Octopus 2: River of Fear

As if the world hadn't already got enough cheap Jaws imitations, writer Boaz Davidson decided to make the sequel to his ropey-but-reasonably-enjoyable creature-feature Octopus a complete rip-off of Spielberg's classic, right down to having a concerned cop who no-one believes, and a mayor more worried about his 4th July celebrations than people's lives.

Even in the hands of an extremely skilled director, it is unlikely that this derivative rubbish could have been anything other than hokey B-movie garbage, but with Yossi Wein (yes THE Yossi Wein!) calling the shots behind the camera, a man with a fraction of Mr.Spielberg's talent (I estimate about 1/10000th), Octopus 2 is guaranteed to be every bit as bad as one might imagine!

The predictable and extremely clichéd plot isn't worth describing in much detail (substitute Jaws' Amity Island with New York, and Bruce the Shark with a giant rubber octopus and you'll get the gist), although several points about the film are definitely worth mentioning, simply because they are so funny: all of the octopus attacks involve the actors struggling to make incredibly fake-looking giant tentacles look real, which is hilarious to behold; Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, unconvincingly stands in for New York, and overuse of stock footage makes the illusion even less convincing; best of all, a silly dream sequence that sees the rubber octopus attacking our hero atop the Statue of Liberty, is not only gut-bustingly stupid but also features some truly dreadful special effects.

Davidson's script also doesn't know when to quit: there are several points in this film at which it could've (and probably should've) ended, but the action goes on and on, with the octopus surviving several explosions, and causing a tunnel to collapse (trapping the film's love interest and a bunch of kids), before finally being blown to smithereens by the hero.

Sometimes very silly, always awful technically, but never actually scary, this STV stinker may find fans amongst those who actively seek out cinematic trash. Most normal people, however, would be advised to steer well clear.

Released in the US in January, 2002, "Octopus 2: River of Fear" is a sequel in name only. Whereas the original "Octopus" (2000) had a highly creative storyline involving terrorists, a submarine, a cruise ship and a bizarro-James Bond, "Octopus 2" takes the tried-and-true "Jaws" route. The setting here is New York City. A giant octopus decides to make the East River his home and people inevitably start dying. Two harbor patrol officers discover the cause of the deaths, but are ignored and ridiculed. The city is preparing for its biggest Independence Day celebration ever and the mayor doesn't want the officers' preposterous monster 'story' getting out and causing a mass panic.

As you can see, the basic plot mimics "Jaws" to a 'T.' Regardless, I was pretty impressed with the first half. You could tell the filmmakers and cast really put some thought and effort into making a quality Grade B creature feature, reminiscent of "Kolchak - The Night Stalker." Where "Octopus 2" takes a wrong turn is the last act, which morphs into a disaster film involving a school bus of kids and other vehicles trapped in a river tunnel. Not that it was a bad idea, especially since it gives evidence that the creators wanted to deviate from the basic "Jaws" plot, which I respect, but they failed to execute it. The last act seems rushed and sloppy, like the filmmakers were just trying to get the film done and over with, with almost zero effectiveness. In other words, they started with good intentions and quality vigor, but somewhere along the line they lost their focus & enthusiasm and decided to just go through the motions and collect their paychecks. It's unfortunate because the first half is a solid creature-on-the-loose flick in the manner of "Kolchak."

For a good example of what I mean, check out the scene near the end where the monster -- thought to be dead -- rises up for another attack; this scene is so poorly presented it's hard to believe it was done by the same team that produced the first half.

BOTTOM LINE: The first half is a well-done nature-runs-amok flick featuring a quality cast, particularly the two officers who investigate the killings and the mayoral worker who befriends them, but when the film attempts to morph into a disaster flick it inexplicably falls apart. Yet it's still worthwhile if you like movies along the lines of "Kolchak."

The film runs 94 minutes.

GRADE: C

The incredibly gratuitous use of stock footage (you see the same CGI footage of the mouth about a 15 times, and the three seconds 4th of July fireworks about 20...I kid you not) and cliches at the end of the film makes it amusing, along with a complete abuse of space and time as a takes about 6 hours to make it from somewhere in Manhattan to another to watch 4th of July fireworks and along the way passes city hall, and goes over several bridges qand finally through a tunnel (which, incidentally, is portrayed as being a conrete tube on the river bottom as opposed to buried beneath it). Maybe the driver was really bored or just incredibly lost. Definitely a "C" movie (do they go lower?) but going in forewarned, you can still get some chuckles out of it, especially if you know NYC at all.

I liked this movie a lot better then part one until the ending. The acting while not great (remember this is a direct to video movie after all) is a hell of a lot better then the first flick. Furthermore the effects are much better. The Octopus is actually in this movie a lot as opposed to being a minor character in the first flick which dealt with a submarine crew escorting a terrorist back to the U.S.A. Plus the Octopus looks a lot better. While there is really bad CGI effects, most of the effects were utilized with a huge animatronic Octopus as well as various tentacle props giving the Octopus a more solid look rather then BAD painted effects from the first film. HOWEVER the massive Stock footage from part one kinda ruins it after a while, BUT the ending destroyed this movie entirely for me!! To massive amounts of footage of kids singing on a school bus, to a complete and shameless rip-off of the film DAYLIGHT to 15 minutes of kids being rescued from the bus, to a horrible actress pretending to be an old Jewish women to the Octopus getting completely blown to bits only to resurface completely unharmed moments later to 6 different stock footage shots of the Octopus finally blowing up at the end to me scratching my head in disbelief!!

As far as B sci-fi are concerned, this is a solid middle of the road movie. I've watched other craps like the Carnosaur series, and the likes of the Dog Soldier where I have no idea why it gets a high score. Many of these so called sci-fi movies are rip offs in that they state certain monster will appear, but when you see it, the total appearance time of the monster is less than a minute or two, and other 90 minutes is a filler where soldiers or who ever is acting scared and shouting macho BS. Many of them happens in such a dark setting that you can hardly see any details like AVP 2.

Compared to these, Octopus 2 has solid performance both from the actors and the octopus. There's a story that's believable, and the actions are not bad either.

There are other bad movies out there that's lot worse, and after seeing sci-fi movies for years, this is a solid middle of the road piece.