By 3 News online staff
Cult movie sensation Sharknado is swimming into New Zealand cinemas for one night only next week, Vendetta Films has announced today.
The low-budget film features several hundred sharks terrorising Los Angeles after being caught up in freak water tornadoes. It stars Tara Reid of American Pie and Ian Ziering of Beverly Hills 90210.
Sharknado is the latest from The Asylum, the notorious production company responsible for dozens of titles going for the so-bad-it's-good market including Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Transmorphers, Snakes on a Train, Paranormal Entitiy and Titanic II.
In the USA, Sharknado launched on SyFy TV channel and at its peak was generating 5000 tweets a minute. With a total of 387,000 social mentions, the movie came just under hitting the social mentions of Game of Thrones 'Red Wedding' episode.
Reviews of Sharknado have been surprisingly positive - it currently has a rating of 90 percent on Rottentomatoes.com.
"It’s a deceptively tough feat that the makers of Sharknado pulled off: making a movie that’s shlockily and campily hilarious without seeming to try too hard to make something shlockily and campily hilarious. Oh sure, you’d think it’s as easy as casting Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, hiring a hobo to do the CGI, and letting the magic make itself. But it’s easy to see where a title like this could become self-serious or smirky. Not Sharknado," writes James Poniewozik at Time.
"The title and premise of this one was so ludicrous that it became a draw for me and other looky-lous, and it gave us exactly what we wanted: something unapologetically dumb and cheap and outrageous to laugh at (and, occasionally, with) for a couple of hours," writes Alan Sepinwall at HitFix.com.
"It reminds us that we should all be aware of the negative affects of global warming and never underestimate the potentials of Mother Nature. Alternatively, it encourages you to dive even deeper into the sea of possible interpretations. Is it the work of God?" asks Jacqueline Andriakos at Entertainment Weekly.
"We are very excited to bring the cult of Sharknado to Kiwi audiences. It makes Jaws look like Free Willy," says Jill Macnab of local distributor Vendetta Films.
Sharknado is screening at select cinemas across New Zealand next Friday, August 23, at 9pm. The cinemas confirmed thus far are:
- Hoyts Sylvia Park (Auckland)
- Event Queen St (Auckland)
- Hoyts Te Awa (Hamilton)
- Readings Courteney Place (Wellington)
- Hoyts Riccarton (Christchurch)
Following the cinema sessions, Sharknado will be broadcast on Prime TV in late August, before its DVD and VOD release in October.
3 News
source: newshub archive
