Shark Killer

Right, well I sat down to watch the 2015 movie "Shark Killer" without having read the movie's synopsis. So I blindly believed that this movie was going to be a movie with sharks being the focal point of the storyline.

Oh, how mistaken I was. This movie was not about sharks, but instead about people chasing after a shark to cut out a rare diamond from its belly. So I was sorely disappointed with this movie, as I had expected and hoped for a shark creature feature.

While the movie wasn't at all what I had expected, it should be said that the movie actually wasn't all that bad. It was watchable and semi-entertaining actually. Well, while it wasn't an outstanding movie, it made for adequate entertainment for a single viewing.

"Shark Killer" has the likes of Derek Theler, Erica Cerra and Arnold Vosloo on the cast list, so it wasn't actually all bad in terms of casted performers.

Visually then "Shark Killer" wasn't a particularly impressive movie. There were a few odd shark segments here and there, but nothing in the likes of movies such as "Jaws", "The Meg", "Deep Blue Sea", and such.

"Shark Killer" turned out to be a cheesy movie actually, but still watchable. I am rating it a four out of ten stars. Watchable, yes, but disappointingly not a movie about sharks as the main focus.

In the mid-70s, I want to see Jaws -and it scarred me for life. It took decades before I could swim in deep water without panicking. As a result, I hate sharks.

So it has to be a pretty abysmal film for me to want the shark to win. Congratulations Shark Killer.

The lead actor has one thing going for him - he looks good. His acting is lumpen but things are made worse by the appalling dialogue. The lead actress has a single role in the film : to be saved. Several times. By our "hero". This naturally makes her hatred change into love. Because women are (according to this film) that shallow.

The only reasonable this film gets anything but the lowest score, is that the scenery is very pretty. But that doesn't stop the essential stupidity of this film.

Oh, and if you ever wondered how to kill a shark? Just dive in and stab it with a knife. Or a stick.

Now I know I probably shouldn't say this, but I did rather enjoy "Shark Killer". I am sure that was almost entirely down to the eye-candy Derek Theler's quite tongue in cheek effort as local Lothario "Chase" who pretty much charms and sleeps his way through life! One morning he is summoned to his hoodlum stepbrother's home where he is given a challenge. Find a black-finned shark that has swallowed a priceless diamond before it's discovered by his nemesis "Nix" (Arnold "Mummy" Vosloo). What we discover quite quickly is that "Chase" is no slouch when it comes to the ninja skills, and that's useful when he and unwilling partner "Jasmine" (Erica Cerra) become the targets of their rather menacing and brutal foe. If you are looking for a silly film about a shark, then you'd be better off watching Tommy Wiseau's "Killer Shark" (2023) nonsense because there is virtually no shark action in this action drama-cum-burgeoning (and predictable) romance. I think there are some South African accents here, but they don't come across consistently enough to be sure - and as far as anything that could be called "acting" is concerned, then maybe we do need to find the shark for that too. Still, Sheldon Wilson uses his key asset - an handsome man - to reasonable effect in this low budget film to deliver something that - try as I might - I just couldn't hate.

I happened upon this on Pluto TV, and was caught up from the start. I have to say that Derek (the shark killer) is easy on the eyes for women, and I am also a fan of Erica's (Jo Lupo from Eureka). The story line has a lot of humorous moments, which I liked, as well as not needing to show us what would have been a gory scene. All in all, entertaining in a way the whole family could watch. If you watch with no expectations of a horror movie or academy award winner, you'll be entertained.

Brought out to South Africa, a professional shark hunter and his assistant are tasked with retrieving a stolen diamond inside a man- eating shark located in the waters, only for a ruthless crime-lord to complicate his mission and tries to complete it quickly.

This one wasn't all that bad of an effort though there's some problems with it. One of the main issues against this one is the fact that there's a far greater emphasis on the rather tedious and bland crime/thriller antics than it does on the overall horror tones of the shark attacks. Since there's a great deal of time in the first half here going on about the missing diamond and the double- cross between the crime lord and his boss that really takes up quite a bit of time here which really holds off the horror action considerably. Likewise, it's also filled with a slew of scenes that are based around that crime/thriller scenario from the encounters with the thugs and the meeting up with the two in meetings over what's being done to retrieve the diamond which are basically filler scenes to prevent this from really settling into a proper horror angle. Even the late-film angle of the sibling rivalry between the two of them makes no sense of it's inclusion and readily screams useless material that's unnecessary in the film as a whole. From the numerous shootouts and encounters with the gun-toting henchmen in the later half there's a lot of rather fun action scenes throughout here that don't have any kind of real horror action that it really does seem more like an action/thriller rather than a wholesale horror film, and it does conflict so wildly with the true horror action within here that there's a disjointed pace here where it's all about a series of crime/thriller scenes before it clumsily inserts a shark attack then carries on with the crime/thriller afterward to an extended time without going back, and overall this here really hurts this one. There's still some rather fun moments featured amongst the rather troubling antics, starting with the film's enjoyable pace here to still keep this enjoyable while holding off the film's flaws. By constantly keeping the film going forward with different encounters, brawls and gunfights that even though there's no real shark action featured here, the film does manage to keep moving along at a rather enjoyable and overall frantic pace which is what keeps it interesting. That way once the few attacks do come into play here it's got enough to be worthwhile, and there's some good attacks here in the opening beach attack that gets this started off nicely, the marina attack that has some fun stalking scenes of it going around the oblivious party-goers before the main assault and the rather creepy exploration of the shipwreck below the surface where they encounter the main shark in numerous close calls that leads to a chilling swim back to the surface for some really fine scenes overall here. Likewise, the big finale here where they battle against the shark with the different tactics and managing to get some nice rousing action covered against it which is quite fun. Overall, though, there's way too much crime/thriller here instead of true horror.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.