"Hamilton Lux" (Armand Assante) is a real estate developer who wants to buy all of the homes and business of the small fishing town of Full Moon Bay in order to build condos overlooking the Pacific Ocean. So in order to compel the townsfolk to sell their property to him he has secretly poisoned the nearby coastal waters to kill all of the fish and impoverish the community to such an extent that they will be more than happy to take whatever he offers them. Unfortunately for him, one particular fisherman by the name of "Daniel Wilder" (John Schneider) has no intention of selling out and he happens to own a vital piece of property that Hamilton Lux needs desperately. Even worse is the fact that the particular chemicals used by Hamilton Lux to poison the fish has not only drastically affected the ecological balance but it has also resulted in the sharks hunting in large schools in search of the only food sources now available to them—vacationers enjoying the waters off Full Moon Bay. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that, for a made-for-television film, it wasn't too bad. Although I didn't care for some of the characters, I particularly liked the performance of Amy Zuckerman (as "Heather McComb") and the aforementioned Armand Assante. I also thought the shark footage was okay for the most part as well. In any case, although a bit long I have rated the movie as about average and recommend it to those who enjoy films of this type.

People who love to watch movies about fictional shark attacks will get more bite for their bucks with veteran television director James A. Contner's "Shark Swarm," literally a shark munching marathon that clocks in at a whopping 169 minutes. Okay, the sharks--great whites,hammerheads, and scores of others--are primarily CGI creations. You will lose count of the number of times that one shark gobbles the camera, but Contner manages to generate a fair amount of suspense. Every time that anybody plunges into the briny deep, you know that they will wind up as shark bait. Of course, everything here is entirely preposterous, but you know that the seaweed huggers will love the ecology message. The teleplay by Matthew Chernov and David Rosiak takes its time with the formulaic plot that has "Jaws" written all over it with some melodramatic variations. Indeed, if "Jaws" did not discourage you would splashing around in the deep blue sea, "Shark Swarm" ought to with its fishy action.Fisherman Daniel Wilder (John Schneider of "The Dukes of Hazzard" & "Smallville)and his wife Brook (Darryl Hannah of "Splash") along with their brother Professor Phillip Wilder (Roark Critchlow of "Komodo vs. Cobra")are the only people who refuse to sell out to a greedy real estate developer Hamilton Lux (Armand Assante of "I, Jury")who wants to turn the waterfront into a luxury condo. Lux has brought out everybody else in town and struggles to buy out Wilder, but he cannot make our hero an offer that he can refuse. Meanwhile, Lux's have a power plant and his scheming underling Kane Markus (John Enos III of "Demolition Man ") has been secretly dumping toxic waste into the coastal waters to drive off the fish and deprive the fishermen of their livelihoood.Meanwhile, Philip strikes up a relationship with an EPA employee, Amy Zuckerman (Heather McComb of "Apt Pupil"), who initially starts out working with Lux until Philip woos her from the dark side. Eventually, she discovers foul play and Lux manages to wield his influence and has her removed from the job. When Philip is not making time with Amy, he is getting even more acquainted with popular college professor Professor Bill Girdler (F. Murray Abraham of "Scarface")who uses a NASA satellite to study the California coastal waters. Lately, he has been noticing schools of sharks swimming together and regards this behavior as anomalous. Before long even Daniel is suspicious. It seems that the phosphorous that Lux's henchmen have been secretly dumping has really screwed up the sharks. These predators attack anybody in the water! "Shark Swarm" is aptly titled because Contner shows up many scenes of swarming sharks that gang up on humans. In the last hour, things turn pretty melodramatic when Markus moves against Wilder and company and tries to drown them in a shark cage. Meantime, Philip has acquired secret pulse guns from another professor and discovers that when discharged at the schools of sharks that they scatter. Several other subplots crop up, including one about a little girl who refuses to wade into the water after she witnesses two shark attacks. Her distraught parents strive to make her look stupid, but she stands by her guns and gets to tell them after a narrow escape from shark infested waters that she "told them so." Professor Girdler picks up the sharks on his satellite imagery because they are glowing with the phosphorous and he warns our heroes that three beaches are liable to turn into massacres. At one point, Markus tries to kill Daniel and Brook, but Brook outsmarts him. This is the most anemic scene in this made-of-the Sci-Fi Channel movie. Daniel and Brook are suspending in a shark cage that the predators will gnaw through in no time. Miraculously, largely owing to circumstance and the fact that they are hero and heroine, they survive.Amand Assante makes a slimy villain as does John Enos III. They get their comeuppance just as you would expect. Chomp! "Shark Swarm" is fairly predictable with few surprises, but the familiar cast and their sterling performances help out and the story does manage to hold your attention despite its excessive running time.

