Shark Swarm (2008)

You won't be disappointed!

Overrated

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Yet another in the long line of Creature Feature TV movies that seem to be the bane of modern cinema in the 2000s. SHARK SWARM has everything I dislike about such productions: a low budget (in a bad way), poor cast, rubbish script, and, worst of all, rubbishy CGI effects. The effects in this one are among the worst I've seen: the sharks are relegated to murky, underwater CGI images throughout the film, with nary a mechanical beastie in sight. The budget is low too, of course, and the script takes the scraps left over by JAWS and turns them into a lacklustre thriller with obvious nods to the likes of PIRANHA and others, all of them better films than this. So once again we have a greedy corporate type busy building a business and ignoring the warning signs; a courageous, humble fisherman who first spots the menace; bodies washed up on the beach; fishermen catching something more than they bargained for; marine biologists and women in rubber suits, and lots of other B-movie elements. Even one of the characters is called Bill Girdler, in reference to a director of popular 'animal attack' movies back in the '70s.The one thing this film does have going for it is the cast: although the performances are bad, more of the faces are familiar than you might expect. I'm not talking about the B-movie regulars who pop up in this, although there are a lot of them (John Enos III, John Schneider, Heather McComb, Willie C. Carpenter). I'm talking about the 'once weres', former greats at the box office now relegated to making this trash and picking up a pay cheque afterwards. Daryl Hannah, old collagen lips, whose career seems to be in free fall with this and KUNG FU KILLER; and F. Murray Abraham, who knows no shame with this and BLOOD MONKEY (although his appearance here is little more than a cameo), and worst of all, the leathery, bewigged Armand Assante, who once played to audiences in JUDGE DREDD and 1492. Meanwhile, director James A. Contner once worked as a cinematographer on JAWS 3D, so I guess he knew what he was doing when he set out to shoot this. A worthless movie indeed.

People who love to watch movies about fictional shark attacks will get more bite for their bucks with veteran television director James A. Contner's "Shark Swarm," literally a shark munching marathon that clocks in at a whopping 169 minutes. Okay, the sharks--great whites,hammerheads, and scores of others--are primarily CGI creations. You will lose count of the number of times that one shark gobbles the camera, but Contner manages to generate a fair amount of suspense. Every time that anybody plunges into the briny deep, you know that they will wind up as shark bait. Of course, everything here is entirely preposterous, but you know that the seaweed huggers will love the ecology message. The teleplay by Matthew Chernov and David Rosiak takes its time with the formulaic plot that has "Jaws" written all over it with some melodramatic variations. Indeed, if "Jaws" did not discourage you would splashing around in the deep blue sea, "Shark Swarm" ought to with its fishy action.Fisherman Daniel Wilder (John Schneider of "The Dukes of Hazzard" & "Smallville)and his wife Brook (Darryl Hannah of "Splash") along with their brother Professor Phillip Wilder (Roark Critchlow of "Komodo vs. Cobra")are the only people who refuse to sell out to a greedy real estate developer Hamilton Lux (Armand Assante of "I, Jury")who wants to turn the waterfront into a luxury condo. Lux has brought out everybody else in town and struggles to buy out Wilder, but he cannot make our hero an offer that he can refuse. Meanwhile, Lux's have a power plant and his scheming underling Kane Markus (John Enos III of "Demolition Man ") has been secretly dumping toxic waste into the coastal waters to drive off the fish and deprive the fishermen of their livelihoood.Meanwhile, Philip strikes up a relationship with an EPA employee, Amy Zuckerman (Heather McComb of "Apt Pupil"), who initially starts out working with Lux until Philip woos her from the dark side. Eventually, she discovers foul play and Lux manages to wield his influence and has her removed from the job. When Philip is not making time with Amy, he is getting even more acquainted with popular college professor Professor Bill Girdler (F. Murray Abraham of "Scarface")who uses a NASA satellite to study the California coastal waters. Lately, he has been noticing schools of sharks swimming together and regards this behavior as anomalous. Before long even Daniel is suspicious. It seems that the phosphorous that Lux's henchmen have been secretly dumping has really screwed up the sharks. These predators attack anybody in the water! "Shark Swarm" is aptly titled because Contner shows up many scenes of swarming sharks that gang up on humans. In the last hour, things turn pretty melodramatic when Markus moves against Wilder and company and tries to drown them in a shark cage. Meantime, Philip has acquired secret pulse guns from another professor and discovers that when discharged at the schools of sharks that they scatter. Several other subplots crop up, including one about a little girl who refuses to wade into the water after she witnesses two shark attacks. Her distraught parents strive to make her look stupid, but she stands by her guns and gets to tell them after a narrow escape from shark infested waters that she "told them so." Professor Girdler picks up the sharks on his satellite imagery because they are glowing with the phosphorous and he warns our heroes that three beaches are liable to turn into massacres. At one point, Markus tries to kill Daniel and Brook, but Brook outsmarts him. This is the most anemic scene in this made-of-the Sci-Fi Channel movie. Daniel and Brook are suspending in a shark cage that the predators will gnaw through in no time. Miraculously, largely owing to circumstance and the fact that they are hero and heroine, they survive.Amand Assante makes a slimy villain as does John Enos III. They get their comeuppance just as you would expect. Chomp! "Shark Swarm" is fairly predictable with few surprises, but the familiar cast and their sterling performances help out and the story does manage to hold your attention despite its excessive running time.

