Shark Zone

Shark Zone (2003)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Ten years after seeing his father eaten by a Great White shark, a man (Dean Cochran) is forced to save his small Costal town when the people come under attack from a pack of sharks. Also, there's a legend that there's a sunken ship with a trunk full of diamonds but it's being protected by the sharks. Soon our hero must not only defeat the sharks but he's forced to take some mobsters out on a treasure search. This here was the fourth film in the SHARK ATTACK series and I must admit that I'm rather confused by all the negative reviews. Sure, this isn't JAWS but I think it's a lot better than many of the imitations out there. Plus, I think this one benefits from not having all CGI sharks and thankfully we get to see the real creatures and the director wisely puts them in countless attack sequences. The film certainly earns its R-rating because there's quite a bit of violence from start to finish. The attack use real shark so of course there's going to be a lot of editing to pull off the dead people but for the most part it works. There's all sorts of the red stuff for gore fans to enjoy and I think the adventure also works quite well. Some of the negative stuff includes some pretty bad performances. Cochran isn't too bad in his part but the Brandi Sherwood, who plays his wife, is quite awful and each of her lines sound like they're coming from a stripper and not a wife and mother. The producers not only give us the violence and blood but there's also some nudity, which means all three of these just add up to some good exploitation. Again, if you're wanting a masterpiece or some well-made picture then this isn't going to be for you. If you enjoy these nature attack movies then I think this is one of the better ones out there.

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.

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.

The small town of San Francisco relies upon the beach for all of its business. A school of sharks roam near a ship containing diamonds which sunk many years ago. The mayor wants to keep the beaches open, the hero disagrees with him. Token Russian guy wants the diamonds and he wants the hero to help him find them. etc etc etc

Sounds familiar? Welcome to Shark Zone. A movie so terrible that thousands of people watching this may be sworn off movies. Cliché after cliché. Remember Jaw? Well its part jaws, part every other bad(and by bad I mean really really bad) movie you've ever seen.

This movie is a comedy of errors. There's lots of National Geographic and Discovery Channel footage, which if you've watch for just 10 mins, you will instantaneously recognise all the shark clips.The deaths are messy, lots of really really bad fake blood. There's plenty of errors in the movie to pick from. In one scene when they're throwing in chum for the sharks, you see jelly (jello) mixture. The sharks grunt for some reason (don't ask). The sharks devour everyone in sight, oo and my favourite - corny dialogue. Lots of lines to pick out from. My fav though-Dean Cochran saying 'Class dismissed!' (Doesn't sound funny out of context, but when watching the movie, it is definitely amusing)

If you notice carefully, you see the main character's father returns as the mayor, without a beard and no apparent dress sense.

Looking at the movie from another perspective, it is hilarious. Brandi Sherwood's acting is terrible, but funny nevertheless. As a former Miss Teen USA its obvious why she got the part. The whole screenplay is so bad, you'll be on the floor in riotous laughter. I mean sure, shark attacks are nothing to laugh about, but this movie, makes the attacks look so fake, you have no choice but to laugh.

This is definitely the Holy Grail of bad movies. This should be shown in film school as not what to do when making a movie.

The movie has so many faults, its unbelievable. Not really worth renting at all. Unless you have some friends around and you want to laugh, watch this!

The writer/director has another shark movie out next year,beware!

A generous 1 out of 10 Laugh factor- 8/9 out of 10

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