Dinoshark DVD Movie Review
Dinoshark DVD Movie Review
Directed by Kevin O'Neill, starring Eric Balfour, Iva Hasperger, Aaron Diaz, Dan Golden, Roger Corman
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Looks like it's been quite a fall from HBO's "Six Feet Under" to SyFy Channel's six leagues under the CGI-sea for headliner Eric Balfour in Dinoshark. But actors have to eat too, right? (Even in character, he says, "It's the first time I tasted food made with love.")
Dinoshark is definitely hungry. As the wholly computer-generated giant mutant fish does a Flipper-like happy dance in the air after scooping up his screaming snacks, you can practically see him licking his chops. It's a fake sea monster with personality, at least.
I wish I could say the same for the movie. While I thoroughly enjoyed the other recent Roger Corman produced crap/camp fest, Sharktopus, Dinoshark barely treads water over its 90-minute running time. At any rate, aquatic mutant terror seems to be something of a special obsession for director Kevin O'Neill, whose only other feature, from 2004, is Dinocroc. Also, his special effects company, Flat Earth, recently worked on the Piranha remake.
Balfour isn't too terrible in the flick, and neither is Corman in his overstuffed cameo as a cracked sci-guy (however his appearance here isn't nearly as much fun as the one in Sharktopus), but everyone else is blisteringly bad. Some of them look as though they are reading cue-cards as they slog through the paint-by-numbers plot.
Balfour plays Trace McGraw, once a local boy who made good and now returns home to find himself at the center of a government cover up and in the orbit of quasi-Euro bombshell Carol Brubaker (Iva Haspberger). Brubaker is not only the girls' water polo team coach, she's also a Princeton summa cum laude (don't worry, this all comes in handy later). There's the requisite villainous local mover-and-shaker who insists some kind of show go on, even after the deadly Dinoshark's domain is discovered in the town's watery backyard (hello, Jaws rip-off), throwing the tourist population into chum.
Don't get me wrong — Dinoshark has its moments. Unfortunately, there not enough of them.
The DVD features commentary from Roger and (co-producer and wife) Julie Corman, plus a trailer for the TV movie, which aired on SyFy about a year ago. There are also trailers for Sharktopus, Dinocroc vs. Supergator, Cyclops, Turbulent Skies, and Roger Corman's Cult Classics.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson