December 7th, 2017 Movie – Super Shark

It’s about time I got to my favorite type of movies. Now today’s movie is one of a batch of sci-fi B-movies that John Schneider made in 2011-2012. I had found out about these movies through various web sites and knew I had to buy them. Today’s movie has an even funnier memory for me as it was shown during the Friday Night Sci-Fi Drive-In panel at DragonCon a couple of years ago, which was super fun watching. After all, what could be more fun than a giant shark going on a killing spree. So it’s time for me to have some fun with today’s movie, Super Shark.

The plot: Out on the deep water oil rig Nautilus, two workers are complaining about things falling apart around the place when the radio suddenly bursts into static. On the ocean’s floor, a chasm suddenly opens up where they are drilling and a gigantic shark emerges and quickly attacks and sinks the Nautilus. The next day, Roger Wade, the head of Traymore Industries that owned the Nautilus, is interviewed about the incident and he says the rig was destroyed by a quake, as seismic activity was detected in the area, and that there would be little damage to the ecosystem. On the beach, head lifeguard Tyler is handing out assignments to Cali and Greg and after Greg heads out, Cali comments to Tyler how he is her type. Meanwhile, Rick and a friend are diving out by the reef while Rick’s girlfriend Jill is sunbathing on their boat. When Jill sees a giant shark fin circling them, she tries contacting Rick only to get static on the radio. She then spots blood in the water, from where Rick was killed, just before the shark leaps out and slams into the boat, sinking it. Dr. Catherine “Cat” Carmichael hires a local skipper named Chuck to take her out to the edge of the quarantine zone around the Nautilus. When they get there, Cat is surprised to see there is no sign of any oil in the water and she collects a water sample before telling Chuck they can head back. Cat then heads out to see Roger and ask him some questions but he is too busy to really talk so she agrees to meet him for drinks later that night. Cat then heads to the hospital to see the lone survivor of the wreck, who admits they were pumping chemicals down the shaft to help break up some hard rock that they encountered. He then tells her that a giant shark was what sunk the rig but when she appears skeptical and asks if he is sure, he laughs and says he made it up before leaving. Out in the ocean, a Navy sub is heading towards port when they encounter the shark and attempt to shoot it with torpedoes but the torpedoes miss and the shark ends up destroying the sub. Later, a plane is sent out to try and find the sub and finds no sign of it but does see the shark. Cat heads out to Roger’s house and confronts him about the chemical agent he used in his drilling, saying that it most likely caused the platform’s collapse. When she leaves, Roger contacts his lawyer and tells him what Cat had said and that she was right but his lawyer tells him to deny everything and see if he can find a chink in her armor. Elsewhere, Cali and Tyler head to a bar for an early birthday celebration for Cali and invite Greg to come. As they are drinking, local radio DJ Dynamite Stevens is holding a bikini contest and Cali decides to enter to attract Greg. As she is on stage, Greg admits to Tyler that he is interested in her and kisses her and when Cali sees this, she quickly runs off the stage. When Tyler goes looking for her to apologize for what happened, they are both attacked and killed by the shark. Cat hires Chuck to go out looking for fish but see no sign of anything in the water. Chuck gets on the radio to a friend to see if he is having any luck while Cat heads out on deck but he gets interference. Suddenly, Cat sees the shark circling them and calls Chuck out to see it, then tells him to turn off the radio. When Chuck does so, the shark swims away and Cat speculates that it is attracted to radio waves while emitting it’s own radio waves, which is what caused the interference. Meanwhile, Greg is killed by the shark when he goes looking for Tyler and Cali and some time later, the shark kills the photographer and the bikini contest winner and runner up while they are doing a photo shoot. Some time later, Cat goes back to Roger’s house and Roger, having found out that she was fired from her job, offers her a bribe to walk away, saying he wasn’t at fault. Catherine admits that he wasn’t responsible for destroying the rig, the giant shark he released was, and she takes the money and leaves. Cat heads to the bar and proceeds to get drunk when Chuck finds her and takes her out of there. When she wakes up, Chuck asks her about the money and she admits about the bribe and being fired. Chuck tells her that the National Guard has been called in to deal with the shark and they head out to the beach to inform them about the radio waves affect on the shark. While they are speaking with Captain Jackson, the shark shows up and begins attacking the soldiers on the beach. The soldiers eventually force it back into the water by use of flamethrowers but when Jackson orders an air strike to take out the shark, they are surprised to see that the shark can jump out of the water high enough to take out the planes. Cat and Chuck attend a meeting with the military to figure out how to kill the shark. Cat tells them that the sharks hide is too thick for normal weapons so their best bet is to destroy it from the inside. She also tells them about the shark either being attracted or angered by radio waves so they can use them to lure the shark to them. The military comes up with a plan to use a prototype tank to attack the shark and use a radio and large speakers to lure the shark to the beach. The shark is able to out maneuver the tank and destroy it and when Jackson tries to use the C4 charges attached to the radio but it fails to detonate, he orders his men to fall back. Cat grabs the radio and lures the shark towards some rocks, where it gets trapped while trying to reach her. With the shark trapped, Cat is able to throw the radio in it’s mouth then detonate it, killing the shark. When a gore covered Cat emerges from the rocks, Chuck rushes out to greet her and they walk off together. Meanwhile, Traymore Industries is given a steep fine for their use of chemicals in the water and Roger is interviewed, where he says they will accept the fine and continue to work towards drilling for more oil.