Shark Swarm is set in California in the small fishing community of Full Moon Bay where all the fish have disappeared because rich businessman Hamilton Lux (Armand Assante) has hired local thug Kane (John Enos III) to pollute the waters around the bay to kill off all the fish so everyone will go out of business & sell him their property cheap. However stubborn long term resident & local fisherman Daniel Wilder (John Schneider) refuses to sell up, while out on his boat Daniel comes across another boat badly damaged. Investigating the boat it seems that sharks were responsible & not just ordinary sharks either, no mutant sharks that swim & hunt in swarms whose DNA have been altered due to all the toxic waste in the bay & with food in short supply the sharks turn to human flesh to satisfy their hunger! It's up to hero Daniel to convince the world that the sharks exist & then destroy them...Directed by James A. Cotner this stupid & boring 'Creature Feature' is about as bad as they come. Even though Shark Swarm is supposed to be about killer man eating sharks all the boring domestic dramatics take center stage with the whole evil developer trying to run decent family man out of business plot getting much more screen time than the sharks which is unacceptable since the only reason anyone would want to watch a film called Shark Swarm would be for the sharks surely? The plot is slow going so as to have the least number of shark attacks possible thus saving money on CGI effects, there's no gore (or at least in the TV version I saw), it's boring, overlong, predictable & like all bad shark films people venture into the water even when they know they shouldn't. I also liked the reaction of the bystanders on the beach towards the end as they see the sharks in the water, they all turn & run away screaming like the sharks are going to grow legs & jump out of the water & move about on land. Also what happened to Al, the guy who had his hand bitten off? Shark Swarm is awful & even features a really bad climax where the heroes just point 'pulse guns' at the sharks to defeat them, boring. Then there's the happy soap opera style ending just to rub salt into the wound as local small town American mentality wins out over big evil corporate business. What could have been a fun 'Creature Feature' with a strong message about the dangers of dumping toxic waste is actually a boring drama with the shark side of the script almost coming off as a sub-plot.The sharks are rarely seen with good reason as the CGI computer effects are awful, in fact you never see a shark or one of it's victims in the same shot as all the attacks are exactly the same with a shot of a bad CGI shark underwater followed by a real human actor splashing around & screaming on the surface. The build up is slow & lethargic, the attacks scenes have no pace or gore or any cool shots & it's certainly not scary.Filmed on what was obviously a low budget one time A list Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah appears here but she doesn't seem that interested while highly respected actors Armand Assante & F. Murray Abraham who has actually won an Oscar also turn up in this which is probably a low point in all three's careers.Shark Swarm is a terrible 'Creature Feature' with hardly any action or shark attacks, zero gore & a boring plot that deal more with the small town domestic dramas than the man eating sharks. One to avoid.

"Shark Swarm" is a fine, if unspectacular killer shark miniseries.**SPOILERS**Due to a fishing shortage, Hamilton Lux, (Armand Assante) grows frustrated with top fisher Kane Markus, (John Enos III) who is having a personal feud with Daniel Wilder, (John Schneider) an independent fisher in town. When his younger brother Phillip, (Roark Critchlow) is sent to town through a University experiment, he comes in right during the middle of a large property dispute in town, and they both refuse to sell. As he starts his experiments, he finds that the local water supply has been corrupted by toxic waste from a local construction company, which has turned a group of sharks into vicious killers that are targeting the local population. Along with his friend Clint Duran, (Brent King) and wife Brooke, (Daryl Hannah) they take to the seas to stops the sharks from their rampage.The Good News: As far as killer shark films go, this one isn't completely terrible. One of the most important things about it is that, like all good creature features, it makes them into a credible force to be reckoned with. This here is one in two ways, both of which are perfect at that point. The first is that the film has a great body count, with about a dozen kills in it. That's a welcome addition to any shark film, where the fact that it takes out a rather sizable amount of the cast with some good points to it. Though most are pulled underwater, it has enough in here to make it count, and by featuring as much as it does, it makes for some really great moves on the sharks. The other big factor toward them is that they're depicted as a threat al the way through, using the same kind of attack patterns and not really changing at all during them. That there's a frequent amount of attacks is really great, giving it a lot of action that certainly works. The extended sequence with the henchmen works to introduce the sharks taking them out one at a time, and the inclusion of a cage helps matters a lot, the assaults on the separate teams of divers are rather fun, and the triple assault on the three beaches at the end derives some great parts to it. The last part that works is the important way it handles the sharks at the end. Rather than kill them for being vicious, this one has them driven away and saved, keeping them alive at the end. That's a great improvement over others out there, and is a part of the film's good parts.The Bad News: This one had a couple of flaws to it that hold it down. The biggest one here is that the film is really way too long. There's no reason this one couldn't have been two hours long, but since it tacks on a good half-hour more, there's a lot of rather dull scenes that really hurt this one. The inane subplot in this one about the building developments around the town really should've been scaled back considerably, as this one takes it over-the-edge and just goes on and on in here with absolutely no real interest to the rest of the film. It just eats up absolutely a ton of time on a story that has nothing to make it interesting at all. All it does is just irritate by going so long on such a dull and incredibly boring part of the film by making it go on for so long. That it takes up so much time in the running time also affects the action scenes in here, as although there's a lot in here which do work well, the fact that they're so short is where the time comes up. They're really quick and over a lot sooner than they should've been, and it reduces the epic feeling it was going for significantly by doing this. The last flaw in here is the terrible CGI for the sharks. They abandon the few relatively decent-looking real sharks in here to go for a constant series of incredibly badly done and fake-looking CGI sharks, which has nothing to do at all with being realistic, is easily spotted in the sequences for doing so and just makes the film look even cheaper. These here are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: Though there's some good points to this one, the sheer fact that it's so long to really make most of those stick around. If the length can be tolerated, then this one isn't all that bad to give a chance on, or for the more tolerant creature feature fans, though the length is going to be a turn-off for some.Rated R: Violence and Language