If a movie makes you laugh, but isn’t necessarily supposed to, is it considered a comedy? If you get enjoyment from it, not because of the high-level execution, but because of its complete and utter disregard for anything that is
If a movie makes you laugh, but isn’t necessarily supposed to, is it considered a comedy?
If you get enjoyment from it, not because of the high-level execution, but because of its complete and utter disregard for anything that is supposed to be “good,” is that film just as “good” as a “good” movie that’s trying to be “good?”
If the answer to each of these questions is yes, then “Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus” has become one of my favorite comedies of all time.
This completely self-aware B-movie, released in 2009, draws in viewers with the ridiculous title and a trailer that became one of the 10 most-watched internet previews of all of last year’s films.
I laughed through all 90 minutes of this sci-fi thrill-omedy (yes, I just made up a word), which stars Deborah “Don’t Call Me Debbie” Gibson and Lorenzo Lamas.
The premise of the film is that two prehistoric beasts were in a fight to the death when they froze in the ocean. Since that time period, something, whether it be man-made or natural, has melted the ice caps and thawed out the two creatures, awakening them from their sushi-grade slumbers.
Once they wake up, they begin to wreak havoc all over the globe. Normally we assume sea predators can only harm us when we enter their territory.
Not so with these bloodthirsty behemoths.
Think you’re safe on the top level of an oil rig? Think again.
You obviously know that snakes can harm you on a plane, but certainly not a shark, right? Wrong.
What about cruising around San Francisco? That’s safe, isn’t it? Not so fast, chum.
The level of destruction these beasts are capable of prompts Gibson, her college professor Lamar (played by Sean Lawlor, who was William Wallace’s father in “Braveheart” — quite a varied resume) and Japanese scientist, Seiji, to figure out a way to rid the world of their destruction.
The ridiculousness is non-stop. One early scene shows a huge whale that was killed by the shark before it was identified. Gibson snags a tooth sample and tries to figure out what it could have come from. Her searching leads her into the laboratory, where we see her looking at colored liquids in beakers, mixing them together and shaking her head in confusion.
The fact that nothing she is doing would help identify a species based on a tooth sample doesn’t seem to matter. She might as well just stand and yell “SCIENCE!!!” at the tooth. It would accomplish the same thing.
During submarine scenes, the actors actually shake themselves back and forth to give the impression of the ship being struck. The camera shakes too, just to magnify the effect.
There is even a love story interwoven through the narrative. If you ever wanted to see two people with absolutely no chemistry combine for a cringe-worthy love scene, this is the film for you.
There are visual effects where you might think to yourself, “I’ve seen this somewhere before,” and you would be correct. You saw it four minutes ago, but this time they reversed the image to trick you. Those clever scallywags.
I won’t give away the ending, but the team uses more “SCIENCE” to come up with a solution. (Pour the blue beaker into the yellow beaker… brown, ugh. Try again. Ooh, now it’s a pretty green! Success!)
The dialog is hilarious, the delivery is incredible and the actors are all in on the joke.
It’s so bad, that it is one of the most entertaining ways to spend 90 minutes.
So rent the movie, hit the couch and perform your own stay-at-home version of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” while watching this tragically bad tragedy.
