Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Veteran director Stuart Gillard gives us a good television movie with Craig Nelson and Kim Catrall giving top-notch performances. Rockne S. O'Bannon wrote a tight adaptation of Peter Benchley's implausible novel. However, once one accepts the improbable creature, the rest of the story works well. It is made well. It entertained me. I very much enjoyed seeing the movie.Further, location shooting in St. Lucia gives this movie a good look. The images are often beautiful in ways that do not distract from the narrative. Camera work involves careful use of positioning, careful movement of cast within otherwise ordinary shots, and good panning. I like the editing. Special effects are well done. I think that the monster creature looks good.The film has a good pace with humour and slowly building moments of terror. Megalyn Echikunwoke enriches the look of the film. I like the soundtrack.

This movie should never have been released, it's an absolute failure on all levels except for some of the acting. You'll find yourself cringing at seeing recognizable actors in a movie this worthless, I can't imagine that anyone associated with the making of this movie ever brings that fact up on their resume. I had assumed that Peter Benchley had some talent as a writer after seeing Jaws, but I guess he was just a one-hit-wonder. It is too bad that he didn't have the sense to burn the manuscript and take up wood carving instead. Give the "Creature" a shiny sword and he could be a monster of the week on the Power Rangers. The movie could have worked as a comedy if they had at least sped things up a bit, it is so slow and tedious that it can't even be enjoyed as a B-movie train wreck.

The source material of this TV movie is a novel called White Shark. It was a failure when published since the public thought it was about a great white shark, instead of what it was, namely a crazed tale about a Nazi experiment re-awakened. The novel's plot played like the movie Shock Waves, but gorier and loopier. It was a great read thanks to Peter Benchley's storytelling ability. It was nothing if not a wonderful guilty pleasure that would have made a great movie had they filmed it straight......The problem was the producers couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to take a grade Z plot line that worked because of the authors skill, and change it so that it was a grade Z plot line in the hands of a grade Z writer and director. The result is a laughably bad over long movie that has a laughable but cool monster and little else. This is a movie to get drunk and make fun of. Its a so good its great film, or would be except its way way too long.

I don't want to beat a dead squid, but Peter Benchley needs to get over his obsession with scary creatures in dark water. Put the pen down and go for a swim!The writers covered it all - opening scene of a mysterious brutal death beneath the surface that outrages the locals, an under-appreciated 'expert' in marine biology (complete with sharkbait son), the skeptical townsfolk, the local police chief that doesn't want to ruin the reputation of his beaches, lots of fog at random moments of suspense, etc...The special effects are, well, not especially effective and the acting is annoying at best. If you want to enjoy this trainwreck, play the 'Chase' drinking game (Craig T. Nelson's character is Chase) and take a swig every time someone yells it out. You'll be feeling good by the second commercial break!