This is a ridiculous, yet fun movie to watch. The acting was good for the most part, with John Schneider (Roger), Sarah Lieving (Cat), and Tim Abell (Chuck) all did good jobs in their roles. I did think it was funny that they had Jimmie JJ Walker playing a character called Dynamite Stevens, just as an excuse to have him say his famed catchphrase over and over again. The story was ok, doing a decent job of explaining how the shark came about but only marginally handled the whole radio waves aspect of the movie. The special effects were laughably bad, especially the scenes that featured a close up of the shark killing someone on land. Meanwhile, the whole walking tank bit was absolutely ridiculous and still has me laughing every time I see it. So if you want some laughs on the utterly ridiculous side, then this movie is definitely worth watching.

Rating: 3 out of 5

October 13th, 2017 Movie – Snowbeast (2011)

So this movie kind of slipped by me. I mean, I had multiple copies of the original movie but had no idea that any sort of a remake was being made. I honestly don’t remember how I came across this movie; it was either on a horror movie site or a Facebook group. Either way, I would eventually find out about it but it took a while before I actually got around to buying it during a B-movie buying binge. Now let’s see if it was worth it as I watch today’s movie, Snowbeast (2011).

The plot: In the Canadian mountains, a kid is snowboarding down the mountains when he gets separated from his friend and ends up being stalked and killed by Yeti-like creature. Some time later, Jim Harwood heads up to Canada with his team, Marci and Rob, to study lynx up in the mountains. Jim brings his daughter Emmy with him since she was recently expelled from school, though she is less than thrilled to be there. When they arrive at their cabin, they work on getting things situated and Emmy is annoyed that she is being forced to help, prompting Jim to talk with Marci about the changes in Emmy since his wife Kim left him. Meanwhile, Park Ranger Barry is putting up missing poster for the missing snowboarder and later, goes through old missing person reports and starts plotting the area where they all went missing or where people saw some creature but his partner Gibbons thinks he is wasting his time. The next day, Jim and the others are unable to locate any of the lynx that they tagged last year so they head out to set up motion cameras and try and locate a den or two. When one of the cameras isn’t working, Rob heads back to the cabin in order to take the truck to the resort stores in order to get the supplies needed to fix it, unaware that Emmy had hidden in the back of the truck in order to sneak off to the resort. After getting his supplies, Rob runs into Barry and the two talk for a bit before Rob notices Emmy talking to a guy buy the ski lift and quickly goes and grabs her. As they head back to the cabin, Rob admonishes Emmy for sneaking off like that, then covers for her when they get back and Jim asks where she had been. As they are lounging around after dinner, Emmy asks about the tension between Marci and her father, embarrassing Jim as Marci and Rob quickly make their exits. The next day, they see no sign of anything on the cameras, though they did get video of something briefly moving through the forests during the night but did not get a clear picture of what it was. They head out to set up the last camera, with Emmy coming with them, and they find some strange tracks in the snow and wonder what it could be but don’t investigate them. That night, the creature shows up at their cabin, waking them up as it trashes one of their snowmobiles but they don’t see any sign of it. The next day, they take a look at what happened and after noticing the tracks in the snow, Marci decides to head to the ranger station and report what happened and see if there are any similar