Michael O'Keefe A once prosperous African fishing village becomes the site of brutal shark attacks. After his friend, Mark DeSantis (Cordell McQueen), is killed conducting research on the attacks, biologist Steven McKray (Casper Van Dien) discovers the real story behind the sharks brutal behavior evolves around an unscrupulous investment man and not demonic possession suspected by what is left of the faithful locals.Stock footage is mixed with animaltronics exaggerating the one dimensional sharks being nothing but eating machines. True, there are some good scenes and decent action. Tension and suspense can't make things better than they really are...this is after all a B movie.Also in the cast: Chris Olley, Ernie Hudson, Bentley Mitchum, Simo Magwase, Anton Dekker, and Jenny McShane.

Leofwine_draca An appalling would-be thriller in which a series of hackneyed, virtually bloodless shark attacks take back seat to a sub-standard conspiracy thriller story with a premise that bears more than a nod to DEEP BLUE SEA. The end result is a bland, boring movie which won't even appeal to bad movie lovers, only to those with only the lowest of tolerance levels. Set in Africa (but we never learn whereabouts), SHARK ATTACK doesn't even exploit any local colour in its predictable story of two people going up against the authorities, instead wasting what could have been a good premise with shallow material which has been written to death already.Casper Van Dien takes the leading role and is as wooden and charmless as ever, adding absolutely no personality to his "hero". Jenny McShane is almost as bad as the partner/love interest, who runs around in a bikini a lot but otherwise is unmemorable. The second-billed Ernie Hudson pops up in what amounts to a cameo role as the unsurprising bad guy, and while it's nice to see Hudson as the baddie for a change, you won't help but feel short-changed at the lack of screen time he occupies.R-rated only because of the strong language that occasionally pops up, the goriest that SHARK ATTACK gets is in scenes where sharks are autopsied and their internal organs removed and examined. The various underwater attacks (while paying their inevitable dues to JAWS) are poorly-staged with the minimum suspense and excitement, and the sharks fail to be very menacing. The film only seems to pick up for the violent, showdown climax between baddies and a gang of fishermen (!), which is undoubtedly enjoyable for how long in lasts. Unfortunately we have an hour and twenty minutes of unrelenting tedium to sit through before then, when even the genre staples of car chases and shoot-outs are staged without relish. Incredibly followed by a sequel a year later, so I guess somebody must have liked this movie. Fans with taste should, however, give it a miss.

Chase_Witherspoon One of the first in the shark movie renaissance, which spawned a dozen or so sequels and rip-offs, this South African inspired crime caper is less than deserving of its parental status. Some effective (if sparse) attack scenes are woven into the fabric of a dreary drug cartel storyline, in which enemies and threats are summarily executed by way of genetically enhanced (what else) sharks, common to the waters off the South African coast. Former "Ghostbuster" Ernie Hudson pops up periodically as the corrupt police chief in cahoots with Bentley Mitchum (Robert's grand-son via son and former actor Chris), who creates havoc with his chemistry kit, turning the local sharks into hormone enriched machines with appetites to match.Action man Van Dien is the mild mannered marine biologist investigating the goings on with the local marine ecology, and the mysterious disappearance of his friend and peer, last seen documenting the strange phenomena. Lush, deep colour tones in the photography offer a stylish, realistic appearance above ground, whereas underwater the action is limited to tired stock footage.While it's the first in a franchise of profitable "Shark Attack" movies, there's nothing more than timing and the catchy title to mark the mediocre debut. The subsequent resurgence of shark fanaticism that gripped the direct-to-DVD market since the turn of the century, is traceable to this otherwise unremarkable pot-boiler, and that's its only claim to fame.

redhead9898 I saw this movie three years ago on tape when i rented it. since i live right across the street from it i walk there. I was going through all these films in the 's' section. i came across shark attack 3, shark zone, shark hunter, when i came across a tape of shark attack. i had seen the third many times, so i thought it would be a great film to laugh at. while walking home, i had to stop every five seconds to look at the boxart and read the back and look at the tape, it took me an hour to walk 5 hundred feet when it usually takes me 20 minutes. When i put it in, the first five minutes were boring. 15-20 minutes into the film i was so distracted by all the people in the house because they were family i made it to the part where he is talking to a guy in a lab with shark things all around him. since a few other people were watching it i left it on, i decided to watch it some other day and never did and they were selling tapes and somebody else bought it and i'm gonna buy it soon. All i can say is the film's first half hour is boring, but it has a lot of action, so it is okay, the paragraph above is just to keep you entertained because there isn't a lot to say about this junk, just treasure how bad the film is. 4/10 stars.