May
13
| The Last Shark (L’ultimo Squalo) |
|
| Year | 1981 |
| Director | Enzo G. Castellari |
| Actors | Vic Morrow James Franciscus Giancarlo Prete |
| Disc Layers | 1 |
| Source | Unknown |
| Image Quality | Fair |
Somehow this movie manages to be a complete rip-off of Jaws, while capturing none of the excitement that made Jaws such a great film. All the stock characters are here: a handsome guy who wants to prevent the deaths of swimmers, windsurfers, and teenagers, an egotistical guy in a suit who refuses to close the beach, and a fisherman doing his best Robert Shaw imitation. There is very little plot other than the shark attacking various people in short, surprisingly gore-free scenes.
The Last Shark is so clearly a redux of Jaws that, in some countries, it was billed as a Jaws sequel. In the United States, Universal successfully had it pulled from theaters.
After an incredibly cheesy opening, the music is pretty good - typical of 1980s Italian horror and action films with heavy synthesizers and tension-building bass lines. Not John Williams, but reminiscent of the work of Claudio Simonetti and other great Italian composers.
On the copy I have, the letterboxed picture is a little bit jittery, which can be annoying, but the image is not muddy. It has non-removable, non-English subtitles, but they’re white and easy to ignore.
Also known as: Great White, The Last Jaws
.