Dinoshark

Anchor Bay Entertainment

R4 DVD

Jaws has a lot to answer for. Since that film sharks have become cold merciless killers of the sea, not cute and cuddly fish just out for a good time. Sure, they may have taken a nibble on the odd surfer but that was probably just to see if they were edible. Probably. Now Roger and Julie Corman have given us another take on sharks. Recently we looked at their shark film, Sharktopus, as an example of Corman’s shameless B-movie style. With Dinoshark he has confirmed that. In fact, it borrows so much from Sharktopus that it may as well be a sequel. It is as if Corman has decided to have a second go at Sharktopus and given the monster a new look.

The Dinoshark is a creature from the Jurassic, finally released from the Arctic ice as global warming melts its glacier prison. What it was doing on a glacier instead of in the sea is not explained. Being a bit peckish after thousands of years it dines on a lone yachtsman then heads south to warmer waters. It finds its way to a resort town in Mexico, just like Sharktopus, where there are lots of bikini-clad meals. It may even be the same resort town from Sharktopus, so the locals must be feeling a bit picked on by now. Nevertheless they ignore a sighting by one of the local boaties (and smuggler) who swears that the creature he saw eating people and their boats was definitely not the tiger shark that the police think it is.

Dinoshark now goes on a killing and feeding rampage, as such monsters do. Corman gives us lots of blood and guts, plenty of bikinis, and a death rate that threatens to depopulate the town. Like Sharktopus the Dinoshark then heads upriver to a tourist resort where it gets a few more snacks. It also eats a police helicopter that it drags from the air. Helicopters are a popular snack food for marine monsters. The boatie and his attractive, briefly-clad girlfriend are hot on the trail when they get a call from the world’s only Dinoshark expert who is, naturally, in town at the time. The expert is played by Corman himself. He gives the couple the bad news that Dinoshark has an armoured hide and can only be attacked through the one weak spot in its head, its eye socket.

Now we know how it’s going to end, Dinoshark heads back towards the open sea. It stops briefly to feed at a marine regatta where an all-girl water polo team is competing, then heads out to sea to meet its fate.

The plot is familiar and predictable. The acting is OK but not great. The effects range from good (underwater shots of the shark) to woeful (it cruises the river at the speed of a motorboat but doesn’t leave a ripple). The characters are two-dimensional. But in this genre those are not necessarily bad points. It gives us a simple, fast moving film with lots of bikinis and blood that is not going to challenge the mind but is actually very, very funny. Corman simply gives us a film that is great entertainment in his true B-grade style.

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