The Shark Hunter

So-so adventure/thriller movie filled with underwater scenes , astonishing fights, well handled sharks scenes and violence. Mike (Franco Nero) is a shark hunter, he's crusty recluse on a Caribbean island who is dedicated to destroying sharks using any means, even jumping from a parachute. Later on, Mike gets involved in a hunt for buried treasure. But he's a mysterious man whose past nobody knows anything about, not even his girlfriend , Juanita (Patricia Rivera). Then comes Acapulco, a sympathetic and expert diver (Jorge Luke), who immediately befriends him to carry out a dangerous mission. But the situation worsens when Donovan (Michael Forest) appears -accompanied by Rosy (Mirta Miller)- who in the past worked with Captain Gomez for the Organization. Mike is actually the only one who knows the position of a plane that sank with a hundred million dollars . And certainly a hundred million dollars are tempting to many, willing to do anything to get them. A threatening Mafioso (Eduardo Fajardo) threatens Mike to reveal the whereabouts of the treasure. There's a local thug (Werner Pochath), who works for local crime lord Gomez and goes after Mike and his woman. Along the way, all of them attempting to retrieve gold bullion that lies deep in shark-infested waters . See the most sensational shark fight ever filmed!. The hunt is open, but this time not to sharks !.

This is an unexceptional, old-fashioned sunken-treasure tale with routine scenes and action enough. The ordinary garden-variety B-grade adventure in which a lot of adventurers and mobsters keep running across an underwater sunken loot. The pulse of any trash addict must pound over some ideas behind this mediocre but entertaining film. This is a violent adventure movie that earned notoriety because of on locatio , a sea pleny of hungry sharks (although there is a lot of stock-footage), as stunt divers were really injured by sharks. It stars the tireless Franco Nero, still acting here and there today, playing an adventurer gets ensnared in the mob's net off the mexican coast as they race for a cache of sunken milions. There are some botcher set pieces and one great totally unexplained scene. It is a typical Enzo G. Castelari film with action-infested dumbness and plenty of thrills , brawls , as well as strong confrontations. The naivite and oddity of the screenplay can scarcely cope with the diverse strands of script queueing up and waiting to be dealt with : underwater searches for a loot. The film was made in the wake of ¨Steven Spielberg's Jaws¨ (1975, nowadays a classic) , but it seems more like a remake of the unknown and obscure film ¨Sharks' Treasure¨ (1975) about a sunken-treasure adventure with Cornel Wilde as one man show by writing/producing/directing and acting, while the same director Enzo G. Castellari made the infamous ¨The Last Shark¨ two years later. Being an Italy/Spain/Mexico co-production, actors of these countries show up, such as: Italian as Franco Nero; Spaniard as Eduardo Fajardo, Mirta Miller; Mexico as Jorge Luke, Jorge Reynoso, Patricia Rivera; all of them give functional interpretations.

The film benefits from a colorful photography by Raúl Pérez Cubero, shot on location in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico . Adding a messy script full of some silly and ridiculous incidents from Tito Carpi, Jaime Comas Gil and Jesús R. Folgar (who produced as well). De Angelis brothers' (Guido and Mauricio) soundtrack is downright bombastic and dreamy but excessive, with synthesizer's cheerful sounds from the beginning to the end of the film. This molto cheapo movie was averagely directed by Enzo G. Castellari. Enzo is considered to be one of the best Italian artisans, who has made a nice career, shooting all kinds of genres such as Wartime : Counterfeit Commandos , Eagles over London. Adventures : Scaramouche, Shark hunter, Tuareg , Shark 3 . Sci-fi : Bronx warriors, Escape Bronx, Warriors of wasteland. Thrillers : Light blast, Il grand racket ,The day of Cobra, La via della droga , Forajidos 77. Terror : Diabla. Westerns : Keoma, Tedeum, 7 Winchester for a massacre, Matalos y vuelve, Johnny Hamlet, Any gun can play . Rating Il cacciatore di squali(1979): 5/10. Only for Franco Nero fans, fans of the Italian action genre of the seventies and completists of the attractive career of Enzo G. Castel.

I saw this movie almost a thousand times when I was a kid. I had it on VHS. And I loved it every time. But now the tape has been lost for years, and I miss this great movie, especially the music score. Is there anyone out there who can tell me how to get this film? On DVD would be perfect, but I don't think that is possible. Even on DivX or SVCD is just fine. I would be VERY grateful...

The 'Poor Man's Peckinpah' triumphed once again at a time when poor Bloody Sam was Hemingwaying himself into a way, way, way too early grave. One of the most reliable Italian genre names of the era, good ol EG (as his buckle proclaims) once more as in Street Law combines his aforementioned master, Shakespeare, impressive stunt work and a confident leading Franco Nero to thrilling effect.

A sharp script, great score and outstanding photography aid the proceedings and elevates Shark Hunter above most euro-action and at a time when the trend was beginning to slip into a still not awakened comatose.

It's about time this and several other of E.G.C's outings once again see the light of day as they're damn classy fun. That being said, there are always pacing problems with Castellari's pictures, but usually nothing major. Still, they're a lost form of the action film which needn't rely on grit or angst to tell a good story but rather operatic flair which elevates the audience's participation into more than just a spectator. These films are full of life, warts and all and i suppose that's just not some people's idea of escapism. But hey ho, there's room for all of us.

Decent enough mob flick/ Jaws ripoff, has Franco Nero sporting a supremely annoying, floppy wig, scouring the waters around small islands in the Caribbean, searching for millions of dollars, the result of a plane crash. Other searchers, as well as corrupt politicians, turn up looking for it as well- despite the fact that it is believed to be located in shark-infested waters. Well photographed in the Caribbean, and with a few good action scenes, but there is a few long stretches of nothing in between the action, and the music is sometimes effective and sometimes almost comically overpowering.

Overall, it is good, but nothing really memorable.

Franco Nero goes platinum blonde, dons a strange wig and heads for the Caribbean in a frankly bizarre and not entirely successful outing for Enzo Castellari.

Nero is The Shark Hunter, a mysterious fellow on the island who appeared from nowhere but is rather good at catching sharks. He's got his girlfriend, who has caught the eye of local thug/potential rapist Werner Pochath, who works for local crime lord Gomez. Nero has found something out there in the sea, and he's suddenly got loads of people following him.

Following a requisite bar fight with Pochath, Nero begins to work with a happy-go-lucky guy who has the diving experience and the gear to dive over three hundred metres. This guy seems trustworthy, so Nero reveals that what's down there is plane with one hundred million dollars in it. When asked what he'd do with the money, the guy says he'd spend it on orphanages and hospitals for the poor. Care to guess what happens to him?

Gomez wants to get his hands on the money, as does a stranger American fellow who arrived on the island. Can Nero get to the money and suck it out of the sea using that vacuum gadget and that huge inflatable ball? Would that even work in real life?

There's still the question of who Nero is and why he knows the money is there, and that gives him a chance to do his near-crying acting and have a few flashbacks. There's not much in the way of gunplay in this one but Enzo Castellari does get to punch Franco Nero right in the face. I wonder if that's why he gave himself such a big role? Some frustrations with his actors rising to the surface there.

Werner Pochath makes a good bad guy so we don't need to worry about that, but there's something strangely lacking from this one. I could have sworn it was aimed at kids until the end where people started getting eaten by sharks and harpooned in the chest. It's not a bad film, don't get me wrong - it's just not Castellari at his best.

Strange credits too - F. Nero? W. Pochath? Did they run out of money or something?