Released before the slew of 'ironic' shark movies became a thing, seeing a title like 'Shark in Venice' really stood out on the shop shelf, especially for an idiot who loves bad movies like me. I spend a great deal of time in Italy, so the ridiculous concept held double appeal for me.
The movie follows David Franks (Stephen Baldwin) an American university lecturer who is summoned to Venice, Italy when his father goes missing on a mysterious scuba dive in restricted waters. His fiancée Laura (Vanessa Johansson) joins him as he investigates his father's disappearance.
It turns out his father was searching for the ancient treasure of the Medici, which David stumbles across while diving. He is forced to go back into the shark infested waters as the local mafia, led by Clemenza (Giacomo Gonella) kidnaps Laura and force him to take them to the treasure, but will they be ready for what they find beneath the waves...
Now, I realise how ridiculous this may sound, but I actually had something resembling hopes for this movie. With its waterway streets, Venice is a place unlike any other, and surprisingly few movies take advantage of it - the one exception being the wonderfully atmospheric Don't Look Now. The concept of predators lurking in these canals is something that, in the right hands, could have been wonderful. Couple that with Italy's horror output being one of its most Internationally popular cinema outputs (even if I'm not a fan) there was definitely potential to take this ridiculous premise somewhere. Then 'Nu Image' flashed up on the screen and any hopes and expectations went right down the pan.
For those unfamiliar with the low budget studio, around the turn of the Century they seemed to be on a mission to single handedly keep the Creature Feature alive with a slew of films like Octopus, Spiders and Crocodile and they sequels. Most were terrible. Among the worst offenders were their 'Shark Attack' films, which didn't even have the grace to unleash rubber sharks, using almost entirely stock footage. Shark in Venice is very much the spiritual successor of these movies, and is every bit as bad, without the grace of even doing so in an amusing manner.
The worst thing about movie is that the sharks are basically an aside to the plot. They are just there to try create some buzz about a tiresome treasure hunt story. When it's revealed why they are in Venice (the mafia put them there to stop others looking for the treasure...) it makes even less sense given that they keep eating their divers. Have the writers ever actually been to Venice and seen how clarty the water is? (certainly none of the cast did making this movie given that it's filmed in Bulgaria...) this called for some ridiculous Sci Fi Sharks, but nobody here was that creative sadly. The only kicks I got were references to Italian footballers Francesco Totti and Alessandro DelPiero with a character and street named for them respectively.
The acting is led by the Baldwin that was in The Usual Suspects, who whispers every line and is a highly unconvincing action hero. Keeping the theme of less famous siblings, the female lead is Scarlett Johansson's older sister, which is about the only noteworthy thing about her role here. The rest of the cast are, well, Direct-To-Video level. Neither great not awful.
The effects are the real disappointment. 96% of all shark scenes are stock footage, most of it clearly shot in open sea, not claustrophobic canals. The few CGI shots there are feature bland effects, but they are amongst the more entertaining scenes so I'll let them off.
Shark in Venice feels like a wasted premise on 2 fronts; it doesn't use its unique setting to make the below the radar chiller it could have been, nor does it deliver its ridiculous premise to offer a cheesy laugh riot. I couldn't recommend this to anyone, no matter how good the title looks on the shelf.
The movie follows David Franks (Stephen Baldwin) an American university lecturer who is summoned to Venice, Italy when his father goes missing on a mysterious scuba dive in restricted waters. His fiancée Laura (Vanessa Johansson) joins him as he investigates his father's disappearance.
It turns out his father was searching for the ancient treasure of the Medici, which David stumbles across while diving. He is forced to go back into the shark infested waters as the local mafia, led by Clemenza (Giacomo Gonella) kidnaps Laura and force him to take them to the treasure, but will they be ready for what they find beneath the waves...
Now, I realise how ridiculous this may sound, but I actually had something resembling hopes for this movie. With its waterway streets, Venice is a place unlike any other, and surprisingly few movies take advantage of it - the one exception being the wonderfully atmospheric Don't Look Now. The concept of predators lurking in these canals is something that, in the right hands, could have been wonderful. Couple that with Italy's horror output being one of its most Internationally popular cinema outputs (even if I'm not a fan) there was definitely potential to take this ridiculous premise somewhere. Then 'Nu Image' flashed up on the screen and any hopes and expectations went right down the pan.
For those unfamiliar with the low budget studio, around the turn of the Century they seemed to be on a mission to single handedly keep the Creature Feature alive with a slew of films like Octopus, Spiders and Crocodile and they sequels. Most were terrible. Among the worst offenders were their 'Shark Attack' films, which didn't even have the grace to unleash rubber sharks, using almost entirely stock footage. Shark in Venice is very much the spiritual successor of these movies, and is every bit as bad, without the grace of even doing so in an amusing manner.
The worst thing about movie is that the sharks are basically an aside to the plot. They are just there to try create some buzz about a tiresome treasure hunt story. When it's revealed why they are in Venice (the mafia put them there to stop others looking for the treasure...) it makes even less sense given that they keep eating their divers. Have the writers ever actually been to Venice and seen how clarty the water is? (certainly none of the cast did making this movie given that it's filmed in Bulgaria...) this called for some ridiculous Sci Fi Sharks, but nobody here was that creative sadly. The only kicks I got were references to Italian footballers Francesco Totti and Alessandro DelPiero with a character and street named for them respectively.
The acting is led by the Baldwin that was in The Usual Suspects, who whispers every line and is a highly unconvincing action hero. Keeping the theme of less famous siblings, the female lead is Scarlett Johansson's older sister, which is about the only noteworthy thing about her role here. The rest of the cast are, well, Direct-To-Video level. Neither great not awful.
The effects are the real disappointment. 96% of all shark scenes are stock footage, most of it clearly shot in open sea, not claustrophobic canals. The few CGI shots there are feature bland effects, but they are amongst the more entertaining scenes so I'll let them off.
Shark in Venice feels like a wasted premise on 2 fronts; it doesn't use its unique setting to make the below the radar chiller it could have been, nor does it deliver its ridiculous premise to offer a cheesy laugh riot. I couldn't recommend this to anyone, no matter how good the title looks on the shelf.
