Review for Sharknado 2: The Second One

Sharknado 2: The Second One is (not surprisingly) the sequel to The Asylum's monster hit Sharknado. The original film gave new legs to the whole 'So bad it's good' effect to point where it is actually gaining positive reviews which seems to be fuelling this demand for truly awful films with awful effects, acting, story and everything else. It's a sad trend, but one that The Asylum has been nurturing with their Mockbusters and awful cash-ins.

Having survived the first Sharknado Fin Shepard is on his way to New York, to promote his book, written by his ex-wife April about the previous Sharknado. The flight is interrupted by a new Sharknado which is set on destroying New York. What is worse is that there is not just one, but three and if they converge it will result in a Sharknado storm that could destroy the city.

Fin joins forces with his sister and her husband and two kids and gets the support of New York, including the Mayor who can get Fin some of his trademark chainsaws to fight off the Great White Storm.

Now, I understand that this is a film that is supposed to be bad. I get that. It is the new niche that these films should have awful and unconvincing CGI, that the acting would be wooden and that it would be brimming with over the top gore... BUT... does it have to be this bad?? Even the first film had a sliver of quality to it, this one simply doesn't. The story made no sense whatsoever, the ending makes my head hurt and there are simply far too many characters for me to care about and that's not even the eye of this awful storm of a terrible film.

The acting is as awful as you would expect. At times I could get behind the corniness and ham acting, but I felt almost like they were trying so hard to be bad that it actually came off worse. Tara Reid is painful to watch and with her expressionless face and inability to act you do wonder why anyone ever hires her. Her attempts at being a hero came off as awkward, especially (as I say) with her inability to emote.

The main character Fin played by Ian Ziering is passable, but nothing special and you do feel in the hands of someone with some personality or charisma (a Jason Statham or a Vin Diesel) the character could have been interesting, but he's just a bland two dimensional caricature.

As the film progressed I kept thinking that maybe this should have been called 'Cameo: The Movie' as the number of tongue in cheek cameos from the likes of Andy Dick, Judd Hirsch, Perez Hilton, Billy Ray Cyrus, Kelly Osbourne amongst others was too over the top. Some work, but some make no sense. Richard Kind plays a retired baseball player who, of course, hits a home run with a shark. This would have been funny if they had actually hired a famous baseballer instead of someone who I only know from Spin City and his other comedy roles. The best cameo is of course Robert Hays as a pilot who many will remember from the classic comedy Airplane!

I know a lot of people are watching this film and then saying 'Oh it's a shut off your brain film', and I agree. But there is a gigantic difference between a film that you shut off your brain to enjoy and a film in which the only way you can sit through it is to switch off your brain. There is simply no enjoyment to be gotten out of this. This is not the over the top nonsense of Tommy Wiseau's The Room or the laughably bad CGI from James Nguyen's Birdemic or even just the mad desire to create a great piece of work (and failing) like most of Ed Wood's work. This is The Asylum realising that they can put ZERO effort into a film and it will still sell. This is not something that we should be encouraging.

Sharknado 2: The Second One is an awful film. Not in a good way, not in any positive way. This is a film that makes me cry at its very existence. The sad thing is I already know that Sharknado 3 is already being made.