Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

2-Headed Shark Attack Blu-ray Movie Review

Bitten bikini babes.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 26, 2012

Two heads is twice as many teeth.

The digital filmmaking revolution has yielded some pretty fantastic special effects. Filmmakers can now (relatively) cheaply and (mostly) believably create brand new worlds, showcase impossible scenarios, and assemble incredible characters with an almost uncanny sense of realism. Movies like Dragonheart and Avatar have helped usher in a fantastic new era of digital filmmaking where the previously impossible -- or at least extremely difficult and incredibly costly -- can now be done on a computer monitor and added to the end product at a later date. As with any technology, the longer it's around, the cheaper it becomes; even the 13 or so years between Dragonheart and Avatar has seen a steady increase in quality and a decrease in cost to where low-rent studios and filmmakers on extreme budgets can themselves make use of this technology to create pretty much anything and everything the human mind can imagine, including 2-headed sharks. Yes, dragons and alien worlds and beings have finally given way to an effort to revitalize the 1950s Monster movie market. Filmmakers are taking advantage of technology to create some pretty wild stuff on the fly and for not a whole lot of money. Toss a few scantily-clad babes and a few ripped doofuses on a boat and have them face down a digital two-headed shark and, ¡voila!, a movie is born -- not a very good movie to be sure, but a prime example of how digital has made its way all the way to the bottom of the barrel.

These characters are so dumb they'll never know what bit 'em!

A college class is being held at sea. Professor Babish (Charlie O'Connell) has his hands full with a rowdy bunch that's more interested in gossip and tanning than learning. He attempts to instruct them in the use of a sextant (which never has a future bearing on the plot), but to no avail. Things do get interesting when he, his students, and his wife Anne (Carmen Electra) attempt to get a closer look at a rare shark. Unfortunately, it gets caught up in the propellers. The hull is cracked, and the meat gums up the works. The ship is taking on water and panic ensues. Fortunately, they spy a small atoll nearby to which they are ferried on the ship's life raft. They discover the remnants of human life, but find no signs of natives or other visitors. As repairs are underway on the boat, the students take the opportunity to explore the island and explore one another. Soon, however, they become aware of a deadly menace: a mutated two-headed shark that is killing them. To make matters worse, the atoll is cracking and sinking. Soon, they'll have nowhere to go but into the water with the most dangerous creature they've ever encountered.

2-Headed Shark Attack is probably best described as "cheap fun," which should probably be The Asylum's slogan. The movie represents the perfect Asylum film: there's only the most basic of plots, flat characters, unimaginative exposition provided only for the hero or heroine who will have to save the day at the end, atrocious dialogue, low-rent acting, a washed up star, and laughable special effects. Still, it's a formula that unquestionably works rather well, to the tune of dozens upon dozens of movies that all pretty much play out the same way, whether low-rent imitations of bigger mainstream films, cheap Science Fiction, or poor man's Horror. And it works perfectly in 2-Headed Shark Attack. By its very nature it can't be any good, but as an Asylum movie it hits everything out of the park. All of the characters are tanned, big-chested, and not very bright. The first to die are the first to strip naked and make out in the water, the perfect first victims for the Scream school of terror. The remainder of the characters are slow to catch on and, save for a few, generally just stand around looking concerned and occasionally spewing out their lines with no real emotion and, on a few occasions, with incorrect inflections that ruin the meaning of the words. The special effects are clunky and fake, and anytime an effect is set to appear the image goes noticeably soft. Gore is little, the film attempting to make up for the lack of it by violently shaking the camera and interspersing red frames during attacks.

To be sure, there are some choice moments in the movie. Even if the violence is muted, it's rather fun to predict who will die next, though certainly that will consist of identifying the characters by appearance, clothes, or attitude rather than by name, since it's difficult to keep them straight considering how generic most of them turn out to be. It has its fair share of ditzes and morons with the handful of obligatory semi-intelligent and clean-cut folks to battle the shark at the end of the movie. For the most part, though, the main attraction for most will be Carmen Electra, who still knows how to strut her stuff and doesn't wear all that much throughout the movie. Her role is pretty much to look good and hand out bandaids from a first aid kit. Then of course there are the obligatory shots of her sunbathing on the deck, doing so as if in front of the camera for a swimsuit photo shoot, going through all of the sexy poses -- each and every time the movie shows her tanning -- even when there's not supposed to be anyone else around. So 2-Headed Shark Attack is pretty much good for only a few laughs and some recent Carmen Electra goodness, oh, and for a look at Jerry O'Connell's brother Charlie in a lead role (Jerry has a brother?).

2-Headed Shark Attack Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

2-Headed Shark Attack swims onto Blu-ray with a 1080p transfer that's largely stable. The image is consistently nice and clear, delivering sharp details and good colors. The HD video source is somewhat glossy and flat, but viewers will appreciate the effortlessness with which it handles skin and clothing textures, wood surfaces around the island, sandy and pebbly terrain, and green vegetation. Colors enjoy natural balance, whether skin tones, natural greenery, or blue water. The image is certainly bright and vibrant, but naturally steady. The downside is intermittent light banding and several instances of mass pixelation, the latter of which could be a problem at the source or that could be the result of a faulty individual disc; on the sample used for this review, the image severely breaks up at around the 32 and 54-minute marks, and once or twice thereafter. Otherwise this is a nice looking, steady image that's probably a best-case scenario for a low budget movie shot digitally and presented on Blu-ray.

2-Headed Shark Attack Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

2-Headed Shark Attack features a serviceable Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Music never seems quite balanced; it's too loud at the open, too soft elsewhere. Clarity is acceptable, spacing is fair, but there's a slight muddled feel to the music. The surround speakers are used to fair effect on occasion, for instance as the boat moves from front to back. Natural ambience on the water or on the island is minimal. There's a decent rumbling when the island cracks apart or when the boat's engine is working. Dialogue is mostly clear, sometimes shallow, and nicely captures the shrill screaming as heard near the end. This is a nuts-and-bolts presentation that serves the movie well enough, but a sonic wonder it is not.

2-Headed Shark Attack Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

2-Headed Shark Attack contains two brief film-related extras. Making of Featurette (1080p, 9:10) features cast and crew discussing the location shoot, casting, the challenges of the shoot, battling the fake sharks, and creating the visual effects. Also included is a gag reel (1080p, 1:19) and a sampling of Asylum trailers.

2-Headed Shark Attack Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

2-Headed Shark Attack doesn't serve any real purpose outside of offering up a few cheap thrills for a bad movie get-together with friends. It's at least competently put together on a technical level, but its special effects aren't great, the script is lacking, the acting is less than stellar, and the movie is largely predictable. It makes for a fun game of "who will die next," but needless to say there's really no redeeming value here outside of laughable fun. The Asylum's Blu-ray release of 2-Headed Shark Attack features good video and acceptable audio. A couple of throwaway extras are also included. Worth a rental on a slow weekend.