‘Shark Week 2020’: The Best Shark Movies That Aren’t ‘Jaws’
Shark Week will give you the real scoop about sharks. If you can’t get enough, movies will give you the larger than life version. There’s no better shark movie than Jaws but there are plenty of good ones to watch after the landmark blockbuster.
‘The Meg’: Jason Statham has a prehistoric shark week
A megaladon is a bigger, badder shark than a great white. That’s because it’s prehistoric. In The Meg, a megaladon gets loose from deep within the earth’s crust. Only Jason Statham can stop it in an outrageous, over the top shark week treat.
‘The Shallows’ is a shark week Blake Lively didn’t ask for
Okay, she probably doesn’t spend a whole week stuck on that rock. The Shallows is a suspenseful movie in which a surfer (Blake Lively) gets trapped on a rock with a shark blocking her swim to land. It may not be a shark week, but the film finds every possible shark-related danger to throw at poor Lively.
‘Deep Blue Sea’ is a super smart shark week
Deep Blue Sea is the ’90s answer to Jaws. It’s sort of Frankenstein meets shark week as a scientist (Saffron Burrows) develops super smart sharks as a cure for Alzheimer’s. They get lose and not even Samuel L. Jackson can stop them. It’s not subtle, but Deep Blue Sea is relentless.
Humans are nothing but ‘Bait’
This Australian thriller has a great concept. After a typhoon, sharks infest a flooded supermarket. You won’t see that on Shark Week. Can the humans trapped inside survive? If the science lab of Deep Blue Sea and The Meg are too stuffy for you, sharks in a supermarket is the bonkers scenario you need.
Mandy Moore got trapped ‘47 Meters Down’
47 Meters Down was a surprise hit in 2017. Mandy Moore and Claire Holt played vacationers who take a shark dive, but their cage drops to the bottom of the ocean. Writer/director Johannes Roberts really kept the suspense up for the whole movie, and he came back with more…
‘47 Meters Down: Uncaged’ is even wilder
For the sequel, Roberts sent a group of four girls suba diving in underwater caves. Of course, a cave-in traps them with cave sharks. Both 47 Meters Down movies one up the Deep Blue Sea school of relentless shark attacks.
‘Jaws 2’ and ‘Jaws 3’
The sequels to Jaws get unfairly compared to their original. You can’t recreate a masterpiece, at least not without Steven Spielberg returning. Both sequels have their merits though, more so than Jaws: The Revenge.
Jaws 2 is a pretty amazing followup. The town of Amity now sees sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider) as a hero. They celebrate him, “Brody, you’re a hero, you saved us from the shark.” Then he says, “I think there’s another shark” and they say, “Whoa whoa whoa, another shark? That’s crazy. We’re not closing the beaches.” No one listens to Brody.
Jaws 3 actually takes the shark shenanigans to a new setting, Sea World. A shark attacks the tourist and Brody’s sons (Dennis Quaid and John Putch) happen to be working there. Since it was originally Jaws 3-D, the kills are in your face even in 2D.
The ‘Sharknado’ films could be the antidote to Shark Week
If you want something totally unrealistic, there are six Sharknado films. The original already began with sharks falling from the sky and Ian Ziering chainsawing out of a shark from the inside. The series eventually went into space and traveled through time. If you watch one a night you could have Sharknado Week.
‘Open Water’ had a real shark week
Honorable mention has to go to the indie film Open Water. Filmmakers Ch ris Kentis and Laura Lau had actors Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis swim in real shark infested waters. They distracted the sharks by throwing chum off camera, but got real shots of the stars with real sharks.
Kentis couldn’t quite keep the suspense of two stranded scuba divers up like some of the above films could, but the big studio films wouldn’t dare swim with real sharks either!
