"Jersey Shore Shark Attack" opens with a stylized introduction to some of the main characters straight out of a spaghetti western which is indicative of the unexpected effort put into the quality of the film. It does not really deliver beyond what you expect with the title. Despite that, the film recognizes its own limitations and fully embraces both the Jersey Shore and Shark Attack parts of its heritage. Jersey Shore has faded from the spotlight so there may be some novelty if you have not seen an episode lately.
The introduction leads you to believe there will be realized characters who face off in a struggle of some kind. That sort of happens. The film has a class conflict backdrop many working class people can relate to. The guidos, as they are called and call themselves, are the tanned Jersey natives who have lived in the area for at least a century. They speak like the TV stereotypes they are, style their hair every which way and wear beach clothes all the time. Preppy, rich non-guidos exclusively inhabit yachts and never tire of picking on the guidos' slovenly lifestyle.
Sharks attack indiscriminately due to vibrations caused by the construction of a fancy boardwalk. No one approved an ordinance variation. The guidos have to save their hometown and the preps too. The film hints at personal conflict between some of the preps and guidos without much exploration. A few tweaks to the script would have been helpful to gel the shark plot with the class conflict one. The film feels like an episode of the TV show forced into the middle of a lame shark movie.
The sharks look so bad it must have been intentional. I'm talking 1990s type bad CGI. The film doesn't even bother to show the sharks interacting with the actors often. Instead we see the CGI shark below water then the victim drop below the surface as red food dye fills the water. Thankfully, the actors have some fun with fireworks and harpoon guns to kill them.
In spite of its flaws, "Jersey Shore Shark Attack" stands out as one of the better themed made for TV shark efforts. The actors are talented enough to run through the jokes which are spread out enough not to become tiresome. The rest is just a standard Jaws ripoff with Jack Scalia as Chief Brody and Paul Sorvino as the mayor. You could do better and a whole lot worse.
The introduction leads you to believe there will be realized characters who face off in a struggle of some kind. That sort of happens. The film has a class conflict backdrop many working class people can relate to. The guidos, as they are called and call themselves, are the tanned Jersey natives who have lived in the area for at least a century. They speak like the TV stereotypes they are, style their hair every which way and wear beach clothes all the time. Preppy, rich non-guidos exclusively inhabit yachts and never tire of picking on the guidos' slovenly lifestyle.
Sharks attack indiscriminately due to vibrations caused by the construction of a fancy boardwalk. No one approved an ordinance variation. The guidos have to save their hometown and the preps too. The film hints at personal conflict between some of the preps and guidos without much exploration. A few tweaks to the script would have been helpful to gel the shark plot with the class conflict one. The film feels like an episode of the TV show forced into the middle of a lame shark movie.
The sharks look so bad it must have been intentional. I'm talking 1990s type bad CGI. The film doesn't even bother to show the sharks interacting with the actors often. Instead we see the CGI shark below water then the victim drop below the surface as red food dye fills the water. Thankfully, the actors have some fun with fireworks and harpoon guns to kill them.
In spite of its flaws, "Jersey Shore Shark Attack" stands out as one of the better themed made for TV shark efforts. The actors are talented enough to run through the jokes which are spread out enough not to become tiresome. The rest is just a standard Jaws ripoff with Jack Scalia as Chief Brody and Paul Sorvino as the mayor. You could do better and a whole lot worse.