Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens

Just like we'd come to expect from the series, SHARKNADO 4: THE 4TH AWAKENS is campy B-movie-esque fun. A ton of crappy CGI, tacky one-liners and over-the-top acting.

Watch it only after you've seen the other three installments, and only if you liked those. This one definitely caters for fans. No time is spent whatsoever introducing any of the characters—everything is taken for granted.

If you do like the series, you're up for all kinds of -nados this time, bouldernados, sandnados ... lots of deliberate play with its own themes, infused with self-aware irony. I enjoyed watching this, although as far as B-movies go, I don't like the fact that they're now making a "B-movie" for the sake of making B-movie... while also catering to a mainstream audience. Some of the genuineness of true B-movies is definitely lost.

The first two 'Sharknado' movies were not great and had a lot wrong with them, but they were guilty pleasure fun as long as not taken seriously. 'Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!' however was a let-down, it lacks the fun and charm of the first two as a result of being too self-aware and trying far too hard, really wanted to not take this seriously and view it as a guilty pleasure but it was just too amateurish and tired.

With 'Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens', the amateurish-ness and fatigue are multiplied and highly indicative of that despite starting off in guilty pleasure fashion the novelty has worn off and well thin now. The previous film may have lacked charm, fun and energy, though the fun came in occasionally, but 'Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens' is completely devoid of all three and has so many other things wrong too. Even when one tries to take it for what it's trying to be, which it manages to fail at.

Ian Ziering is likable and charismatic in the lead role, he plays it straight but still looks like he's having fun with the role. There is some nice scenery, an energetic and eerie music score and some of the references are fun and inspired, when they aren't being over obvious or dumb.

Very little else works. Tara Reid continues to be unspeakably awful, her facial expressions look so expressionless and very forced in the few times she tries, her line delivery is mechanical and she constantly looks ill at ease. The dizzying amount of cameos and the quality of them are nowhere near as entertaining as in the first two outings, not just the too deadpan approach but also that they're poorly written and feel too random and brief. Some also downright irritating, especially Jedward whose "annoying factor" from their joke act 'X Factor' days has not changed a bit. David Hasselhoff didn't seem comfortable and neither did Gary Busey.

Even for low-budget, 'Sharknado 4' is very shoddy stuff. The scenery is pretty good but the film is shot in a very rushed-looking and drab way, editing is sloppy as well as choppy and the shark special effects are typical dreadfully artificial Asylum/SyFy fare. Regarding the shark attacks and death scenes (none being good enough to even reach "reasonably fun" level), that the sharks have little personality let alone menace hurts them and even more so the unintentional silliness comes at the expense of thrills and suspense, which are nowhere in sight, and gets tiresome. The film is directed flatly, the energy and enthusiasm in the pacing is missing and there are too many cardboard characters that are difficult to give a toss about. The first two films had some great funny lines, but the script here contains nothing remotely amusing or memorable and instead feels stale and tiresomely cheesy.

'Sharknado 4' is even more of a pale retread than the third film, with very little maintaining interest and instead having numerous scenes leading nowhere It's further not helped by trying too hard being dopey fun and in the process taking itself too seriously at times that any life is sucked out, then including new ideas, like the different kinds of "nados", intended to be fresh but are just cheap and ridiculous.

Overall, a less than extravagant awakening and feels tired. 3/10 Bethany Cox

We witnessed the catastrophic third "Sharknado" attack last summer but, in TV-movie time, "It has been five years since the last Sharknado. Tech company Astro-X has used their revolutionary energy system to stabilize the atmosphere and prevent the formation of all tornadoes, using cheap, clean reactors dubbed Astro-Pods. The world has been peaceful and prosperous thanks to Astro-X's visionary founder Aston Reynolds, but now the future is about to be threatened once again…" This helpful prologue credit roll, looking like "Star Wars" (and sounding like "Superman") sets up the story. To celebrate five years of bliss, billionaire businessman Tommy Davidson (as Mr. Reynolds) opens a "Shark World" theme park in Las Vegas...

