Customer Reviews

Raging Sharks

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I would not recommend this movie to anyone.Bad script,bad acting,shark attack images are very dodgy, the moving sharks are a cut and paste job from a National Geographic documentary.Don't waste your money on this.

Magic orange crystals left at the bottom of the ocean by aliens cause sharks to go into a frenzy and attack an underwater research lab.
The acting is terrible, however not even skilled actors could have done anything with this script, and the shark attacks look cheesy. My favorite character was a guy that had an english accent on occasion and an american accent must of the other time.
Don't watch this movie unless you like watching crappy movies,

RAGING SHARKS is a bottom feeder of a shark movie. Director Danny Lerner would have us believe that an alien race lost a cold fusion crystal in the ocean where sharks were driven into a killing frenzy. Sharks in fact need no motivation to do that, but here they attack helpless divers en mass. The problem is that these sharks are clearly rubber ones yet divers continually wind up in their maw. There is an underwater lab manned by the lovely Vanessa Angel who along with two other nubile female scientists oddly enough refuse to disrobe, thus removing even that incentive to watch. The subplots are intrusive: a cold fusion crystal, a secret government spy op, an American sub skippered by Corbin Bernson whose sub is bracketed by the same weird eminations from that crystal that are causing vital electronic components to go blooey. The ending, which I shall not reveal here, is one that I cannot reveal since I do not understand it. And right here you have the basic thrust: a film that makes no sense on any level.

you did see something.

I saw this movie on tv and must admit it kept me on the edge of my seat. It wasn't like other shark movies, sure it had lot's of sharks and bloody scenes but it seemed to be a turn on every corner especially the ending with a twist that I never saw before in a shark film. Guess that's why it was on Sci Fi channel.

I thought I was being beat a slow death while watching Raging Sharks, (SPOILER**that alien device in the water wasn't just making the Sharks angry**SPOILER)...this movie would not end fast enough. The action is unbelievably stale and cliche. My head weaved back and forth, as the acting and dialogue nearly put me into a coma. The only reason why I finished watching the movie is because I wouldn't give "the major rental chain" I rented this stinker from the benefit of knowing they stiffed me.

[WARNING, POSSIBLE SPOILER] The crime is that the Sharks didn't get to kill everybody.

I won't tell you not to rent or buy this...you may actually like it. I'll respect your opinion if you do...to each his own.

(I thought to myself while watching, if I hear Vanessa Angel's character utter the name Mike one more time...)

"Raging Sharks" is the worst shark movie ever made in Bulgaria. While that would seem self-evident, it's actually not, as believe it or not director Danny Lerner made the wretchedly melodramatic "Shark Zone" there in 2003 (with what appears to be the same shark puppet.) B-movie veteran Lerner came back with this vastly more peculiar shark movie two years later. For fans of bad movies, this is an absolute must-see. Let me say right off the bat that I know the movie is terrible and deserves one star (or less,) but the immense creativity, hilarious premise, and mind-boggling diversity of plotpoints in "Raging Sharks" earns it a bonus star. I have certainly never seen another movie like it.

When the movie began I swore I had put the wrong DVD in the player, as the film opens with an amazingly hokey alien spaceship experiencing an explosive calamity above the earth, subsequently plunging into the ocean, crashing into a ship in the Bermuda Triangle (!) in the process...what are the odds? Once submerged there is a huge nuclear explosion, and a mysterious cask falls to the ocean floor. Kudos to Lerner and writer Les Weldon for devising one of the most inane, yet amusing plot setups in movie history. Fast forward five years and the support ship "Paradiso" is hovering over the "Oshona" underwater research lab, which is affixed to the bottom of the sea. A storm is brewing (of course) and the immensely unlikeable and unbelievable captain of the "Paradiso" finds himself unable to communicate because they're in the Bermuda Triangle. (Ponder.) It turns out the alien cask is next to the "Oshona" and the trouble begins in earnest when a welding job is interrupted by a massive but intensely fake shark attack, in which the sharks eat the welders, and bite the electrical and oxygen lines that keep the crew alive. I was especially amused by the dizzying edits between CGI sharks, stock footage, and the shark puppet. Ed Wood would be very proud of the footage matching. As if the mismatched footage wasn't entertaining enough, I nearly laughed out loud as the footage of the diver's heads intermittently breaking the surface of the water in what is clearly a very calm tank is supposed to represent divers deep in the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of a tempest. Because of the mystical radio problems on the "Paradiso," the navy dispatches a nuclear submarine to get the crew off the "Oshona." The sub is commanded by none other than Captain Riley, Corbin Bernsen, who is clearly the best actor in the film and outclasses the material by a mile. I hope he got a good paycheck at least.

