Despite my general dislike for SyFy movies, I did tune in to Jersey Shore Shark Attack to see how it would parody one of the biggest nadirs of any TV programme of recent times. I wouldn't say Jersey Shore Shark Attack is a great movie, but I find it more watchable and entertaining than the show. There are some saving graces, some decent scenery, the clever Jaws theme queue during Quint's speech, the brief performance of Joey Fatone and his death scene and the more than admirable performance of Jack Scaglia who has always come across as conscientious no matter how bad the film is. However, I can't say much about the rest of the cast. Paul Sorvino doesn't have that much to do and phones in his performance, while Tony Sirico and William Atherton's turns are not bad in performance but all too brief to make a bigger impression.
The Jersey Shore cast act in a very exaggerated fashion, and in the case of Vinny Guadagnino and the girl playing Snooki annoyingly so in alternative to hilariously. The sharks don't fare much better either sadly, their designs are some of the phoniest I've seen in any SyFy movie recently and they are not very menacing. They don't seem to move very naturally, I wasn't sure whether it was the fault of the editing, which was choppy, or the sharks themselves, but there seemed to be a lot of jumping around in their later scenes especially. The death scenes have been worse in previous movies definitely, but they're still rather predictable and lacking tension(Fatone's was the best one), and I was disappointed that the annoying characters weren't killed off.
Anybody expecting dumb, blatantly silly storytelling and logic being thrown out the window won't be disappointed in Jersey Shore Shark Attack. There are two instances involving the sharks where you do have to suspend disbelief, one where you are told that in order to kill a shark you shoot through its left eye as it's the eye of the devil, and another where you learn that a shark can be killed by being shot through its fin. And then there are sub-plots that are not only not that interesting but make the characters more unlikeable than they already are, such as the slobs vs. snobs subplot. It does deserve credit though that unlike other SyFy movies the pacing doesn't manage to be dull. The characters are deliberate caricatures certainly, but because the performances are so exaggerated and stereotypical I did find it hard to care for them.
In regard to the dialogue, that is also very corny that is full of Jersey-ese and supposedly tongue-in-cheek catchphrases, that depending on who you are may make you tear your hair out in irritation. I do agree that the basic tone of the film does feel like a genre movie rather than part of SyFy's output, though there is enough of SyFy's notorious trademarks(ie. the special effects) to remind us that it is actually SyFy. Overall, I didn't find Jersey Shore Shark Attack a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but I did find it entertaining, even if it is often stupid with annoying characters, blatant silliness in both the story and script and cheap effects. 4/10 Bethany Cox
The Jersey Shore cast act in a very exaggerated fashion, and in the case of Vinny Guadagnino and the girl playing Snooki annoyingly so in alternative to hilariously. The sharks don't fare much better either sadly, their designs are some of the phoniest I've seen in any SyFy movie recently and they are not very menacing. They don't seem to move very naturally, I wasn't sure whether it was the fault of the editing, which was choppy, or the sharks themselves, but there seemed to be a lot of jumping around in their later scenes especially. The death scenes have been worse in previous movies definitely, but they're still rather predictable and lacking tension(Fatone's was the best one), and I was disappointed that the annoying characters weren't killed off.
Anybody expecting dumb, blatantly silly storytelling and logic being thrown out the window won't be disappointed in Jersey Shore Shark Attack. There are two instances involving the sharks where you do have to suspend disbelief, one where you are told that in order to kill a shark you shoot through its left eye as it's the eye of the devil, and another where you learn that a shark can be killed by being shot through its fin. And then there are sub-plots that are not only not that interesting but make the characters more unlikeable than they already are, such as the slobs vs. snobs subplot. It does deserve credit though that unlike other SyFy movies the pacing doesn't manage to be dull. The characters are deliberate caricatures certainly, but because the performances are so exaggerated and stereotypical I did find it hard to care for them.
In regard to the dialogue, that is also very corny that is full of Jersey-ese and supposedly tongue-in-cheek catchphrases, that depending on who you are may make you tear your hair out in irritation. I do agree that the basic tone of the film does feel like a genre movie rather than part of SyFy's output, though there is enough of SyFy's notorious trademarks(ie. the special effects) to remind us that it is actually SyFy. Overall, I didn't find Jersey Shore Shark Attack a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but I did find it entertaining, even if it is often stupid with annoying characters, blatant silliness in both the story and script and cheap effects. 4/10 Bethany Cox