Movie Info
Movie Name: Sharknado 2: The Second One
Studio: Syfy/The Asylum/Macara Productions
Genre(s): B-Movie/Comedy/Horror/Action/Adventure
Release Date(s): July 30, 2014
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Probably not the scariest thing seen on a New York subway
Having survived the sharknado in Los Angeles, Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) and April Wexler (Tara Reid) are headed to New York City to promote her book How to Survive a Sharknado and Other Natural Disasters. When a new sharknado begins to brew off the coast of New York, the danger returns! While April deals with the loss of her hand to a shark, Fin tries to reunite with his sister Ellen (Kari Wuhrer), her husband and his former best friend Martin (Mark McGrath), their children Vaughn (Dante Palminteri) and Mora (Courtney Baxter), and Fin’s former love Skye (Vivica A. Fox)…the sharknado is coming and is hungry for blood and only Fin can stop it!!!
Directed by Anthony C. Ferrante, Sharknado 2: The Second One is a comedy action horror movie. The film is a follow-up to Sharknado from 2013 and was put into production after the first film became a viral hit (a contest was held to name the sequel). The movie aired on the Syfy network on July 30, 2014 with some theatrical releases following it. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics.
Sharknado was a weird event. Syfy had been making bad, cheap sci-fi films for years with ’80s and ’90s stars, but Sharknado took off due to the internet and ridiculous plot. Sharknado 2: The Second One took advantage of this to bring in lots of celebrity guest stars, and made the movie a little more fun.
Between Matt Lauer, Jared Fogel, and Andy Dick, this is a who’s who of assaulters
The problem with all of the SyFy movies is that they go for shlock intentionally, but don’t seem to have fun with it. The scripts are generally not very clever or fun. This movie seems to almost get that it needs to be bad and that most of the fun will come from the bad dialogue and plot. Unlike the first entry, I feel this one moves a little faster and plays with the format a bit more (though repetitive). It is completely ridiculous, it knows it is completely ridiculous, and almost lives up to this level.
The movie is loaded with celebrity guest-stars. The lead actors are by no means great thespians, but they at least seem to be having fun. The movie is loaded with guest-stars who sometime have nods to their older roles include Robert Hays (of Airplane! fame…piloting the airplane), Kelly Osbourne, Andy Dick, Judah Friedlander, Judd Hirsch (once again driving a taxi), Kurt Angle, Downtown Julie Brown, Jared Fogle (of Subway…in the subway), Perez Hilton, Biz Markie, Kelly Ripa, Michael Strahan, Al Roker, Matt Lauer, Billy Ray Cyrus (playing a doctor again), Stephanie Abrams, Rachel True, Daymond John (from Shark Tank), Richard Kind, Sandra “Pepa” Denton, and Benjy Bronk. The actors often are playing themselves.
Groovy…but not as groovy as Ash
The visuals continue to be cheap and bad…but you also wouldn’t expect more. The movie isn’t realistic or good and if it had really good effects, it would possibly confuse this idea (I do think they are slightly better than the first film). This weird dichotomy of being forced to be bad works since it allows the film to be made cheaply.
Sharknado 2: The Second One is a little better in my opinion. Yes, it loses the initial shock and goofiness of Sharknado which took the internet by storm, but it does make some improvements by relishing in its god-awful nature…and ends up slightly more fun. Watch Sharknado 2 for all the cameos…you know that you’re not going to get a plot. Sharknado 2: The Second One is followed by Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! in 2015.
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