Immediately after Sharknado originally aired on the SyFy network, my zombie mentor urged me to see it. On one hand, he was right about the zombie thing long before The Walking Dead hit the airwaves. On the other hand, I didn’t have cable; life is short; and my various queues are enormous. Prioritizing Sharknado seemed silly. I never dismissed the movie, but I also would not make it happen. If it was supposed to happen, it would be easy, and it actually was. It came to my attention that the first five movies of six Sharknado movies could be streamed on Netflix so I added them to my queue. Then I watched The Meg, which did not hit the spot. I decided to rewatch Jaws, which was great….of course. (Spielberg killed a kid.) Sharknado just seemed thematically right, but two weeks earlier, I noticed that it was going to expire on New Year’s Day. I realized it was now or never, but I did not do what I normally do—schedule it with my other commitments. It did not rise to that level of concern. On December 30, 2018, it suddenly became very urgent to accomplish a task that I had planned to do in February: reorganize my unread bookshelves. This franchise is the perfect multitasking tool.
Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens is the slightly less dreadful than its immediate predecessor, Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, which is absolute dreckitude. Now we’re just blindly reaching into the family tree and yanking out a Shepard cousin, who was utterly forgettable, but a nice bonus is that Grandpa Shepard, played by David Hasselhof, actually mixes better with the overall cast, is adorable when he has to work with his grandson, and we finally get some much needed Baywatch references. We also get an oddly placid Cheryl Tiegs, who is Grandma Shepard. There is now a child, who is mildly amusing in an Excalibur sort of way.
Honestly Tara Reid steals the limelight in Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens. Her plot twist is totally bananas in the best way possible, and she gets to work with Gary Busey, who is innately wacky on his best day when he isn’t playing a role and just going to the corner store. She gets to make Marvel, Terminator and other pop culture references. Reid improves with each subsequent appearance and gets the best sport award for gamely being able to go with the ridiculous flow.
Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens really hammers home the tornado part, but it isn’t as funny as it sounds, and they even bring in Gilbert Gottfried to try and amp it up to no avail. Stick with the emphasis on sharks. There are also frequent Star Wars references that just fall flat. The futuristic component runs out of energy because the writers just lack the imagination to stick with the theme beyond lasers and drones. The movie also makes its first attempt to use more than two major locations, which does not help even though it takes on a national road trip quality that could have worked, but is barely appreciated. At least they brought by Al Roker to liven up the proceedings though didn’t he die in a prior installment? I’ll sign a waiver.
The Las Vegas portion held some promise, but since that location is already over the top, the script never quite finds the right way to milk it though the Chippendale dancer nod was clever and worked. The reintroduction of Shepard’s son, Matt, whom a new actor plays, and introduction of a new family member was initially promising, but eventually it falls flat and fizzles as if the cousin was sufficient, which she was not so I was disappointed. The new actor playing the sister returns and clearly got a promotion since she is no longer meeting guys at amusement parks, but has a job following around grandpa. I almost forgot whom she was when she reappeared. Where is McGrath?
Tommy Davidson’s role had a lot of potential for humor, but Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens never quite knows what to do with their mogul. Is he really evil? Is he good? Is he well intentioned, but reckless? They land on goofy humor and humiliation, which was a lost opportunity because one of the funniest scenes is when Davidson has to deal with security on his property. Also he seemed to take the Robert Palmer approach to hiring personnel.
I was prepared to be mad at Stacey Dash’s cameo, but she plays conspiracy theory promulgator, irrational hater of the Shepard family well so carry on. Side note: she failed in a California congressional run so apparently she could never, ever be mayor of Chicago, and she is lucky that whomever the far right person is that is feeding roles to vitriolic public figures in the Sharknado franchise picked her to get a paycheck. Congratulations, your acting meets the required level for a B movie franchise.
Congratulations goes to Steve Guttenberg, who was originally offered the role of Fin Shepard, played by Ian Zierling, and has been beating himself up for not taking it. I feel like a Knight Rider reference would have been better than a Stephen King’s Christine reference, especially if you’re not ready to take a horror spoof detour, but I’m complaining about narrative decisions in one of the lesser entries in the Sharknado franchise. Come on!
In the end, Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens saves itself with an ending that beats anything that precedes it and definitely hooked me into taking more time to watch the next installment in the franchise. Just when I’m ready to call it quits, the movie gives me something so ridiculous, but intriguing that I stay on board to see where it will go.
