Story Synopsis: The USA is put on high alert when the Islamist government of Iran is overthrown in a bloody coup. At the same time, Dr. Van Tassel, a chemical weapons expert who is working with the UN to examine Iraqi armouries, is abducted by the Iranians, who want to use his encyclopaedic knowledge of chemical weapons in order to build up their own stockpile. The US Navy sends in a Navy SEAL team to rescue him. At first, the plan goes off without a hitch, but the SEALs are quickly overrun by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard & captured. The prisoners are transferred to one of the Iranian navy's submarines, whose commander plans to use them as a shield in order to attack US submarines with impunity. But as the American submarine in the area is dragged into a cat-&-mouse game with it, the SEALs & Van Tassel combine their knowledge in order to hijack the sub & escape before it is sunk.Film Analysis: Steel Sharks is one of the countless direct-to-video action films made during the 1990s, a card-carrying member of the catalogue maintained by Royal Oaks Entertainment, a studio formed by former actor Andrew Stevens & former tennis player Ashok Amritraj.As is the case with most of Royal Oaks' films, Steel Sharks is a military-themed actioner with an emphasis on US military tactics & hardware. The heroes of the film are all US military members & the film has plenty of stock footage of submarines surfacing, planes taking off aircraft carriers & so on.While the film places priority on giving a realistic story (although I don't think that Iran's government will be overthrown for at least another couple of decades, even with the Arab Spring claiming the despots of Tunisia & Egypt & the brutal civil wars of Libya & Syria) & well-drawn characters, Steel Sharks is still a cheap action film that doesn't have any chance of rising above the flood of similar films that came out at the same time. If anything, the film (which is still a lot better than those awful actioners that Chuck Norris made during the 1980s) is something of a forgettable effort. Despite the submarine shots being rather poor model work, there is nothing wrong with the technical side of things.The acting is, as usual with these Royal Oaks films, quite good. Billy Warlock shines as the new recruit for the SEALs team, Gary Busey (who is by nature something of an underrated actor) making a capable submarine commander & Billy Dee Williams doing it well as the Navy bigwig running the show.

This movie started out very slow, but then picked up the pace, and started to become more exciting. I nearly fell asleep during the first half hour, but sort of woke up during the last parts of the film, when you got to know the characters a bit better, and their escape from the submarine began.I thought it was kind of funny that the foreigners couldn't decide on whether to speak in their native language, or to speak English, it just seemed like improvised play and/or poor planning.I liked most of the actors though, and especially thought that Gary Busey's portrayal of the bizarre captain (he always said something weird in critical moments) was amusing. Seeing him in navy clothes brought back some memories of "Under Siege", where he also appeared in the same kind of outfit, and also acted crazy throughout. Overall, I have to give this movie 5/10, because it wasn't completely bad, and some of the settings were kind of cool, but it was just unexciting, dull, and lacked genuine thrills and excitement..But to be honest, this movie just lacks the presence of Steven Seagal.. Billy Dee Williams and a crew of Navy Seals led by Billy Warlock doesn't quite cut it.

Steel Sharks may not the best or well acted movie ever made, but neither is it the worst. It is also not a rip off of "The Hunt for Red October". To say that it is, is like saying that "The Hunt for Red October" is a rip off of "Up Periscope". The films have nothing in common other than the fact that they have submarines in them. Steel Sharks is about a Seal Team rescue mission. It has nothing to do with stealing submarines from the Russians. It is a tight and fast paced story with little or no loose ends. "The Hunt for Red October" was a film with a message, Steel Sharks had no such lofty goals. It sought only to entertain, and it does. I was entertained.

This has got to be one of the worst movies made in recent years. It's a low budget rip-off of "The Hunt for Red October" with acting so atrocious it's laughable. This is definitely one to miss. I have no idea how they got Gary Busey to do this film.