Shark Hunter

The better of the giant Shark films. Compared to Megalodon (2002) and Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2002), Shark Hunter is almost Oscar material when it comes to acting and script. Although it suffers with a low budget and shamelessly borrows elements from Steve Alten's novel 'Meg' it's the closet thing you'll get to an attempted prehistoric shark film.

The pacing and editing are a little awry but some of the practical and special effects are well executed.

Die Hard actor Grand L. Bush and hammy Antonio Sabato Jr. for the most part are watchable. Director Matt Codd is wise to hide to shark in the shadows and considering it was made in 2001 the SPFX are adequate. The music score is worthy of note and it has a nihilistic element that breaks the b-film mould with and ending that refreshingly going against the norm.

Overall, it's far from great but the best Megalodon film to date.

Compared to other shark/creature movies I've seen over the past few weeks, Shark Hunter is surprisingly not bad. It is nothing great though, with an awful script which is full of stilted and cheesy lines, parts where editing lacks focus, sluggish pacing, a hammy performance from Antonio Sabbato and a story which while good in concept and having some decent moments is overly-silly. However, the underwater sequences are surprisingly well-shot with CGI that is not as cheap as it could have been, scenes that actually do have more suspense and tension and less predictability such as the ending the shark is adequately menacing(already an improvement on the sharks from the SyFy creature movies and the last two Jaws sequels) and Grand L.Bush is decent and likable.

Overall, not a great movie, but watchable especially compared to what it could have been. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Having switched over to late night Sky Movies, I thought this was just going to be another rubbishy clone movie that I could switch my brain off to, then it turned out to be the completely opposite. The tense bits were tense, the special effects were very good for a "hmm, never saw 'that' one at the movies" movie, and the acting was OK. My only complaints with it were plot wise, the crew seemed to very quickly jump into plan to capture a giant monster that none of them believed existed in the first place, and the investigation of the research centre to which they were sent to 'investigate', encompassed nothing more than cursory glance and the extraction of a Shark tooth from the side of a wall. The ending was also a bit, well... unsatisfactory. Other than that, it held my attention and is a very worthy "Aaah, giant Shark" movie.

this could have been good,but sadly,its too inplausible,anthony sabato jr has a grudge...PLEASE!I wanted to like it,love shark movies ,someone should have asked my opinion before they wrote this.ha!ha! the shark is cool but the story lacks...alot!

Luckily, I saw this movie on the Sci-Fi channel and didn't waste money renting it. Yes, it was pretty bad.

Lets begin: Antonio Sabato Jr. plays Dr. Spencer Northcut, a professor and quite possibly the only human on the planet who can design every facet of a deep sea research submarine (subtle sarcasm there, folks), who's family was attacked by a shark called a Megaladon that became extinct over 40 million years ago. The problem is that Dr. Northcut cannot seem to get a berth on the very sub that he created, maybe because of his obsession to get even with the monster shark that took his parents from him, or maybe because he's just not qualified for a position on the sub (did you ever think about THAT, Northcut?), and he spends the first fifteen minutes of the movie pouting about it. Then, as if a sign from above, a research facility is destroyed and it's Northcut to the rescue. Why he would suddenly become qualified to help investigate the destroyed facility is beyond me but he finally gets a berth on "his sub". As the story rolls along we also find out that Northcut is a qualified diver, paleontologist, submarine commander, mini-sub driver and martyr extraordinaire. Wow, can this guy do it all or what?

The other characters were almost as bad, not to mention most of the acting. Whomever casted Heather Marie Marsden (in a laughable performance) should seriously think about another career and the diction coach should have been fired. I don't have a problem with foreign actors but if they're going to use American slang at least do it properly. Example: One of the guys in the research facility tells another guy, "I sick of your stupid-ass games" but the way he said it, it sounded like, "I'm sick of your stupid ASS games." I've been trying to figure out what those are ever since. The only character I liked was Harrington, a no-nonsense mini-sub driver that thinks Northcut is an unqualified nut that could endanger the entire crew. Grand L. Bush's portrayal of Harrington was the most realistic of all the characters and the only one who questions Northcut's qualifications...finally.

The animation was also atrocious. Whose idea was it to make the shark look like it was snarling? I almost expected to hear it growling! And don't forget to check out the radar display. At one point there is a large, green shape of a shark coming across the screen! If anyone has ever seen an actual radar screen (and I use one on my boat) they'll know that images are just big blots of color and not distinguishable from one another: could be land, could be a boat or it could be a channel marker. Radar's do not decipher what's in front of you, so the image of a shark floating by was pretty funny indeed!

If I have to describe this movie in one word it would be "Pffflllttt" (big fat raspberry).