharks is neither what its advertised to be nor in this guys opinion anything that resembles entertainment.

I'm not even addressing the plot in this review as it's so generic it hurts.

Give this movie seven shades of avoidance.

The Good:

Treat Williams & Antonio Fargas

The Bad:

The rest of the cast

No originality

Boring as hell

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Shark movies don't need to about sharks

People are willing to gamble losing a hand for $100

A couple of Mexican-based anglers are inadvertently caught up in a messy corporate extortion plot when Williams' brother scams two million in diamonds from a corrupt businessman (Steiner). Steiner deploys his right hand man to clean things up, and Williams' sultry ex-wife (Agren) tries to convince him to quit while he's ahead. Meanwhile, a deadly ocean predator nicknamed "The Cyclops" is stalking Williams, taking bites out of tourists and showing up whenever there's action in the water.

I've read the reviews and while I agree it's no Oscar contender, it's still not that bad in my opinion. Ramon Bravo's underwater tiger shark tussling and the subsequent attacks are reasonably well orchestrated and realistic.

The cast is solid including Swedish bombshell Agren, Italian beauty Soldano as Williams' current squeeze, Huggy Bear (Fargas) and former "Peyton Place" soap star Christopher Connelly in his last film before his untimely death (his trademark raspy voice is very feint, perhaps suggesting he was unwell). Throw in the ubiquitous Brit of Italo-slasher John Steiner, and you've got a well-appointed cast.

A general undercurrent humour doesn't really elevate the tone, but it at least doesn't take itself too seriously, and the momentum is reasonably brisk. So for your approximate one $$ investment you've got a B-grade Italian crime flick, including two goddesses, a certified Silver-standard international cast, AND a tiger shark tearing up the stragglers - me no complain.

NIGHT OF THE SHARKS begins with shots of a shark swimming languidly along, while David Ziegler (Treat Williams) and his friend Paco (Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargus) sun themselves on a nearby beach.

Oh no!

The shark wakes up and kills an unknown extra! David and Paco continue to relax. We discover that, in addition to sunbathing, David likes to yell at sharks.

Meanwhile, seemingly in some other movie, David's brother has absconded with something from "the mob". So, these two storylines intersect, which somehow makes this movie even less intriguing.

Unfortunately, there's just not enough shark action, especially considering the title. Mostly, this is about the brother's troubles being brought down on David and poor Paco, interrupting their relaxation to the nth degree. Fans of Mr. Williams and Huggy Bear will be ecstatic. Everyone else will probably need a cranial enema...

I gave it a 2 instead of a 1 because I think "The Wild Women of Wongo" is worse. This is an exercise in patience. It's like having your teeth cleaned by a bad dental hygienist. There's no plot. There's no logic. There is certainly no acting (although the shark has some quality dialogue). We don't wonder about anything. We don't know how people got where they got. It's always amazing to me how things like this even get released. I agree with the previous writer that it isn't even funny bad. I know. It's about 90 minutes long and that will fill up about that much space on a DVD collection. It's like a paperweight. Or a bad painting you bought at a starving artists' sale. It covers the crack in the wall.