Movie Review: Night of the Sharks

Night of the Sharks (La notte degli squali) a.k.a. Jaws Attack 

Starring: Treat Williams, Janet Agren, Antonio Fargas, Stelio Candelli, Egidio Termine, Nina Soldano, Salvatore Borghese, Carlo Mucari, John Steiner, Christopher Connelly, Ivano Silvari, Rinaldo Zamperla, Franco Ukmar, Ferdinando Tomassini, Marjorie Manushaw 

Director: Tonino Ricci (as Anthony Richmond) 

Amanecer Films, Belma Cinematografica, Cinematográfica Jalisco S.A., Koala Cinematografica, Motion Picture Corporation of America (MPCA), Víctor Films S.A., Italy, Dominican Republic, 1988. 

This movie can be found in Fuel Injected Films 20 Movie Collection by Mill Creek Entertainment.

Tourist in Mexico tries to hunt a shark named Cyclops but the shark hunts him. David Ziegler (Treat Williams) saves what is left of him. Later the nasty shark tries to steal David's boat. David has friends Paco from Panama (blaxploitation legend Antonio Fargas), Father Mattia (Christopher Connelly) and girlfriend Juanita (Nina Soldano). 

David Ziegler

Paco from Panama

Father Mattia and Juanita

Meanwhile David's crooked brother James (Carlo Mucari) hides a CD from gangsters. The disc includes information about Mr. Rosentski (John Steiner) who has some shady businesses with the government. James demands 2 million in diamonds or the CD goes public. James sends a copy of the disc to David. In Mexico James is murdered and the diamonds sink into sea. James stays alive long enough to say final words. David does not seem to be terribly upset about this.

James

Mr. Rosentski

Tony

The gangsters try to get information from David's ex-wife Liz (Janet Agren) who has money problems. Liz tries to persuade David to return the disc. Hitman Tony (Stelio Candelli) wants to kill David even without Rosentski's blessing. Tony's actions cause Liz to be eaten by shark. David is slightly upset about this. 

Liz

Garcia

Tony brings his team to finish off David. Italian actor Salvatore Borghese appears as Garcia the Hitman. David and Paco must survive the gangsters and save Juanita and Father Mattia. Although David does not like guns, he does not shy away from killing baddies with knives and Molotov's cocktails. 

David prefers knives

Flying car

Cyclops the Shark

The movie does not know if it wants to be comedy with Hill & Spencer style bar fights, hard-boiled action film, or shark horror movie. After acceptable start the movie goes downhill fast with bad direction and lazy script-writing. The movie has also some crazy plot twists with its own insane logic. I mean just look at this scene where hitman shoots at James: 

That is a shame because the cast is good. The not bad synthesizer-rich score by Stelvio Cipriani ranging from Italian suspense-style music to comical Caribbean tunes.

This image pretty much sums it up how the actors must have felt after seeing the movie

Rating: Bad or So bad it is good