Dinoshark (Blu-ray Review)

11 May, 2011 By: Chris Tribbey

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Anchor Bay
Sci-Fi
$19.98 DVD, $24.99 Blu-ray
Not rated.
Stars Eric Balfour, Iva Hasperger, Roger Corman.

This is really simple: Did you like Dinocroc? Did you enjoy Sharktopus? Does a hybrid, super-sized, nightmarish animal slaughtering nubile, bikini-clad women float your boat? Then famed producer-director Roger Corman has another one for you: Dinoshark.

A Puerto Vallarta charter boat captain (Eric Balfour) and his sexy marine biologist pal (Iva Hasperger) suspect something more sinister than a simple shark is about when surfers, water-skiers and all manner of beautiful people begin disappearing. It’s a prehistoric eating machine, a monster with fantastic leaping abilities rendered with pretty poor CGI. It’ll take more than guns and grenades (and an expert on dinosharks, played by Roger Corman himself) to help rid us of this freak of nature.

It’s 90 minutes of schlock, crap-tastic dialogue and minimal clothing. That’s what you’re here for, isn’t it?

Being a Syfy original movie, bonus features are unsurprisingly lacking, with only a trailer and a commentary by Corman, wife and fellow producer Julie Corman, and director Kevin O’Neill. The disc also opens up with trailers for Sharktopus, Dinocroc vs. Supergator, Cyclops, Turbulent Skies and a preview of the Corman cult classic films of the past on DVD (from a different distributor, Shout! Factory, oddly enough).

The commentary plays out like a serious interview, with a moderator discussing the origins of the film, the special effects and the look of the film with the trio. It’s a more organized, more enjoyable commentary, compared with those where cast and crew simply riff on each other and begin every other sentence with “In this scene …”

A few laughs still are to be found, as they talk about fighting with a better-paying beer distributor to find local young people as extras in Puerto Vallarta, and how Corman goes about keeping your attention from drifting in these films. It’s a gory, glorious art.
 

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