Ozark Sharks (2016) Reviews

• Generic, but watchable

  MetalGeek2016-07-29

  "Ozark Sharks" was rolled out as part of SyFy's annual festivities leading up to the premiere of the fourth (!) Sharknado flick. "Ozark Sharks" was a serviceable, if a bit generic, entry in the killer-sharks-on-the-rampage genre. The story is paper-thin: a suburban family (Mom, Dad, Grandma, annoying Emo daughter Molly and big brother Harrison) - are going on vacation to a run-down camping resort in the Ozarks. Some sharks happen to swim upriver from the ocean and begin chomping on all the puny humans in their path (including poor Grandma), which threatens the town's annual lakeside fireworks festival. You can pretty much write the rest of it yourself. Molly and brother Harrison (plus Molly's doofus boyfriend Curtis) take up arms against the shark invasion, aided by kindly campground bait shop proprietor Mr. Jones, who happens to have a full arsenal of weaponry stockpiled in the back room of his store for just such an occasion. I will leave it to you to find out how it all turns out for yourselves. "Ozark Sharks" had the misfortune to premiere right after a re- airing of 2011's similarly themed (but far superior) "Swamp Shark," so for much of "Ozark" I felt like I was sitting through a re-run. At least "Swamp Shark" had some recognizable faces in it like Kristy "Original Buffy" Swanson and Robert Davi. The cast of "Ozark" appears to be mostly unknowns, who are likely doomed to stay that way. At least it was better than the director's previous SyFy Sharknado Week effort, 2015's "Zombie Shark," which was mostly unwatchable. Feel free to skip this flick unless you absolutely have to watch every shark movie that SyFy pumps out.

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• It is yet another of those generic shark flicks...

  paul_haakonsen2016-10-05

  Another shark movie to the near limitless supply of creature features from SyFy. So you would think that they have drained the genre dry already, but they still manage to come up with new ideas for new movies. And "Ozark Sharks" doesn't really differentiate itself from the numerous many other shark movies, many of which also to come from SyFy. As such, then "Ozark Sharks" turns out to be just another shark movie. As with most other SyFy movies, then you shouldn't get your hopes up too high in terms of acting and special effects, because you will most likely just end up disappointed. And true enough, then "Ozark Sharks" stays true to the blueprint that SyFy uses for these creature features. The acting in the movie was adequate, I will give the movie that much. Well, at least adequate taking the genre into consideration. People were doing good enough jobs with their individual roles, and actually seemed to be having fun with what they were doing. However, it was somewhat of a strain to witness Allisyn Ashley Arm (playing Molly) to stride through the movie as if she was doped up on prescription medication. As for the effects. Well then I could actually just suffice to summarize it with four simple words; standard SyFy special effects. With that being said, I should perhaps clarify that for those not already familiar with the myriad of creature features released by SyFy. The effects were questionable at best, and the sharks looked very poorly animated, except for those shots where they were using actual shark footage. The story in "Ozark Sharks" is about a family that have come to a vacation resort at a small town, when the peace and quiet is abruptly disturbed by six sharks that feed upon humans. "Ozark Sharks" is not genre breaking in any way, nor did it bring anything new to the genre. Well, strike that, it did bring a scene where a shark was sent skyward by fireworks and exploded in a very colorful fireworks explosion. I hadn't seen that before in my 41 years, so thumbs up for that. This movie is not the best of creature features from SyFy, not by a long shot. And if you enjoy shark movies, then there are far better choices available. It is, at best, worth a single viewing if you have nothing better to watch and have some interest in shark and these cheesy SyFy movies. Some of us have that bizarre urge to watch these low budget, cheesy movies because they usually are so poor and cheesy that they are funny to watch. "Ozark Sharks" scores a four out of ten stars rating, because it was still semi-enjoyable, despite it being a very generic SyFy creature feature.

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• Absolutely awful!

  dverzic2016-09-02

  I watched about a minute of this, (maybe less) and the effects were the worst. If you want to see not how to do special effects, this is the movie for you. Ridiculous!! The acting was really bad. I didn't recognize anyone. And the Sharks looked like they came from a bad Scooby doo cartoon! I'm supposed to write ar least ten lines here so I will keep going. When they shot the shark with fireworks I actually laughed out loud. So stupid. Don't waste your time with this garbage. Have a sandwich and a beer and watch Zoo instead, or Jaws 3-D. Either of those would be better! There are so many better third rate horror/suspense movies that you could watch. This one just sucked!

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• Garbage

  seckinlergafri2018-08-07

  Ozar Sharks (2016) is a trash film ... It tells about the terror of sharks on a lake in the state of Arkansas ... This film is very stupid, boring, very bad, acting ridiculous, cheap dialogue, a very CGI effect terrible ... this film is not worth watching ...

• Sharks in Arkansas

  TheLittleSongbird2018-03-20

  Have made no secret in the past of intensely disliking, and even outright hating a lot, a vast majority of SyFy's (near-universally maligned for good reason) output, though there is curiosity as to whether they are capable of making something good and compulsive about their output's badness. Admittedly, SyFy do have a small group of watchable films and the occasional (big emphasis on that word) above average one, unfortunately outweighed by the lacklustre at best and often dreadful films they churn out. Before anybody gets defensive, am well aware that films like 'Ozark Sharks' are not ones to be taken seriously, have been well versed enough seeing previous SyFy efforts to not expect that. Have seen my fair share of low-budget shark films, and any other kind of low-budget creature film, and will admit to finding some guilty fun in some of them (i.e. the first two 'Sharknado' films). There are far worse shark films certainly. 'Ozark Sharks' at least has occasional splashes of fun and some semi-decent scenery. There is also far worse acting in other low-budget shark films, not that that is saying much. Due to that the acting largely is pretty poor, with the usual mix of overplaying and blandness. Any few attempts to develop the characters results in padded and pointless scenes, development is at best flimsy and it's all overwrought and does little to make the characters endearing or care or learn enough about them. The execution of almost everything is severely underwhelming, not just being visually cheap and poorly acted and written even worse but what seemed like a decent, if very generic, idea was executed in typical SyFy shark movie fashion, with no imagination whatsoever and only occasional splashes of fun. Faring worse are the production values, story and writing. 'Ozark Sharks', aside from the scenery, is drably shot and sloppily edited, but it's the truly abysmal special effects that are the worst. As the sharks were made on a low-budget it would have been forgiven a little if it was not great, but when the effects for the sharks look as if no effort was given in making them without looking so goofy and unfinished-looking that is hard to ignore or forgive. Can say no better about the portrayal of the sharks either. They exude little personality either, no menace, not even any unintentional goofiness. Generally the attack scenes, apart from the odd mild amusement, are sloppily edited, too brief and devoid of suspense or sense of horror. Writing ranges between incredibly bad to appalling. Any comedy is incredibly forced and is so cheesy it is enough to make the eyes roll in disbelief, while the more serious moments are very awkwardly written and as trite as anybody can possibly go. The silliness goes well overboard as the film progresses and it becomes intelligence insulting even when one tries to take it for what it's trying to be. Really wanted to like the story here because the concept was intriguing slightly, but while it starts nicely the further the movie progresses the lazier, cheesier and more formulaic it gets, also making the mistake that most SyFy films make of trying so hard to be over the top and stupid but in a painfully predictable and less than fresh way that it becomes tiresome. The stupidity gets stale quickly and the film is lethargic generally in pace. Altogether, have seen worse but poorly done. 2/10 Bethany Cox

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