Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (Movie Review)
(SPOILERS BELOW!!!)
Sharknado succeeded in being a surprise Internet hit and Sharknado 2: The Second One continued the trend by becoming a self aware b-list slaughter that topped the first one in absurdity while still remaining a pretty fun watch. Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! wants to take the action in further and go even bigger. The script calls for massive destruction on a larger level. Think all of Earth...and space! Sharknado 3 starts making you think the idea of a sharknado is a little less absurd than say Mark Cuban being the president of the United States. While the opening portion of the movie is meant to be another no holds barred, over the top sharkfest like the opening for Sharknado 2 it doesn't hit quite as strong as the intro to Sharknado 2 which saw Ian Ziering and Tara Reid battling sharks on an airplane. This time it focuses on Ian Ziering and Mark Cuban taking on sharks in what at times feels like a direct-to-dvd sequel of White House Down. Mark McGrath reprises his role. It's nice to see him back in this one. Honestly I thought the intro was pretty solid for the movie and it does a really good job of being over the top, funny, and action filled. Some of the b-list stars that show up in the opening sequence are pretty good inclusions in the film. After that opening sequence the movie settles into itself and has some pretty mixed results.
Sharknado 3 hasn't lost all of its bite. Ziering still gives it all he's got and his acting chops anchor the movie as he continues to make his character Fin likable and fun to watch. Any time he picks up a chainsaw and goes at swirling sharks it's still a highlight of the film whether it's against a shark in the Twister ride at Universal or just out on the open road. Cassie Scerbo returns as Nova and she's turned into a doomsday style shark hunter since her appearance in the first film. She plays off Ziering well and helps him anchor the movie and handle most of the high octane action. Frankie Muniz plays her partner Lucas and also delivers a pretty funny scene. He has one of the better, laughable deaths of the movie. Fin meets up with Nova and Lucas on his way from D.C. to Orlando to meet up with his wife, daughter, and mother-in-law who are in the midst of, yeah you guessed it, another sharknado. They have a pretty funny shark vs Nascar scene on the way there that worked pretty well.
Now the rough parts of the film mostly occur in the latter half as it becomes a little to clunkily written. Yeah, the first two are clunkily written as well but the first two felt more fun where this third one just didn't at times. David Hasselhoff takes up a lot of screen time as Fin's astronaut dad towards the end and it's just too dialogue heavy and boring. There's not enough sharks! Honestly watching sharks eat b-list actors is great, but watching b-list actors try and deliver a-list acting with d-list writing can actually be really bad at times. Not entertainingly bad...just bad. There are some scenes that try to be a little too seriously heartfelt that go over so poorly. They aren't funny. I'm not even sure they were meant to be funny. They are really just there.
Basically any part of this movie with Tara Reid's character or her acting feel so poor. You almost feel bad making fun of it. Most of her big scenes take place in the second part of the movie. Viewers are lucky that she's quarantined off for some quick walk around Universal with her mom (Bo Derek) while on the phone with Fin scenes in the beginning. Her acting and what was written for her for the part is rough in this one and how she handles her character's pregnancy is pretty laughable as well. Again, not laughable in a good way. Her character runs around pregnant battling sharks, spinning in a Universal Studio globe, hanging on towers with her robot arm (which she acquired due to events in the second movie), going to space, and then finally delivering the baby inside a shark. All the while not really seeming to mind she's you know pregnant. The over the top additions to her storyline feel way too forced like they were included to just have something, anything for Reid's character to do. They often times don't come off as funny. The scenes for Bo Derek and Tara Reid while waking around Universal feel super boring in my opinion. The use of her robot chainsaw arm also feels a little like, okay we get it she's got a robot chainsaw arm that she's really not doing anything all that awesome with. It was very underwhelming. It's a shame because the writers could have axed the pregnancy idea and sent Reid to work against sharks with that awesome arm!
It's not surprising that fans will get to choose whether she lives or dies in a fan chosen ending for the upcoming Sharknado 4. I'm hoping many fans are voting Reid off the next one and Scerbo's Nova gets the lead lady position (sorry Tara Reid). The clunky end portion is highlighted by a lightsaber-esque chainsaw which Fin uses to take on some space sharks. When that happened it kind of saved the ending from disaster and delivered a nice last few minutes. Fans are left knowing that Sharknado isn't done yet and that a fourth one is on the way. Let's just hope the ocean still has a few sharks left!
Overall, Sharknado still mostly delivers after three movies into its franchise. It's become b-list actor cameo ridden and product placement heavy three movies in, but in a way that wasn't as fun as the first two. The first two are better, but the third one still delivers some decent scenes. I won't lie; three movies into the franchise the sharknado is losing a little of its steam. It definitely feels like the franchise has used about three quarters of their fuel and pretty soon they'll be running on fumes. This one definitely felt hard to watch in a few spots. After going this big I'm really interested to see what Sharknado 4 will do. I do think the surprise hit of SyFy continues to be a fun summer watch. The script for this one was pretty uneven, but for a made for TV summer b-movie it's basically what you'd probably expect. They show a b-list actor and then we watch them get eaten. It is either fun or overdone. The verdicts still out in my opinion. I guess it really just depends on the quality of the b-list actor getting eaten. The movie has a fun time parodying itself as well as other known films or Hollywood tropes. We get a Twister scene, the space scene feels a little like Gravity, and the intro did feel a little like White House Down. Ziering's Fin is the hero of TV summer once again and he continues to show he's willing to fight sharknados until people stop watching!
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