When there was a successful film here in the states during the 70's and 80's it was not uncommon for the Italian film industry and other European countries to try and emulate the success of said film by making one very similar to the successful American film. George Romero's Dawn of the Dead would spawn several zombie films, Alien would also have imitators as did Mad Max (though that one was not even American). Then there were several shark films that tried to emulate Jaws to a degree; however, none would be as flagrant a rip off as this film that was titled The Great White when it was initially released in American theaters and subsequently yanked when Speliberg's company threatened a lawsuit. Yes, it was that close to being Jaws that they successfully got this one pulled. The story, a shark begins to terrorize a small community on the coast where the mayor wants this stupid race to occur no matter the risks! Sounds familiar doesn't it? But wait, there's more! We even have a grizzled old fisherman who wants to hunt the shark and a marine biologist type who is also hoping to stop the super shark! Granted, there are a few differences as it does have a nifty ending on a makeshift raft formed by a pier pulled out to sea by shark...oh, wait, that was in Jaws too, just not at the end. I saw this film in the theater as I was a kid who loved sharks. I also saw the original Jaws at the theater, though I have no memory of seeing it in the theater as it literally came out my birth year so I may have been two at the oldest (movies played differently back then, they didn't just play a few weeks then get pulled). I also saw Jaws 3D, which was cheesy and lame, but better than this one. There are a couple of cool shark attacks in this one and the shark looked okay in a few scenes, but it most of the time they used stock footage or it looked like it belonged in a ride or something they way it popped up. The film also adds this cowboy type character near the end with a gun and this really goes nowhere. So, the film is a bit entertaining, but not in a good way. There were parts in this that had me laughing because it was so incredibly goofy, such as the shark using rocks to block the guys trying to kill it in a cave and the scene where these people are acting like a windsurfing race was incredibly exciting when it clearly was not. Not sure it was really worth the effort of actually threatening it with a lawsuit to keep it out of theaters, I doubt it would have detracted from Jaws which is still the best shark movie ever made.

The era of the late '70s/early '80s was chock-full of JAWS rip-offs: they came from Mexico, the Philippines, and most of all, Italy. This is one of the most blatant copies out there, directed by cult action favourite Enzo G. Castellari, and it has the dubious history of having been pulled from North American theatres by Universal because the similarities with JAWS were just too many. For what it's worth, I love rip-off films and I love "when animals attack" horrors, so I was well placed to enjoy THE LAST SHARK. It's no masterpiece, but it is a fun, brainless film.Castellari was famous for his 'polizia' flicks in the '70s, usually starring Franco Nero. His trademark was slow-motion; he used it in stunts, in shoot-outs, you name it. It's present here in some superbly hilarious death scenes and at random other times (usually when somebody is falling slow-motion into the water). Otherwise, his direction is good, although he's let down by a pedestrian script that never strays far from Spielberg territory. Roy Scheider is replaced by James Franciscus (who already tried his hand with underwater monsters in KILLER FISH), and Robert Shaw by a slumming Vic Morrow. There's a lack of decent eye-candy, and Castellari's daughter, Stefania Girolami, doesn't really cut it. As another negative, none of the characters are very well developed and they all seem rather unpleasant.Still, for a thriller this isn't bad, and by Italian standards it's decent. It helps that THE LAST SHARK has an absolutely brilliant score which, I thinks, rivals that of JAWS itself. The action sequences are also pretty good, and they don't skimp on the gore either. My favourite scenes include the half-a-victim gag (when said person is pulled out of water/trapdoor/ladder/hole etc. and it's revealed their legs are missing), an absolutely hilarious set-piece in which the shark attacks a helicopter (ripping off JAWS 2) and bites a guy's legs off, and some other fun bits where victims literally 'explode' out of the water (the obvious dummies add to the fun). The ending is abrupt, and crucially it doesn't reveal the shark's death (apparently it was blown up or electrocuted or something) but the special effects are surprisingly great and there's one moment of a real-life shark devouring raw meat which is absolutely terrifying. THE LAST SHARK is a treat for those who like movie cheese.

This movie begins with several teenagers enjoying a day at the beach with one particular person practicing for a wind surfing contest which is scheduled to begin in a couple of days. Fate has other plans however as a great white shark happens to be in the area and crushes the surfboard and devours the young man in the process. Later, after examining part of the surfboard a knowledgeable boat captain identifies the teeth marks found upon it and tells the leadership of the local town what is responsible. Unfortunately, the local mayor by the name of "William Wells" (Joshua Sinclair) has no plans for stopping the race because it would have an impact upon his political plans. So he devises a plan to keep the shark out of the area but what he doesn't count on is the incredible size and power of the creature which manages to get inside the cove in spite of it all. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that as a "Jaws clone" this movie totally lacked originality and imagination. As a matter of fact, if one were to fuse parts of "Jaws" with other parts of "Jaws 2" it would greatly resemble this particular film—minus the better acting and special effects. Naturally, there were a few slightly different scenarios here and there but for the most part it pretty much adhered to the same general themes presented previously. In any case, while there is only so much one can do with a story involving a large shark--other than having it devour those in the area—the similarities to the earlier films just mentioned were much too obvious to be easily ignored or dismissed and as a result I have to rate this movie accordingly. Below average.

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!