reports. While she is gone, Rob notices that the camera he fixed is still not working so he goes out with Jim to fix it, leaving Emmy to keep watch on the cameras in case something appears. Meanwhile, Barry and Gibbons are driving through the area when Barry stops the car, saying he saw something, and goes to investigate but ends up being killed by the creature. Gibbons, who was waiting in the truck, goes looking for Barry and eventually stumbles across his body before the creature kills him as well. Back at the camera, Rob gets it fixed but ends up falling through the roof of a cave and Jim goes looking for the entrance so he can help him. As they are in the cave, Emmy sees the creature moving across the camera monitors and radios her dad to warn him. Inside the cave, Jim and Rob find the body of the missing snowboarder and decide to leave, getting back to the snowmobile and making their escape before the creature can catch them. Back at the cabin, Marci is excited about the possible discovery of a new creature and wants to study it but Jim and Rob say they should leave in the morning and possibly come back with more people. Early in the morning, Marci sneaks out and goes looking for the creature but when she encounters it, she tries to run and ends up being killed. Jim wakes up and after noticing that Marci is gone, goes looking for her with Rob while leaving Marci to keep watch on the monitors for her. They find the truck but are unable to get it started, as it was damaged when the creature killed Marci, and no sign of Marci either. Meanwhile, Emmy sees the creature dragging Marci’s body on the monitors and tells Jim and Rob when they return to the cabin. Jim decides to take the snowmobile to go get help but when he spots the creature, he ends up crashing the snowmobile and getting knocked unconscious by the creature. Rob and Emmy see the smoke from the crash and head back to the truck to try and get it started but are unable to get it working so Rob grabs the tranquilizer gun from inside and they head back to the cabin. That night, the creature attacks the cabin and Rob and Emmy are forced to barricade themselves inside the upstairs bedroom. The next day, they come up with a plan to disable the creature so they can try and find Jim, using raw meat and food to lure the creature out of it’s cave and then Jim shoots it with the tranquilizer gun. After knocking the creature out, they head into the cave and find Jim and work to warm him up. When the creature returns to the cave, Jim and Emmy run for it while Rob tries to hold it off but he ends up being killed. As the creature chases after Jim and Emmy, Emmy tries shooting a flare at it but misses, which gives Jim an idea. He grabs the flare gun and shoots it at a snow bank over the creature, causing an avalanche that buries the creature, while he and Emmy manage to survive by taking cover behind a tree. Some time later, Jim and Emmy are at home and discussing how people think their stories about the creature are a hoax and Emmy wonders if the creature’s body will ever be found while back in Canada, two people are hiking through the woods when the creature bursts through a snowdrift and attacks one of them.

This was a pretty decent movie. The acting was good, with John Schneider (Jim), Paul D. Hunt (Rob), and Kari Hawker (Marci) doing good jobs in their roles. I also liked Jason London (Barry), though his appearance was pretty limited, but I thought that Danielle Churchran (Emmy) was pretty annoying, and that is despite the fact that she was playing an annoying teenager. The story was interesting, basically saying that the creature had killed all of the native wildlife and simply moved up to the next available food source, people. The special effects were about what you would expect while the creature design was pretty interesting. It’s good for a watch but not one of the better B-movies I have seen.

Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

August 11th, 2017 Movie – Shark Swarm

You know what is better than one shark movie in the Maneater series? Obviously, the answer is two shark movies in the series. So the other day I watched a newer entry into the series but today’s movie was Maneater’s first go at a shark movie. Now I never saw this when it debuted on Syfy but I probably would have been as shocked then as I was when I got the DVD to learn that this movie was 3 hours long. That is not a common occurrence with these movies. In fact, sometimes they can be hard pressed to be 90 minutes, 2 hours tops. So let’s see if the added movie length made today’s movie any better as I watch Shark Swarm.

The plot: At Northern Pacific University, Professor Bill Girdler is lecturing his class on the dangers that environmental hazards place on wildlife and the balance of nature as a whole. Meanwhile, three men under the employee of Hamilton Lux, a real estate tycoon, are dumping barrels of toxic material into the ocean near the town of Full Moon Bay in order to kill off the fish in the area. The leader of the men, Kane Markus, says they are going to dump a few more then after he takes the boat in, one of the men is supposed to go to the power plant and shut off the waste valve, as Lux has an EPA inspector coming in and doesn’t want him to discover what he is doing as the plant is supposed to be closed. Meanwhile, local fisherman Daniel “Dan” Wilder is listening on the radio as the DJ comments about the lousy fishing season this year while singing the praises of Lux, who is willing to help revitalize the town. As he and his first mate Clint get ready to sail off, they see Kane sailing past them and taunting them with the money he has made by working for Lux. When Dan’s wife Brook and daughter Kim show up to see them off and start work at the family store, Brook comments about Lux sending another contract, which Dan promptly places on a stack of similar unopened envelopes. Meanwhile, Lux arrives in town and meets with Kane and Sheriff Dexter Murray, revealing that Dexter is aware of Lux’s plan. Dan calls his brother Phillip, a professor at Northern Pacific, and tells him about a town meeting that Lux has scheduled and says they should get together to discuss the contract, as Phillip’s name is on the deed to the family store, but Phillip says he can’t as he has classes all day. Meanwhile, Davey and Weaver have sealed the pipe inside the power plant and Weaver is working on welding the underwater lid shut but unknown to them, the toxins didn’t kill the sharks but made them more aggressive and working in packs, and a swarm of sharks attack and kill Weaver. Elsewhere, Kim and Brook meet Chris and Weezer, two kids that have come to town for the surfing and Kim ends up flirting with Chris while out in the ocean. sharks continue attacking more people. At the University, Girdler talks to Phillip about his future plans and after showing him how he has gained access to satellite tracking data, he explains that he wants to do a study of the area around Full Moon Bay and wants Phillip’s help. Phillip eagerly accepts the offer and when Girdler asks about someone who knows the history of the area, he recommends they speak with Dan. Meanwhile, Dan and Clint catch some fish that are covered inside and out with a black fluid and Clint goes to throw them overboard but Dan says he wants to hold onto them, then says to head further North as a storm starts to come in. Back in town, Lux has a meeting with Amy Zuckerman, the EPA agent, and as she is going over all of his paperwork and permits, she asks him about the information regarding the power plant and he tries to stall but she is adamant about seeing them and he says he will bring them to her at her hotel that night. Back at sea, Dan and Clint come across part of the carcass of a dead whale and Dan, thinking something is strange about it, manages to pry a piece of flesh off with a boat hook to take with them. A little while later, they come across a boat belonging to Nick Atkins and Dan calls out to him but when gets no response, he decides to head aboard. After finding nobody aboard and the engine damaged, Dan tells Clint he will stay on board in case Nick shows back up while Clint goes back to town to get some help towing the boat. Back in town, Lux has Kane relay a message to Brook asking her to meet Lux for lunch the next day, as he hopes to be able to convince her to sell their property for his plans. Meanwhile, three of Phillip’s students sneak over to Lux’s building site to hang a banner to troll him but a shark grabs the safety line they are all tied to and drags them out to sea, where