Sharknado 2: The Second One

When Sharknado was first announced with a trailer, it sent shockwaves through the Internet.  I'm not kidding.  EVERYBODY was talking about this sucker.  It was all over twitter.  Hell, even celebrities were talking about it.  Released by The Asylum, the creator of modern-day shlock films, Sharknado was actually regarded as one of the best "bad" movies ever.  For a movie that sported terrible visual effects, hammy acting, and one of the most off-the-wall concepts ever, it actually delivered.  In spades.  Yes, the visual effects were crap, and yet, they helped make the film the modern legend that it is.  The film basically catapulted 90210 star Ian Ziering into b-movie superstar status.  I don't know how the hell it happened, but Sharknado actually wound up being more fun than most of the blockbuster movies that came out last year.

Ian Ziering returns as now-famous shark-slayer Fin Shepard, who's on his way to New York with his ex-wife, April Wexler(Tara Reid).  On the way, the airplane hits some turbulence that's loaded with...you guessed it, SHARKS!  One of the sharks punches its way into the plane and eats April's hand, while the pilot(Robert Hays)and his co-pilot get pulled out of the cockpit by more...sharks.  Fin, being the courageous fella that he is, gets into the cockpit and manages to land the plane, and by landing the plane, I mean he crashes it.  Soon, it appears that two sharknadoes are bound to collide in the middle of Manhattan, and Ian Ziering...I mean, Fin Shepard, is trying to find his brother and family and trying to get them to safety.  On the way, he has to contend with sharks in the sky, sharks in the subway, sharks in elevator shafts and sharks that are on fire.  Yes.  This movie has flaming sharks.  Screw it.  This is a Sharknado movie, you know what you're in for.

One of the things that this movie has is cameos.  Lots and lots of cameos.  One of the first ones is Robert Hays, who played Striker in the Airplane movies.  Judd Hirsch who was in Independence Day plays a cab driver, who is actually pretty funny.  There's Andy Dick as a police officer, with Al Roker and Matt Lauer as themselves.  There's just too many to list, to be honest.  I think that kind of speaks volumes about what kind of movie you're dealing with here.  It was actually hilarious to see Matt Lauer try to NOT use the word, "sharknado."  Like the previous film, there's plenty of people being munched, squashed and dismembered.  The visual effects have actually improved a little bit.  I guess instead 10 dollars, they got 12 dollars to make the movie.  In other words, the effects are still crap.  Yet, if a movie like this actually had really good special effects, it would surprisingly detract from the experience.  Make no mistake, ladies and gentleman: These movies are Mystery Science Theater 3000-worthy.

If you thought that the last movie was nuts, Sharknado 2 takes it to another level of insanity.  There is a sequence towards the end of the film, where after an explosion sends Fin flying through the air, he lands on top of a shark(how convenient)and rides the shark like a surfboard to its death.  Let me repeat that: Fin. Rides. A shark. Like a surfboard.  Hey, that could be a new catch-phrase.  Instead of, "He jumped the shark," which they reference in this movie, they could say, "He surfed the shark."  Yes, no?  So, yeah, they throw in everything AND the kitchen sink.  The music in the film is actually not awful.  It's appropriately over-dramatic.  This movie also features a song that was written for the first one:  The Ballad of Sharknado by a group called Quint.  Oh, my god.  It's awesome.  They even have a music video:



I'm not entirely sure what else I can say about this movie.  Yeah, I can tear it to shreds like most people would do, but isn't that kind of what Sharknado was going for in the first place?  It knows what kind of movie it is and it goes full steam.  The actors are TOTALLY in on the joke.  Believe it or not, they are actually planning a THIRD movie.  I don't know about you, but I'm totally on board.  I love these movies.  I have no shame.  No shame at all.  Yes these are bad movies, but they are strangely a ton of fun.  Sharknado is one of those movies that you have to laugh at what's happening on screen.  This is totally a movie for drinking games.  My final verdict:

Special effects: 2.2314/10
Acting: Ian Ziering/10
Sharks: Jumped
Overall: 9/10

Go see it.  You know you want to.