Although slightly embarrassing, I have to confess that since SyFy started showing ridiculous monster movies like MEGA SHARK VS GIANT OCTOPUS, MEGA PYTHON VS GATOROID and SHARKNADO, I’ve been on cloud nine. I’m fully aware that they are awful and quite painful to watch, but there’s just something about giant animals battling it out and sharks combined with tornadoes that puts a big smile on my face. Plus you get the added bonus of watching things like large sea-life use the ocean as their playground, or former pop sensation Tiffany going head-to-head with former pop sensation Debbie Gibson (MEGA PYTHON VS GATOROID if you’re interested) and silly dialogue like, ” We can’t just wait here for sharks to rain down on us..” Now with all that said, if you are going to go down the rabbit hole of bad sci-fi movies, then just stick with the original SHARKNADO, as SHARKNADO 2: THE SECOND ONE is so bad that it’s more boring than fun to watch.
SHARKNADO 2: THE SECOND ONE picks up about one year after a huge Sharknado tore apart Los Angeles but was defeated (you read that correctly) by our hero Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering). Fin and his ex-wife April (Tara Reid) are on a plane to New York to visit family and promote April’s book “How to Survive a Sharknado”. Suddenly, in the middle of the flight a big storm that is chalk full of sharks collides with the plane and Fin has to do an emergency landing. Thus begins the assault on the Big Apple via two sharknadoes that are about to collide.
SHARKNADO 2: THE SECOND ONE is a very bad movie. The first SHARKNADO was so bad that it was good, but the sequel is just plain terrible. That’s not surprising since the movie is a sequel to another mediocre movie, but really the directors and writers just went so over the top with the plot and dialogue that the entire thing just ended up being so stupid and ridiculous that it was almost unwatchable. It became quite dull to watch random people lose their head or top half of their body from a flying shark. The concept sounds fun, but it was just too overused.
Even having such superstars like Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Mark McGrath and Vivica A. Fox (note the sarcasm) on board, the film was a snoozefest. The production team tried to spice up the film by adding a bunch of cameos, but some of them were so obscure that I’m guessing the majority of the population missed them completely.
The thing with these types of movies is that they should be kind of a one hit wonder, but when something is as successful as SHARKNADO, it’s only natural that sequels will follow. However, when you use a gimmick like combining sharks with tornadoes, it’s very difficult to pull off a sequel with enough originality to make it worthwhile. With that said, look for SHARKNADO 3 to be coming to a television near you next year. If you’ve come this far then you might as well watch it, but I wouldn’t bother buying these sequels.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: The transfer to Blu-ray is fine, but if you’re looking for good production quality then you should go elsewhere.
Audio: The audio comes through fine on the Blu-ray.
Audio Commentary with director Anthony C. Ferrante, Tara Reid and Ian Ziering: If you are a fan of the film then this is worth a listen, as these guys have some interesting information to give.
Audio Commentary with director Anthony C. Ferrante, writer Thunder Levin, Editor Ana Florit and Visual Effects Supervisor Emile Smith: Another decent commentary as these guys hit on some of the casting choices, homage scenes, details to the story, etc. Again, if you are a fan of the film then this is worth the watch.
The Making of Sharknado 2 (10:40): A typical making of featurette that covers the story, characters, shooting in NYC, etc.
Chomp: The Evolution of Sharknado 2 Visual Effects (4:10): A more detailed look into the visual effects of the film.
Shark Chum: From the Cutting Room Floor (8:35): A handful of deleted scenes that are mildly amusing.
Cameos: I Can’t Believe They Got…(10:58): A bit about all the cameos and how they managed to get some of them.
Gag Reel (5:37): Typical gag reel, nothing special.
Trailers
