TRAILER PARK SHARK (2017)

TRAILER PARK SHARK (2017)

Tagline: They're gonna need a bigger trailer.

(Action, Comedy, Shock Me Like an Electric Eel) [PG-13]

Note: This is a made-for-TV movie that is given a TV-14 on streaming services. That is about the equivalent of the MPA’s PG-13 rating. This movie was also distributed under the name “SHARK SHOCK”.

Are we talkin Presidential or the principal’s office?

In this one, a dingy trailer park ends up getting drowned by an explosion that allows the river to flood the area. As a result, a large great white finds its way into the development. Rob and Jolene are about the only semi-smart ones left in the park but Rob inadvertently gives the shark the ability to electrically shock anyone in the water after trying to electrocute it. Can Rob, his girlfriend Jolene, and the rest of the residents kill the shark and fend off the corrupt land developer and his thugs that started the flood? 

One thing this movie actually does pretty well, is give us a fairly realistic trailer park trash situation with all the crazy fighting, redneck ingenuity, and backwoods humor with a touch of community that you might expect. I grew up in a pretty poor situation but never lived in a trailer park. Having said that, I knew people that did when and seeing some of the stuff in this movie brought back memories of the stuff some of those friends' parents were doing, like owning 500 cats, stealing cable from down the street, and trying to run small AC units in car windows off of car batteries. 

The film is meant to be over the top so a lot of the humor is pretty out of control but also not all that farfetched. One thing I think that would absolutely suck about doing a shark flick like this is that a lot of the cast is spending a ton of time in what looks like pretty muddy water. Being wet all the time sucks enough, but if the water really was as muddy as it looks, that really must have sucked. If you watch enough shark flicks you are going to see a lot of weird stuff, but I think this is the only shark flick where I have seen a horse get eaten by a shark. 

Effects wise the dorsal overhead shots of the shark look very weak. I am not going to say the underwater shots or jumping out of the river and eating someone effects for the shark are good, but they look a lot better than the overhead shark effects. This is a made-for-TV movie, so don’t go into this expecting anything mind-blowing or even any good. 

When it comes to acting everyone does what is expected of them, but Thomas Ian Nicholas (FADING OF THE CRIES) definitely stands out above everyone else. In spite of being featured on the movie's posters, Tara Reid (SHARKNADO) is only in this movie for less than 3 minutes or so. Clint James (COWBOYS VS. VAMPIRES) is decently funny in this, but man on man, everyone in this movie is hard-core stereotypical on purpose so some of the lines are just ridiculously crass. Lulu Jovovich is fine in this as Jolene and it also isn’t her only shark flick. She also shows up in NIGHTMARE SHARK, but nothing else she’s been in is noteworthy or even looks remotely interesting. 

Overall the pacing of this ends up feeling slow and I kind of wish they had spent a little more time in the setup. It’s almost too fast to really care about any of these characters. We do get a decent amount of shark attacks, but most of them are super fast so if you blink you are likely to miss some of them. The score kind of uses 1-note version of the JAWS 2-note ostinato whenever the shark is getting ready to attack. I thought it was mildly effective without feeling like a total rip-off. 

Overall this is not a good shark flick but at the very least it’s set in an interesting location and I like that it took some chances on the humor side, rather than trying to play it seriously. On the grand scale of shark flicks, I have it at #36 of 52 as of June 2023. The shark movies watched list is always growing though.

This one lands at a 3 out of 7. 

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