This movie is an absolute gem. When it comes to great bad movies this ranks near the top with the best of them. It's such a rip-off of Jaws that it feel like a parody. The shark looks awful; they use a bunch of documentary footage intertwined with the footage of their shark and both are shot differently which is very noticeable. I though Jaws the Revenge will forever be the best terrible shark movie I'll ever see but this is even better. The way the shark behaves are highly unrealistic and all the attack scenes are great. This is just a great laugh-out loud comedy, there is one scene of someone dying and getting catapulted into the air which they show again later as someone in the movie filmed that moment, it's like the director knew how terrible and hilarious it was and wanted to give us another chance to see it, God bless him. for that and for making this beautiful moving picture.

This movie is a pretty darned good flick! When it first came out, it was a hit with audiences here in the US. It made almost 20 million before Universal won a law suit and had it banned. Why did they do this?When watching this film, I only saw maybe a few "Jaws" references. When one looks at the movie "Cruel Jaws" (another Italian pseudo-sequel), one can actually see the blatant "Jaws" rip-off and copyright infringements! My God! That one even stole scenes from "Jaws"!However, this one bears NO SIMILARITY to the movie "Jaws". The plot may be similar but having a similar plot does not constitute copyright infringement. Just look at the movies "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Puppet Masters" for goodness sake!There are no similar characters except maybe the Quint character. However, Vic Morrow's character in "The Last Shark" and Robert Shaw's character in "Jaws" are actually direct opposites! I really see NO resemblance."The Last Shark" did not copy any lines (unlike "Cruel Jaws") nor did the mayor of Amity in "Jaws" go out in a darned helicopter to kill the blasted thing!Universal sued to gain a monopoly! That's the bottom line! They saw that this movie was well received and began earning quite a bit of money! Oh, hell no! Universal can't allow another shark movie to match "Jaws" in revenue!Watch both movies back-to-back and you will see that they bear NO resemblance in story or characters. They may share a "spiritual" connection but that is all they share. I wonder if the judge who sided with Universal was pressured??? Wouldn't doubt it! Many judges today would laugh at Universal and throw the case out immediately! Monopoly, monopoly, monopoly!

I've no idea why a guy like Enzo Castellari would stoop to such a wholesale rip-off of the Jaws movies, but we're talking about the wacky world of Italian cinema, so who knows? Castellari never ceases to amaze me with his action-packed, stylistic films like Street Law and the Big Racket, and although folks say that he lost it a bit during the eighties, the Last Shark is the only film I've seen by him that's less than great (c'mon - Bronx Warriors and The New Barbarians are still a hoot, despite their limitations).The plot is a bit of Jaws and a bit of Jaws two mixed together. We've got an Italian b-movie cast from heaven - James Franciscus (Cat o Nine Tails) is our hero, with Vic Morrow (Bronx Warriors) as the pseudo Scottish Robert Shaw facsimile, Joshua Sinclair as the troubled mayor torn between his polls and the safety of his folks, Romano Puppo as a shark hit-man (or something like that), with Giancarlo Prete and Massimo Vanni turning up as a ruthless film crew.Basically: it's Jaws. A large Great White turns up in the sea outside of town and starts eating folks. The mayor doesn't really want to shut the beach due to an upcoming Regatta, and Vic Morrow offers his hand in wasting the troublesome fish. The plot is so nearly identical that Spielberg sued the film right out of the USA! It never come near the original's level of tension, and there's not much by way of shocks (the 'head popping out from under the boat bit' in Jaws is a classic), but I'd say that the Last Shark is mainly interesting for fans of Castellari himself, as well as his perpetually recurring actors. Every non-shark orientated shot is full of primary colours: blues, yellows and reds abound. There's a ton of style injected into these proceedings, plus plenty of Castellari slow motion, and the usual gore (though not so much as Jaws).The Last Shark starts off well, slumps slightly in the middle, and picks up again towards the end when Joshua Sinclair tries his hand at fishing the shark out the water using a helicopter. Plus, any film that has Massimo Vanni being bitten in half earns extra points.At the end of the day though, it's still a blatant rip-off of Jaws, and the low budget rears its head whenever shark footage appears, with some dodgy models and terrible stock footage. Some copies of this film are very dark too, which would hamper viewing (although the first version I watched, on Italian television, was as clear as anything).For Enzo Castellari fans only - his mark is all over this film. Check out Vic Morrow's Scottish accent too! I've never heard a Scotman talk like that, and I live there!

This movie is really worth the money! I went to a DVD store one day and found this movie amongst splatter movies. I read the cover describing it as a real success at the 80's and how mad Spielberg was when the movie got released. I can't believe this movie got that low rating! It may be cheap, it may be campy, but it's really truly entertaining! When I watched the movie I almost smiled the whole time. And that scene with the helicopter... the gore... his legs! Amazing! Laughed my tears out! Sure it isn't as great as Spielberg's Jaws, but it sure beats the guts out of the bad Jaws sequels! Those who thinks my comment is stupid are just the ones who don't understand how bad can be good. Worth watching!