By Arvin Santiago
As a person that has willingly watched the first two Sharknado films, I was a little bit shocked to hear that there was a 4th film (Yes, you read that correctly, there’s a 4th Sharknado film) and the first thing I asked myself was… “There was a 3rd one?”
According to Syfy:
“SHARKNADO: THE 4th AWAKENS takes place five years after the East Coast was ravaged in last summer’s SHARKNADO 3: OH HELL NO!. “Fin Shepard” (Ian Ziering), his family and the cosmos have been blissfully sharknado-free in the intervening years, but now more sharks – and ‘nados! – are being whipped up in the least expected places (and ways). Tara Reid returns as “April Wexler” along with David Hasselhoff as “Gil Shepard,” and Ryan Newman as “Claudia Shepard.”) New additions to theSHARKNADO: THE 4TH AWAKENS cast include Gary Busey, Tommy Davidson, Imani Hakim, Cody Linley, Masiela Lusha and Cheryl Tiegs. “Fin” enlists even more help from some new friends in his determined fight to protect the world from the sharknado menace.”
Sharknado 4 opens up with a very familiar Star Wars opening crawl which gives us a breakdown of what we can expect from this movie. From there we are introduced to Fin Shepard, who’s living what seems to be a peaceful life in Kansas. His cousin Gemini (Masiela Lusha) arrives to pick him up so they can head to Las Vegas for a family reunion. Tommy Davidson also stars in the film, playing a tech-billionaire named Aston Reynolds, who’s created a new hotel called Shark World, which of course is filled with sharks. A sand storm then appears and all hell breaks loose, as Las Vegas is suddenly overrun by flying sharks. Fin and his friends fight their way through the state as Sharknadoes begin to appear in different parts of the country.
From the very first minute, you can tell that, just like previous Sharknado films, this is a movie that can’t be taken seriously. In fact, if you can get past the first ten minutes, then consider yourself a hero. Asylum Entertainment has created a formula that they continue to build on.
As the movie progresses forward, the sharknadoes get bigger and bigger, and so do the cameos. It seems that every time Asylum creates a Sharknado film, they dig deep down inside the bag of B-list celebrities to see who they can add to their ever growing roster, and this time around they’ve added the likes of Andre “Black Nerd” Meadows (YouTube star), Carrot Top, DeStorm Power (YouTube/Vine star), Gilbert Gottfried (comedian), Seth Rollins (WWE Superstar), Steve Guttenberg (“Colton West” “Lavalantula” “2 Lava 2”), Hayley Hasselhoff , Taylor-Ann Hasselhoff, iJustine (You Tube star), Roy Nelson (MMA fighter), Paul Shaffer, Duane Chapman (“Dog the Bounty Hunter”), Stacey Dash, David Faustino, Frank Mir (MMA fighter), Wayne Newton (aka Mr. Las Vegas), Dr. Drew Pinsky (“Loveline”). Each lent around five minutes of their time and lacked any acting ability.
Trying to write a deserving review of Sharknado 4 is quite the difficult task. As I’ve stated before, this is a film that does not take itself on a serious note. When terms such as Fire-nado, Nuke-nado and oil-nado get tossed around, you can’t help but laugh and shake your head at the cheesiness. There were times during the film where I had to check my watch to see how much time was left in the 80 minute or so run-time. I’ll admit I occasionally enjoy cheap and cheesy films. There’s a certain nuance in watching a movie that’s done so poorly that you can’t help but admire the creator’s vision and determination to make the film. But that’s not what I get with Sharknado. What I get watching this movie is a certain level of embarrassment, the embarrassment for these actors who subjugate themselves to this level of filmmaking just to make a buck, but I get it. I understand that Asylum continues to make these movies to cater to its fanbase. Yes, there is a Sharknado fanbase.
In the end Sharknado: The 4th Awakens delivers nothing but sheer disappointment in a franchise that needs to know when to quit. The plot of the movie looks as if it was pieced together by throwing darts at a board riddled with random ideas. The acting is sub-par and the CGI is astoundingly terrible. Will we see the end of Sharknado films anytime soon, most likely not. As long as bottom-of-the-barrel celebrities and YouTube personalities have a week to kill and don’t require big paychecks like Robert Downey Jr or Chris Evans, then we can definitely look forward to more Sharknado films. Sharknado: The 4th Awakens is one that I can confidentially say you should skip.
Rating: 1/5 Atoms
from Nerd Reactor
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