oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- 1981, Rather bad rip-off of the block buster shark film from Universal Studios. The movie is a 'spin' doctor of the exact scenes that made the other film so successful. A bad copy of it.*Special Stars- James Franciscus, Vic Morrow.*Theme- Sharks love to eat.*Based on- Universal's film, 'Jaws' *Trivia/location/goofs- Filmed in Italy to cash in on the shark craze. *Emotion- A somewhat forgettable as a carbon copy of the big budget shark film with different leads. Here is the best example of how many international films and US films are just obvious remakes of films that caught the public's attention and made millions for their producers. This one fails miserably.

TheExpatriate700 When it was released, The Last Shark (aka Great White) got quickly pulled from theaters due to threats of a lawsuit from Universal Studios, producers of the Jaws movies. Having seen the film on DVD, I can see why. The writers of The Last Shark basically watched the first two Jaws movies and stole every good scene from them, even going so far as to clone characters.All the main elements from Jaws are here. The gnarled seaman...check. The heroic everyman...check. The corrupt government official who tries to cover up the attacks...check. Even some of the attack scenes mimic specific scenes in Jaws I and II.These things are made worse by the fact that the Italian studio behind this film had nowhere near Spielberg's budget. Consequently, we have an obviously fake shark model that appears every time the shark sticks it's head out of the water, which is quite often. The underwater shots are accomplished by a mixture of stock shark footage and very fake looking stop motion animation.Making things even more ludicrous is that the shark appears to be intelligent, engaging in uncharacteristic shark behavior such as trying to trap people in caves with rocks and using ropes as tow lines. At times, it comes across as a comedy.

johnc2141 the last shark(aka;great white)is an Italian made jaws ripoff that is pretty good not bad like most of the killer shark movies made after jaws, its James Franciscus in the Chief Brody role although he's not a police- man.and the late great;Vic Morrow in his next to last roles as the shark hunter.the shark is sort of like a cheaper version of the jaws shark,looks kind of rubbery but not too fake looking.as compared to the original jaws it pales in comparison,but its enjoyable.the one thing i found annoying is the soundtrack,i think they could have used a better score.i think the Goblins would of been good.(suspiria,deep red)but all in all its not bad. i was a little confused about the ending but maybe i missed something,i did see it on google video since i cant find it on DVD or even VHS.i guess universal is fighting that.the title last shark makes no sense.i think a better title would have been killer jaws,but that would really irritate Spielberg and universal,anyway its worth a look.like i said one of the better jaws ripoffs,the bad ones were jaws of death,tintotera,and up from the depths.now those are bad.

Bezenby 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!