they are all killed. At the local bar, Phillip is having dinner with Bess and discussing his project while waiting for Dan to show up but has to leave just as Brook and Kim show up. On his way out, he briefly flirts with Amy, who had gone their for dinner. As Brook and Kim sit down with Bess, Clint arrives at the bar and tells Brook about Dan being in trouble and Kane offers to go rescue Dan after overhearing their conversation, with Clint and Brook coming with him. Back on Nick Atkin’s boat, Dan is attempting to repair the engine when he hears something bumping the boat and as he pulls up the lines, he finds Nick’s arm tangled among them. Heading back inside the cabin, Nick grabs the flare gun and fires off a flare, which allows him to see all of the sharks circling the boat. Kane’s boat shows up and Dan hugs Brook before telling her about finding Nick’s arm. Kane offers his condolences about Nick but then argues with Dan about how it was his own fault for being out there. The next morning, Amy heads out to the beach and collects some water samples while at their home, Dan and Brook are discussing the upcoming town hall meeting and what Dan will say there. Later, Dan goes to speak with Mayor Clarence before the town meeting and voices his concerns about Lux attempting to buy the entire town but Clarence doesn’t see the problem. At the town hall, Dan tries to voice the concerns to everyone but the rest of the town has already signed Lux’s contracts and wants to let him proceed. Dan rips up his contract and storms out after Lux has turned the rest of the town against him and gets angry when Brook and Phillip tell him that he should calm down. Amy goes looking around the power plant but she is found by Kane, who takes her to see Lux, where she tells him she will do her job regardless as to who she knows. Nick’s boat is towed back to the docks and as Dan and Clint examine it, Dan discovers several shark’s teeth in a hole in the boat’s hull. Dan heads to the university to show the teeth to Phillip, who confirms that they are from a great white and is concerned about the size of it based on the teeth. Meanwhile, a local beachcomber named Al is walking along the beach with his dog Maggie when they come across several beached sharks. As Al goes to collect a flask out of the teeth of one of them, the shark bites down on his hand and Maggie runs for help, bringing Kim and Chris, who were talking on the beach, to help him. Dan and Phillip arrive at the beach, due to Kim’s calling Dan, and as Phillip examines the sharks, he sees Amy examining them as well and after they properly introduce themselves, Phillip invites her back to his lab to observe the autopsy. Meanwhile, Brook goes to see Lux, who tries to persuade her to get Dan to sign the contract but after seeing the designs he has for the town, she refuses and walks out of his office. As more people are killed by the sharks in the bay, Phillip and AMy complete the autopsy and discover the shark’s brain has been fried due to severe pollution. Phillip calls a friend to ask if he still has the sonar guns he was testing for the navy and has him charge them up, then asks Amy if she would like to go with him to test them out but she says she can’t, as she plans on visiting the old power plant that night. Meanwhile, Brook tells Dan about her meeting with Lux but he gets upset about her not telling him about it and storms out, then ends up confronting Lux about it, who warns Dan that the whole town is going to end up forcing him to sell if he isn’t careful. Amy tells Phillip she is at the power plant and then sneaks over the fence to examine the grounds and nearby water. As she goes to get a water sample, she slips on the rocks and falls in, attracting the attention of a nearby swarm of sharks but before they reach her, Phillip shows up and pulls her out of the water. Phillip takes her back to his place to dry off and she tells him that she plans on denying Lux the permits he needs to finish his construction project. Daniel heads over to Phillips house, where Phillip and Amy explain what happened and they make plans to meet at the university. Once there, Phillip goes to get Girdler, who tells them the results of the blood work on the shark. Hearing that it had high doses of phosphorus in it, Dan realizes that Lux had poisoned the waters to force people to sell their land to him. After Girdler says that the lack of food plus the pollution could alter the sharks’ behavior, he alters his satellite feed to try and track the sharks only to see the massive swarm heading towards a nearby beach. Dan races off, with Phillip handing him the keys to his boat as it’s faster, but shortly after he leaves, Phillip