Shark Swarm is set in California in the small fishing community of Full Moon Bay where all the fish have disappeared because rich businessman Hamilton Lux (Armand Assante) has hired local thug Kane (John Enos III) to pollute the waters around the bay to kill off all the fish so everyone will go out of business & sell him their property cheap. However stubborn long term resident & local fisherman Daniel Wilder (John Schneider) refuses to sell up, while out on his boat Daniel comes across another boat badly damaged. Investigating the boat it seems that sharks were responsible & not just ordinary sharks either, no mutant sharks that swim & hunt in swarms whose DNA have been altered due to all the toxic waste in the bay & with food in short supply the sharks turn to human flesh to satisfy their hunger! It's up to hero Daniel to convince the world that the sharks exist & then destroy them...Directed by James A. Cotner this stupid & boring 'Creature Feature' is about as bad as they come. Even though Shark Swarm is supposed to be about killer man eating sharks all the boring domestic dramatics take center stage with the whole evil developer trying to run decent family man out of business plot getting much more screen time than the sharks which is unacceptable since the only reason anyone would want to watch a film called Shark Swarm would be for the sharks surely? The plot is slow going so as to have the least number of shark attacks possible thus saving money on CGI effects, there's no gore (or at least in the TV version I saw), it's boring, overlong, predictable & like all bad shark films people venture into the water even when they know they shouldn't. I also liked the reaction of the bystanders on the beach towards the end as they see the sharks in the water, they all turn & run away screaming like the sharks are going to grow legs & jump out of the water & move about on land. Also what happened to Al, the guy who had his hand bitten off? Shark Swarm is awful & even features a really bad climax where the heroes just point 'pulse guns' at the sharks to defeat them, boring. Then there's the happy soap opera style ending just to rub salt into the wound as local small town American mentality wins out over big evil corporate business. What could have been a fun 'Creature Feature' with a strong message about the dangers of dumping toxic waste is actually a boring drama with the shark side of the script almost coming off as a sub-plot.The sharks are rarely seen with good reason as the CGI computer effects are awful, in fact you never see a shark or one of it's victims in the same shot as all the attacks are exactly the same with a shot of a bad CGI shark underwater followed by a real human actor splashing around & screaming on the surface. The build up is slow & lethargic, the attacks scenes have no pace or gore or any cool shots & it's certainly not scary.Filmed on what was obviously a low budget one time A list Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah appears here but she doesn't seem that interested while highly respected actors Armand Assante & F. Murray Abraham who has actually won an Oscar also turn up in this which is probably a low point in all three's careers.Shark Swarm is a terrible 'Creature Feature' with hardly any action or shark attacks, zero gore & a boring plot that deal more with the small town domestic dramas than the man eating sharks. One to avoid.

This movie was a classic "B" - - SciFi type of movie. It has a wonderful cast of really good actors...but in my opinion the plot was anemic, the directing was even more-so...and I loved it! Why? Because the cast each did an excellent job of acting and the setting was believable. One can see from the 'heft' of big stars where the budget most certainly was spent. It most certainly wasn't spent on special effects or, for that matter, screen writing.All in all, I would not only recommend it because of its positive aspects...but would watch it again and again if the opportunity affords itself. The positives outweigh the negatives.