Sharknado is a film that ignited a Twitter storm when it first premiered on the SyFy channel earlier this summer.
The movie openly embraces its B-movie roots and the ridiculousness of its story, promoting itself as the sort of film you get your friends to come over and watch while consuming lots and lots of alcohol.
Plus, it’s titled Sharknado.
If I need to explain the plot of Sharknado to you, let me make your life a little bit simpler by telling you this: don’t watch this film, available now on Blu-ray. It’s not for you. As for everyone else, I’m sure you’re either extremely excited to buy into the awesome ridiculous nature of a film like this or you’re curious as far as whether it’s worth ninety minutes of your life.
A film like Sharknado is tough to review since it inhabits a reality where serious criticism or discussions about art and the meaning of it all equate to zilch. However, despite said difficulty, I shall carry on.
There’s a distinct reason Sharknado works and its due to the script, director, actors and camera grips. In order to make a flick like this succeed, everybody needs to know the kind of tongue-in-cheek greatness it was going for. Luckily, you can tell everybody from the catering person to lead actor Ian Ziering knew exactly the kind of movie Sharknado was.
Sharknado comes equipped with cheap and funny one liners, ridiculous plot points, giant plot holes fully acknowledged, slow motion shots that include sharks and chainsaws and … need I say more?
Beyond those points, Sharknado has actors that understand the material and seem to embrace it in their performances without completely getting stuck on Ham Island. Ziering is probably the best part about the movie. He gives a tongue-in-cheek performance of the macho hero but never overdoes it to the point where he’s not playing a character we can root for.
On another note, I don’t really want to give this movie serious props beyond being an enjoyable B-flick, but I thought the film actually had a cool theme running through it about self-reliance and survival. The main characters often need to convince oblivious California residents that they can’t just wait around for the government and must take care of themselves. It was interesting to see in a flick like this.
If you really want to enjoy Sharknado for all its worth then follow these instructions to a T: invite some close friends over, grab lots of alcoholic beverages, open your Twitter handle on your phone and sit back and forget about everything going on in the world. For 90 minutes your only concern will be the very serious environmental issue of sharknadoes, and that’s pretty cool.
There’s not much criticism I can lob at Sharknado except this: there are not enough sharks. Maybe there were budget constraints, but the movie felt like it was missing some really cool, close-up shots of the sharknado. Then again, there are some fantastic shark kills in this movie that go beyond tongue-in-cheek into a realm of awesomeness few films shall ever reach.
The Blu-Ray contains a commentary track, gag reel and behind the scenes footage which all suggest the kind of movie the cast and crew were going for, and also confirms that they succeeded.
Note: As our very own Greg Gutfeld pointed out on his Twitter when Sharknado premiered, sharknadoes are not common and very few have died from them. However, they are serious disasters not to be taken lightly. Please do your research and prepare appropriately. Your family will thank you when the time comes.