***Grade B “Jaws” rip-off is mildly amusing, but overall meh***
Evidence of a prehistoric shark is discovered near a resort town on the west coast of Mexican. A beach patrol chief (John Barrowman) and a paleontologist (Jenny McShane) team-up to see if the megalodon actually exists. It does and it’s feeding on beachgoers.
“Shark Attack 3: Megalodon” (2002) is not as bad as armchair critics say or as amusing as its supporters say in a “so bad it’s good” way. It’s somewhere in between. Jenny McShane returns from the first flick (1999), but the film’s not as good. Not that the first one was great or anything, but at least it had an original plot. This one rips-off “Jaws” too much, including the similar-sounding shark music. It’s also predictable. For instance, if the initial megalodon discovered is a baby, what do ya think that means? Nevertheless, the scene done at the 1-hour mark is effective.
On the female front, Jenny’s three years older here and not as curvy or alluring. There are several glimpses of bikini-clad women in the periphery but they’re generally second rate with maybe one or two brief exceptions.
The movie was shot in Bulgaria, but the Mexican flag is shown in as many scenes as possible to convince viewers that it’s Mexico. I didn’t have a problem with this because the scenery was a decent stand-in for Mexico, it’s just that most of the actors are Eastern Europeans who are badly dubbed or speak with heavy accents.
The obvious CGI is unsurprisingly cartoonish, but the actual shark footage is good, filmed off the coast of South Africa. The main protagonists are decent and play it straight while the heavies are too over-the-top sinister. The few unintentional laughs don’t come until the final act.
The film runs 1 hour, 39 minutes.
GRADE: C