The Coast Guard is called in to assist with the search and rescue mission, and they dispatch a single engine floatplane with a mountain in the background (in the middle of the ocean?) filmed on a beautiful sunny day. Recall that they are there because the storm is so ferocious. I sincerely think this may be the worst film matching I have ever seen in any movie from any era. Meanwhile, back on "Oshona," ludicrous interpersonal conflicts flare. You might take sides, except all the characters are equally unlikeable, especially bossy Linda (Vanessa Angel) and drunken Harvey (Bernard van Bilderbeek.) While arguments rage onboard "Oshona," though precious little actually gets done, a terrible shark attack on the Bermudian beaches occurs. It is reminiscent of a much better shark movie you may have seen, and in the history of cinematic sharks attacking beaches, it has never been done worse.

Onboard the submarine with Bernsen is star Corin Nemec as Dr. Mike Olsen; to his credit Nemec turns in a good performance here despite the quality of the underlying material. Mike is the commander and chief researcher from the "Oshona" and is going back to rescue the inhabitants, including his wife Linda. (Groan....Just wait till you get a load of the dialogue about wanting to settle down that passes for backstory for these two.) Also onboard is a bad guy, Ben Stiles (Todd Jensen,) an agent from the fictitious Marine Oceanic Agency (MOA.) Stiles is clearly the antagonist and is there to investigate the accident. Information is developed through a wholly plausible methodology that the alien cask contains orange crystals that have unusual properties, and that the sharks are guarding the cask. (I told you there was a lot going on here.) After the best moment in the film when a shark devours a boat full of self-important television reporters, the film gets back to tensions on the "Oshona" and the sub. Without warning the alien pod somehow makes the submarine catch fire, accompanied by much hilarious faux jargon about electrical overloads and the like.

Drama ensues as Mike has to swim outside the "Oshona" to open an oxygen valve (this seems like an inherent design flaw, but never mind.) To prevent his certain death by pointy teeth, Riley fires a torpedo at the sharks (!) to allow Mike a chance to survive, while cartoonishly intoxicated Harvey steals the rescue submersible and leaves the "Oshona." Wait! What? Why didn't they just use the rescue submersible in the first place? Harvey is rewarded for his antisocial behavior in an entirely predictable way, while onboard "Oshona" Stiles goes missing and starts poking his nose into stuff. In short order the station scientist Jonas (Jonas Talkington) is found murdered, and it becomes a murder mystery in the lab: I guess there were just not enough loose ends in the plot to tie up. Upon further investigation, Riley and Mike discover that the MOA has no record of a Ben Stiles, which leads to my question: how did he get on a nuclear submarine? Stiles turns out to be an agent for the ultra-elite government agency J-12, goes on the warpath, entering the "Oshona" control room with a machine gun spewing bullets. (How did he get it onboard undetected?) There is a lot of scenery chewing from Stiles ("We own whatever we want!") because the alien crystals turn out to be cold fusion fuel ("They're hydrogen isotopes charged with thermal neutrons!") Every cliché plays out in short order: the good guys get the gun but fail to shoot Stiles, there's a love story in a time of crisis, there's only 30 minutes of oxygen left (yet fires are smoldering,) etc.

After a spear gun versus ax fight, Stiles meets the fate that was a given from the moment he spoke his first line of dialogue, Mike improvises an SOS, another spaceship shows up to recover the crystals to an operatic aria, blowing up the "Oshona" in the process and everyone dies. As the credits get ready to roll...wait! There's a total surprise! Someone's pounding on the outside hatch of the submerged submarine which is moving along at a breakneck pace! They open the hatch to find (can you guess?) Mike and Linda. Linda isn't breathing, so Mike gives her mouth to mouth and then she's perfectly fine. The hilarious epilogue explains why the sharks were protecting the cask for the aliens, and love is rekindled on the submarine. Then the credits really do roll.

This is one of the most implausible, worst creature-gone-amok movies I can remember, and I have seen a lot from this genre. The acting is universally terrible (except Bernsen and Nemec,) the script is awful, the story is borderline incomprehensible with so many pointless subplots swimming around that it's a huge baffling cinematic cauldron. The special effects are generally abysmal, although oddly the submarine set is actually quite nicely detailed. The extras include a trailer and an amusing 13 minute long "Behind the Scenes" feature which does its best to explain what's going on in this jumbled mess. Rating this is hard: as a sincere drama or action movie, it's utterly laughable, yet I can't bring myself to give it one star because it is so beyond ludicrous that it is entertaining for fans of grade-Z sci fi.

If you want to see a Bulgarian shark movie with aliens, UFOs, government conspiracies, and a little romance, this is pretty much the only game in town. And that's a good thing.

Hell, it's not even Piranha. But my friends and I did have fun with it. Look for a cameo from Corbin Bernsen as the sub commander.

Also, Aliens!?! Ok, maybe you should see it.

I bought this for someone else but the person I bought it for likes it.

This was a fast paced movie that leaves you on the edge of your seat! This movie should have been titled JAWS 5! The sharks were bad-ass and the attacks make you not want to go in the water! The acting was excellent as were the characters. I highly recommend.

Lets face it, this is no Jaws, not to bad but certainly not a hit.