The first two Sharknado movies were not great and had a lot wrong with them, but they were guilty pleasure fun as long as not taken seriously. Sharknado 3 however was a let-down, it lacks the fun and charm of the first two as a result of being too self-aware and trying far too hard, really wanted to not take this seriously and view it as a guilty pleasure but it was just too amateurish and tired.
Sharknado 3 does start off great, with a thrilling James Bond-like opening credits sequence and the hilariously over-the-top sliding across the floor scene. Ian Ziering is likable and charismatic in the lead role, he plays it straight but still looks like he's having fun with the role, and Matt Lauer and Al Roker return and are amusing. The soundtrack is energetic and eerie enough, and there are a couple of reasonably fun death scenes, got a good chuckle out of Jerry Springer's.
Very little else works however. The rest of the acting is not very good at all, with Tara Reid being every bit as unspeakably awful as she was in the first two movies, her facial expressions look so expressionless and very forced in the few times she tries, her line delivery is mechanical and she constantly looks ill at ease. The dizzying amount of cameos and the quality of them are nowhere near as entertaining as before, not just the too deadpan approach but also that they're poorly written and feel too random and brief. Mark Cuban is incredibly annoying and like Reid shows no acting skills whatsoever, while on the other end of the spectrum, Frankie Muniz is lightweight to the point of being bland and David Hasselhoff is wooden.
Even for low-budget, Sharknado 3 is very shoddy stuff, the scenery is pretty good but the movie is shot in a very rushed-looking and drab way, editing is sloppy as well as choppy and the shark special effects are typical dreadfully artificial Asylum/SyFy fare. Regarding the shark attacks and death scenes, there are a few decent ones in the fun factor (Jerry Springer, Frankie Muniz) but on the most part the unintentional silliness comes at the expense of thrills and suspense, which are nowhere in sight, and while fun at first the unintentional silliness generally gets tiresome. The movie is directed flatly, the energy and enthusiasm this time around in the pacing is missing and there are too many cardboard characters that are difficult to give a toss about. The first two movies had some great funny lines, but the script here contains nothing remotely amusing or memorable and instead feels stale and tiresomely cheesy. Say what you will about the second Sharknado movie being a re-tread, but this movie is much more so, and with none of the fun, charm or energy of the previous two outings, with the Universal Studios scenes going on forever and leading nowhere. It's further not helped by trying too hard being dopey fun and in the process taking itself too seriously with everything played straight and overly-deadpan, that any life is sucked out.
All in all, the third movie in the Sharknado franchise has its moments but is very lacking on the whole this time round. 4/10 Bethany Cox
