Shark Attack 2 takes place in Cape Town, where a jerk is trying to open a massive aquarium/water park, and decides he wants his marine biologist (Thorsten Kaye) to catch a great white that was seen off the coast to have on display for publicity when they open. He does, but what he doesn't know is this is one of Dr. Craven's altered sharks, and soon enough it escapes. The jerk who was opening the park doubles-down on his jerkiness by bringing in an Australian TV show host to find the shark instead of Kaye. Now it's a race to see if they can stop these sharks before they terrorize the beaches and more people die--but will the jerk's jerkiness get in their way?
I think 2000 still feels 90s enough to be the kind of DTV you came for, if that makes sense. It's not amazing by any stretch, and doesn't have the Van Dien factor that part 1 had, or the Barrowman/famous line factor that part 3 had, and so it's easy to overlook this installment for the others; but that doesn't change the fact that this is a nice 90s DTV flick that has just enough of the late 90s in it to give you what you want. The hero is sufficiently lantern-jawed and hunky; the female lead is sufficiently blond and beautiful; and the Australian TV host is sufficiently Australian--wait for him to say "Absa-fuckin-lutely" ("Apes-a-fuckin-lut-ly"). I say it a lot, but this is the kind of film I made the site for, but also, when I started the site in 2007, this wasn't so old. Now it has the added nostalgia factor to make it that much more enjoyable. Also, in the modern movie world where shark movies are more about being as goofy as possible and letting us know how much they're in on the joke, it's nice to go back to 2000 where they played it straight but still knew hot to have fun.
The director is David Worth. Yes, Kickboxer, Warrior of the Lost World, Lady Dragon 1 and 2, that David Worth, not to mention DP on Bloodsport. I think it shows in how this is made, we get both competent shots, but also I think he makes it look better on a budget. In the 90s it was common for directors like this to come in and get it done, and we're seeing a move back in that direction rather than having someone who doesn't direct get the title and rely on their DP and have it cleaned up in post, which is what came later in the first decade of the 2000s into the 2010s. I think that's part of the reason why more of these movies from this time work than their counterparts do today.
Dan Metcalfe plays the Australian in this, and when I looked him up on IMDb, I found a link to his soccer academy for young players. I wonder if he shows this movie to his players, like as a fun end of camp breather. I also couldn't tell if the accent was his native one, or if he was affecting it, from his bio. He says he played professional soccer in England, but doesn't list the teams, and he doesn't say where he's from originally. Either way, he plays the Aussie well, I think a mix of Steve Irwin's Crocodile Hunter, which was big at that time, and your classic brash TV personality caricature. Again, it's touches like these that make a movie like this more fun.
As I mentioned above, this movie suffers from the fact that the first in the series had a big name like Casper Van Dien, and the third had John Barrowman and what was perhaps the greatest line in cinematic history, so this entry feels less remarkable. I was even thinking how you would place this if you were binging all 3 in a movie night. What would be there for your group of friends to latch onto? They'd be thinking "let's get to part 3!" And that probably explains why I had never done this one before. I usually go for movies that have names in it, because names get clicks and page views, the same way names on the tin get streams and rents. It's the kind of system that creates the impetus to get Bruce Willis or Steven Seagal to show up, film for a day, and not do their reverse shots or overdubbing, just so they can be featured on the cover and listed among the stars, causing us to give it a look over something else we're browsing by. I think it's too bad that that's where we are in our film watching ecosystem, but it's a reality we as reviewers have to face. Do we take the hit though to get more films like this recognition? Every time I say yes, I find myself doing another Seagal movie.
Finally, check out that Dolphins hat there. Not sure if officially licensed NFL gear was in their budget, but there it is, and it's interesting to see in 2000. As a Patriots fan, we were still a year removed from their first championship, and at that time the Dolphins were a heritage franchise, one of the most well-known, with two Super Bowls, one of which was an undefeated season, and they were just coming off of Dan Marino's reign under which they had around a decade and a half of relevance; while the Patriots, despite losing the Super Bowl in the '96 season, were one of the lowest rung of the league, forget an after thought, they were a "neverthought". And then the Pats won in 2001, and that was it, for two decades they won the division over the Dolphins, Jets, and Bills almost every year, while the Dolphins lost all relevance in the league in that same span. With the Brady Era officially done, perhaps it's time for the Dolphins to get back to what they once were.
And with that, it's time to wrap this up. You can get this for free on FawesomeTV or IMDb TV, which isn't a bad deal. It's a fun reminder of the late 90s, a nice time killer. As I mentioned above, it's nice to go back to a time when shark movies played it straight, and were just trying to bite (pun intended) on Jaws, as opposed to now where they're trying to be as big and as intentionally goofy as possible.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0222355
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