Raiders of the lost shark. (sorry my evil twin made me say that)
David Franks (Stephen Baldwin) and his girlfriend Laura (Vanessa Johansson) are in Venice, Italy. They are there to meet with Venetian police to learn more about the mysterious disappearance of David's father. They visit his last known site. David gets a glimpse of what looks like the dorsal fin of a shark. He decides to take a closer look. David is a scuba diver like his father. He and an Italian scuba diver enter the canals to search for clues. They are attacked by a large shark. The man with David is killed and David is injured. He manages to surface into an underground cave.
David wanders through the cave channels trying to find a way out and narrowly avoiding some booby traps. Eventually he enters a large cavern containing a large treasure. He picks up a brooch and makes his way back to the surface. He then loses consciousness and wakes up in a hospital bed.
David finds out that what he stumbled on was the long lost treasure of the Medici. He becomes embroiled in a Mafia Don's plan to use him to find the treasure again. The mafia kidnap Laura and unless David agrees to go back into the water his girlfriend will be killed. In the meantime the sharks are between him and the treasure. And they are very hungry.
"Sharks in Venice" was released in 2008 and was directed by Danny Lerner. Despite the silly name the plot was interesting. I was encouraged even though the movie is a low budget SYFY channel endeavor. Of course just about everything else was crap. And, although there were some good shark moments I would have liked just a little more shark. They have top billing, they should be front and center.
There are of course other draw backs to take into consideration. The bad acting, the bad dialogue, the inconsistent storyline, Stephen Baldwin. Despite the drawbacks I enjoyed most of it.
Is the movie bad? Yes. I expected that going in, but I was enchanted enough to enjoy the plot and the sharks. After all I came for the sharks and I got a little extra along the way.
Yes, there really are sharks in the canals of Venice. There have been confirmed sightings of leopard sharks cruising around. They are only two or three feet long but how big do you need to be? I believe they might even have their own twitter account. This movie, however, can not be satisfied with harmless little leopard sharks. This movie needs big old man eating white sharks. And they do. There are lots of casualties. Much blood and body parts floating around. Some good shark attack images. It’s surprising how many people dive in the canals of Venice.