decides to head out there to help as well. As he makes his way there, Dan calls Clint to tell him to meet him on Phillip’s boat, and learns from Girdler that the shark swarm is growing larger. Dan and Clint head out to Spivey Point and they warn the people to get out of the water. When a shark strikes the boat, Dan ends up falling into the water but is able to use the pulse gun to drive the sharks away and swim to shore. On the shore, Lux and Sheriff Dexter are tying to play the incident off as people panicking over nothing, which angers Dan. When Phillip and Amy arrive to see if Dan is ok, Lux makes a crude comment about Amy’s relationship with the Wilders before laughing as Phillip holds her back from hitting him. Later that night, Chris invites Kim to a bonfire on the beach that night while at Phillip’s house, Amy tells Phillip and Dan that Lux had his friends at the EPA pull her off of his case. Dan and Clint work on repairing the boat and as Dan is taking away the trash, he sees a truck delivering barrels of waste onto the dock. He tries calling Phillip but when he doesn’t answer, he calls Brook and has her call Dexter and tell him to come to the docks. When he gets off the phone with Brook, Dexter calls Kane to tell him that Dan is at the docks and Kane says he will take care of it, then goes and kidnaps Brook. The next morning, Kane, Tony, and Kane’s girlfriend Tia head to the dock, where they show Dan they have Brook captive and force him to head out to sea. When they get close to where Kane’ boat is anchored, Dan tries to throw their kidnappers off balance so they can fight free but Clint ends up getting shot. When they reach Kane’s boat, Kane forces Dan and Brook into a shark cage and, after cutting Dan’s arm, lowers it into the water, as they plan to make their death’s an accident. Dan and Brook manage to escape the cage and climb back onto Kane’s boat, with Dan dragging Tony into the water for the sharks to kill. When Dan and Tia go to investigate the noise, Dan and Brook start fighting with them and both Tia and Kane end up being knocked overboard and killed by the sharks. Dan tries to leave in Kane’s boat but the cable from the cage gets snared in the propeller so they are forced to use a zodiac to head back to town. Meanwhile, Kim had fallen asleep on the beach and goes to leave but Chris convinces her to stay a little longer, as he is scheduled to leave that day. Phillip and Amy arrive on the dock to find Dan’s boat missing but they soon see him and Brook pulling in on the zodiac and Dan gives a brief rundown of what happened. Girdler calls them and says that the shark swarm is breaking into 3 swarms, all heading to different parts of the area, all of which will be populated. They split up, with Dan heading to Spivey point, Phillip and Amy heading to the pier, where Lux is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony for opening the rebuilt pier, and Brook heading to the north shore, where the church is holding it’s baptisms. The sharks start to attack the different areas, with Lux being killed at the pier when he falls into the water, but Dan and the others are able to use the pulse guns to drive off the swarms and save as many people as they can. As paramedics check everyone over, Phillip tells Dan that Girdler had called and said the sharks are dispersing out to sea so the danger has passed. One year later, Dan has a new boat, named Clint’s Courage, and taken on Chris as his new first mate while Kim, who has gone to college on the East Coast, is due to come home that day. Elsewhere, Phillip and Amy are taking some of Phillip’s students on a diving excursion as part of their class assignment and they investigate the area around the sealed valve of the power plant.

As much as I love shark movies, I have to be honest that this was a little long even for me. That being said, this wasn’t that bad of a movie. The acting was good, with John Schneider (Dan), Daryl Hannah (Brook), Armand Assante (Lux), and John Enos III (Kane) all doing great jobs in their roles. The story was pretty good but due to all of the various subplots going on, it made the movie drag out and you actually end up losing interest in a lot of what is going on. The actual main plot about Lux poisoning the waters to buy out the town, resulting in the sharks being driven mad, was actually pretty good but I felt like it had been done before (I’m pretty sure I had seen a similar movie but can’t recall the title off hand). The special effects regarding the sharks were decent but some of the blue screen effects with them interacting behind people looked pretty fake. Definitely longer than you want, but worth watching.

Rating: 3 out of 5