1033. Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! (2015)

Starring: Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, David Hasselhoff

Director: Anthony C. Ferrante

Running Time: 88 mins

Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! is an American film and the third in the Sharknado series. After an initial devastating storm in Washington D.C., a humongous sharknado spreads across the entire US East Coast, leaving Fin to once again step in and save the world.

This franchise just keeps getting more and more ridiculous! Whilst the first two films were idiotic B-movies with a little bit of good humour, this third instalment is effectively a full-blown comedy, with completely over-the-top gore as ever, and a hell of a lot of stupidity throughout.

Let’s talk about the action here first, and, as you would expect, it’s bigger and badder than ever. Despite the budget being only half of that of the first one, there’s so much insane devastation and destruction here on screen that it’s in no way less fun.

In fact, because the action is so much more ridiculous, it’s even more entertaining, with random sequences set in the White House, Universal Studios, a NASCAR race, and even outer space. That’s right, sharks eat people in space in this film.

The comedy is also even better here, with brilliantly self-deprecating humour throughout, and even more insane ideas to build on the initial concept of ‘sharknado’, including ‘post traumatic shark disorder’ and ‘sharkicane’ (shark hurricane).

So, quite simply, this is the most riotously funny film of the trilogy, however, it needs to be said that it’s still got a hell of a lot of problems that prevent it from being a properly good cult film.

Of course, the intention here is to make it all as silly and bad as possible, and with C-rated special effects, continuity errors abound and totally nonsensical conveniences at every point, they pull that off very well.

However, the main problem here is the plot. Whilst the novelty of the sharknado attacking suprisingly still hasn’t worn off, the story takes a real dive for about 40 minutes (a whole half of the film) in the middle, with relatively little action or comedy as Fin and his friend Nova struggle to make their way to Orlando.

As a result, this isn’t so consistently hilarious and idiotic, but is instead in pockets, which is still an improvement over the past two films, so at this rate, it looks like Sharknado 8 will be an Oscar contender!

Finally, I have to say something about the celebrity cameos here, of which there are tons. Most of them don’t really work, and just go over your head, such as the random appearance of Jedward on a rollercoaster, but the appearance of David Hasselhoff as Fin’s dad has to be commended, because he’s not only funny, but he really seems to enjoy his role in this most stupid of films.

Anyway, this gets a 4.1 from me because despite its excellent humour and idiotic action, this is far too slow a film to be properly funny and impressive, even though it is mean to be stupid and bad.