Hammerhead

this movie wasn't absolutely atrocious, but it was pretty bad. the acting ACTUALLY was pretty good! jeffrey combs did a pretty darn good job as the mad scientist, which is sort of his specialty if you don't know such things :D. bill forsythe .. well, i'm not EXACTLY sure why he was in this film. he's way too good for this kinda stuff, and his role wasn't exactly demanding. I rented this on the strength of those two leads, and I wasn't really disappointed. I mean, heck, it's a movie about a half man/half shark. It ain't Shakespeare folks. Other than the plot, which is full of holes, and the poor dialogue, I would like to note that the cinematography also left many things to be desired. there were shots were they were trying to look "cool", but it ended up obscuring the scene or just coming off plain cheezy. they also blew it many times when they had decent dialogue and cut away prematurely before the person could even deliver the line. it was pretty bad. but if you are a jeffrey combs fan, this one is worth checking out. he gives a great performance and does what he can with the character. forsythe ain't bad either, and either is the female lead. heck if i can remember her name though. bottom line, i wouldn't otherwise waste your time.

A scientist on an island is in deep sorrow about the loss of his son who died of kidney cancer. So he thinks: why not turn my dead son into a hammerhead shark. Well, who wouldn't? It's a little hard to cope with the fact that the hammerhead shark that's killing everybody is constantly being called "Paul". Also, William Forsythe's cast as a MacGyver-kick-ass-savingtheday- kinda hero lacks credibility. On the other hand there are a few hot chicks who make you actually look at the screen while shark Paul bites another one to death. As a matter of fact I find bad b-movies quite amusing. But for my taste it would have been a much better movie if it was made for say 1000000 bucks less. Then it might have been fun.

I was so worried that Jeffrey Combs would wind up in the gutter somewhere when the last Star Trek series went off the air, but his incredible skill at character acting may have saved not only his career, but this mediocre film. Jeffrey Combs carried off his role as mad-scientist, Dr. King, like a real pro. While its not the worst Sci-Fi Channel original film, its not the best either. The effects weren't really lame, so much as non-existent. When you have a character in your film that is half man, half hammerhead shark, its usually a good idea to show it eventually. Instead, all we get are a bunch of cut-away scenes and bad angle shots of a terrible rubber suit. A solid team effort from not only Combs, but William Forsythe and Hunter Tylo, managed to save this film and make some of the lack-luster dialog seem almost interesting. Sorry Sci-Fi channel, B-.

Hammerhead is a combination between the mad scientist and killer shark movie genres. In a bit of type-casting, Jeffrey Combs plays the aforementioned mad scientist who develops a human/hammerhead shark creature. Bizarrely, this being is in fact his son, who he has turned into this monster to prevent him dying from cancer. Or something.

A group of associates are invited to the scientist's private island. They end up being used as shark bait or shark mate. For some unknown reason the head of IT has been brought along as part of this team. Who knows why? Luckily, he turns out to be a resourceful, if somewhat overweight, Ramboesque hero. I'm working on the assumption that he learnt how to handle an assault rifle as part of his day job working in 1st line support. A normal day for this IT man presumably involves fixing someone's network connection followed by a call to gun down gun-toting evil-doers. Or perhaps a call to fix someone's PC has to be scheduled between physical confrontations with land-based human-shark hybrids? Anyway, he's amazing and saves the day. He even get's the girl.

The shark-man is a slightly lame creation but OK, I guess, judging by the effects in general in this film. And the movie moves on at a decent pace. It's complete hokum of course but if you buy a movie called Hammerhead and expect it to be a complex drama about the emotional conflicts experienced by a man turned into a land-based killer fish, then really you have no one to blame but yourself. As it is, there are guns, gore, girls and possibly even an exploding helicopter. It's rubbish but not as bad as some might say.

Note: "Hammerhead" is occasionally known as "SharkMan" in certain releases. Because another film uses the name "SharkMan" which predates this one, I will refer to this film as "Hammerhead."

Hammerhead is one of many shark films Nu Image made during the 2000s. It is arguably the most interesting of them in its IMDb summary. A scientist whose son is diagnosed with cancer splices his DNA with that of a shark to produce a hybrid creature with the brain of a man and the ferocity of a shark. The creature does not actually resemble a hammerhead shark despite the title.

This plot point was utilized in Shark Attack, another Nu Image film. The idea stems from the quack book Sharks Don't Get Cancer combined with The Island of Dr. Moreau. The creature when fully visible is impressive. The costume doesn't look like a school mascot at least while the actor is not moving.

It's a shame the shark attacks are edited so haphazardly that you can never tell what is happening. The edits appear so quick in succession you get the idea that the shark is moving next to his victims rather than attacking them.The camera often focuses on the Hammerhead's eyes which become repetitive in the frequent attacks. Despite the fact that CGI was very bad in 2005, I would have preferred to see the victims attacked with a CGI creature. At least we could see the entire shot. Since the shark can travel on land, why didn't they portray him like a sneaky slasher villain who moves in the shadows?

Nu Image shark films often feature incomprehensible slowdown that throws you out of the scene. Such happens here. You see someone running and for no reason the scene slows down for emphasis on something? I guess?

The actors are alright. No one other than Jeffrey Combs is memorable. His performance as the stereotypical mad scientist is as campy as ever. If you are a fan of his, he makes the film better than it would otherwise be. His performance adds to the otherworldly atmosphere that's weird for its own sake. I especially like the tour he gives through the greenhouse where he keeps other weird hybrids. Perhaps were this not a made for tv film, the filmmakers could have gone further with the oddities. The film reminds me in some ways of the more recent Annihilation just not as developed. The televisual storytelling limits how much worldbuilding the film can do.

Most of this movie is a group of characters running around as Hammerhead picks them off. He can move as well through water as land. There is some gore during a lab scene although not as much during the shark attacks. The survivors really don't do much other than exist until the end. The bad music doesn't help with the increasing tedium of the lack of plot.

Hammerhead is not a good movie. Fans of Jeffrey Combs may want to check it out after seeing his more famous films. The introductory laboratory scenes are weird and bloody; they are the best part of the movie. By the 30 minute mark, you have seen everything it has to offer.