ICE SHARKS (2016)

ICE SHARKS (2016)

Tagline: Just When You Thought It Was Safe in The Arctic!

(Drama, Biography, Welcome to The End of the World) [PG-13]

Note: This movie never got a MPA rating, however on streaming services, it is listed as TV-14 which is essentially the TV equivalent of PG13. 

The leading theory is that they may have fallen through the ice, but no one really buys that. 

In this one, a group of researchers are just minding their own business at the Arctic Circle at a sophisticated “Oasis” polar base. The whole goal appears to be to figure out something that will prove climate change it messing us all up. It doesn’t take long before freakin sharks notice breakfast is near and bam, they are all about trying to eat anyone going out on the ice. Because that is what sharks think about man, eating your face. It does not take long before a series of events leads to the entire base floating to the bottom of the ocean with our survivors. Can they make it out alive? 

This movie is kind of the tale of two halves. The first half of the movie introduces us to the characters and we get a pretty cheesy CGI shark attack. In the second half, we get a lot more sharks, but there are some scenes in here where you are just thinking “I hope this movie ends soon”. It’s kind of a bummer because with a movie called “ice sharks,” I actually expected more “ice” attacks, something more along the lines of what we got in AVALANCHE SHARKS only in the artic. 

As far as the cast, this is actually a pretty decent one for a shark flick. Edward DeRuiter who plays David has done several "THE ASYLUM" flicks ranging from WAY OF THE VAMPIRE to MEGA SHARK VS. KOLOSSUS. He is one of those actors that seems to do mostly B-movies but is certainly good enough to be in high-budget productions. Then again, he did stop acting in 2017. Jenna Parker (DIABLO CANYON) is fine in this as Tracy. She also appears to have gotten out of acting. Her career was mostly made up of a series of shorts. Clarissa Thibeaux (Runaways) plays Alex and is way underutilized. I liked her character in this as well, so it’s kind of a shame. We also get a Mia Danelle appearance as Val and in the scenes she gets, she's more than adequate. Both she and Clarissa are still getting roles as of 2023. Kaiwi Lyman (ACCELERATION) is solid as Michael and rounding out the main cast we have Shamar Philippe (AVENGERS GRIMM: TIME WARS) as Eddie. His character does one of the stupidest things in the entire movie, so whatever ASYLUM. They also just didn’t bother giving him any character development at all. 

So when it comes to shark flicks a lot of times you have a giant pile of cheese on your hands, and no one is out here saying “This is the best movie ever”. Usually, all shark flicks are just immediately measured up to other shark flicks, not “all of cinema”. So as more and more come out, your chances of having a fairly terrible shark flick start rising in the ranks are higher. Most newer shark movies are not serious efforts. They are quick goofy cash grabs produced quickly on the lowest budget possible. However, every once in a while you end up with one that is actually not all bad when you hold it up to the other films in this wheelhouse and that is what is going on here.

Getting back to the first half of this movie, when we are getting sharks' dorsal fins popping up through the ice, that’s cool stuff even as bad as the CGI is. Just those scenes alone if you watch a lot of these are going to prop this flick up in the standings. Where it starts to fall back down in quality is this second half that for me just started to go downhill fast. It’s kind of weird when that happens because the second half is what the setup is all about. 

Overall this is a pretty big disappointment, but It’s not worse than a lot of what is out there. I give this one a 4 out of 7. At least it was slightly interesting, but I do wish they had kept some of these characters alive longer. You also need to expect crap CGI, because again, this is THE ASYLUM. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE ASYLUM AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.