The inevitable happens. The Astro-X system fails and Vegas is hit with a "Sharknado". Yes, Virginia, there are sharks in Las Vegas. Sharks can attack anywhere, we are told. The monster storms do not have to be water-based. For example, the Vegas attack is sand-based. This looks like a job for Superman… or, rather, super-hero Ian Ziering (as Finlay "Fin" Allan Shepard), strange visitor from "Beverly Hills 90210" who came to Asylum with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. To save the world, we must summon Mr. Ziering from his small Kansas town and give him a chain-saw...

In another story-line, we find Ziering's deceased blonde squeeze Tara Reid (as April Wexler) really isn't dead. She's been life-preserved by crazed father Gary Busey (as Wilford). He's made Ms. Reid a "Bionic Woman". In a notable subplot, Ziering's older son Cody Linley (as Matt Shepard) gets married. It will be interesting to see if the bride Imani A. Hakim (as Gabrielle) appears in "Sharknado 5" (2017). Hmmm. She may only be shark bait. Other beautiful young women include Claudia Shepard and Masiela Lusha. You also get the handsome, legendary and talented "Hoff" (as Colonel David Hasselhoff)...

There are a lot of cameos by the once famous, somewhat famous and not so famous. Sadly, we don't see many of them actually eaten by sharks. Part of the "Sharknado" fun is seeing someone like Matt Lauer or Ann Coulter disappear into a shark's mouth. Among the latter, it looks like an abundance of the cast and crew's friends, relatives and total strangers were accommodated with screen time. If they continue, we will all be in a "Sharknado" movie. The soundtrack, by Quint, is always a plus. Their theme song sounds like "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" by the Ramones. Series writer Thunder Levin gives them a fun script to start. Reynolds is good, but the "Sharknado" series is getting long in the tooth. If you've never seen a "Sharknado" before, this one might be fun.

**** Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens (7/31/2016) Anthony C. Ferrante ~ Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, David Hasselhoff, Tommy Davidson

There are a couple of stabs directed at Star Wars (and one on Star Trek). But riffing on something popular does not make your movie really good. On the other hand, I don't think anyone will ever accuse the Sharknado movies of being intellectual or really something with gravitas (no pun intended of course).

There are quite a few cameos and star appearances (one from a fellow actor from another beast Scy-Fi movie with different animals as beasts. Btw. that other movie worked way better for many different reasons. So while CGI still is not anywhere near current tech, I don't reckon this will break the movie for you, if otherwise you liked it. It is really low and has me still wondering how there are still more of these to come ... Part 5 is confirmed for 2017

I've often considered Sharknado to be the worst movie franchise of all time and found myself delaying watching the 4th part and this right here is why.

I like Scyfy originals, I think they have a certain charm about them but the Sharknado movies are devoid of that and in it's place will it will stupidity, movie references and cameo appearances of z list celebrities on the downswing of their careers.

Once again 90 minutes of moronic scenes, ridiculous "action and humour that will appeal to nobody over the age of 9.

So far out of a potential 40pts they've acquired 4 from me and I just don't see the fifth and/or any subsequent sequels doing much better.

Just so very very dire.

The Good:

Kudos that the franchise has lasted this long

The "Hoff" is actually on form

The Bad:

It's a sharknado film

Pretty much everything

Tara Reid

Things I learnt from this movie:

If you are a company specialising in preventing sharknados it makes perfect sense to have a giant tank full of sharks outside

Male strippers can deflect sharks using nothing but their penis

Corey Taylor may be a flawless musician but his movie role choices suck

The pirate ship in Las Vegas is a real fully functional ship complete with real swords and working cannons

A 100ft by 50ft tank can hold hundreds if not thousands of fully grown sharks

The water from said tank is sufficient to flood a city and keep afloat an entire ship

Seth Rollins plans on super kicking a storm

It's a cownado!