Sharknado 2: The Second One (2014)

Shark Tale

Director: Anthony C. Ferrante
Running Time: 90 minutes
Starring: Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Vivicia A. Fox, Mark McGrath, Kari Wuhrer


Last year, the notorious Asylum unleashed a film named Sharknado upon an unsuspecting public. It rapidly became a phenomenon, due to the widespread live tweeting that was taking place, and due to how hilariously awful it all was. As a result, a sequel was rushed out of the gate, resulting in exactly what you'd expect after seeing the first film.

Fin (Ziering) and April (Reid) are on a plane to New York City, when it gets caught in the midst of a Sharknado. After escaping this ordeal alive, Fin must warn the residents of New York, save his family and put a stop to this unnatural catastrophe.

You'd think that after the immense popularity of its predecessor, this film would have received a larger budget, but the sight of the poorly rendered CG returning leaves you to believe otherwise. Another element which unfortunately returns is the poor acting, as Tara Reid turns the ability to convey human emotions into a near-impossible task to be saved for Hercules' 12 Labours.

Screenwriter Thunder Levin chooses to thrust the viewers into the lives of new characters, including a friendly taxi driver, Fin's nice brother in-law that he hates for weak reasons, a washed up baseball player and Fin's ex-girlfriend. All of these new characters seem to not bring one crucial element to their characters, and that is a reason as to why we should give a damn about any of them. But to be fair, there isn't many reasons to care for returning characters either.

Fin readies himself to attack the poor CG shark

Director Anthony C. Ferrante tries to distract the viewers from the poor writing by including needless cameos of washed up celebrities, including Kelly Osborne and Jared from Subway, but this just serves to be a reminder of how unfocused a mess this all is. It is worth noting that The Asylum has more guts than Hollywood to show an interracial kiss without making it a big deal, with memories of Hancock coming to mind.

Things come to a head in the ridiculous climax, where Fin concocts a plan that is incoherent, stupid and just an excuse to get the citizens of New York city to join in with the Shark killing fun. This leads to a ridiculous sequence which shows these citizens turn into killing machines when confronted with falling Sharks, and shows an alarming rate of citizens who keep weapons in their cars.

Throughout all of the idiocies, there are plenty of ridiculous moments that are worth enjoying. Be it the head of The Statue of Liberty being used as a bowling ball that chases a group of female characters, flaming sharks raining down upon casually walking citizens, a shark that gets thrown into a pizzeria oven or Ian Ziering playing Frogger on a couple of sharks, it seems there is no shortage of stupid moments that bring a great deal of fun.

There's much fun to be had with the ridiculous moments of Sharknado 2: The Second One, but it can't mask all that is wrong, which equates to just about everything.