The first fifteen minutes of Enzo G. Castellari’s Shark Hunter play as follows. We meet the titular shark hunter, Franco Nero, looking like he just stumbled out of the jungle and fell into a puddle of crazed hippie biker, while perched on a rock overlooking the ocean. Suddenly a shark catches his eye, causing him to leap up, run down the beach while accompanied by the sounds of Guido and Maurizio DeAngelis, and struggle to haul the thrashing beast to shore. He then retires to his open air beach bungalow to make love to his beautiful Mexican senorita, then goes to a bar where he beats the crap out of half a dozen thugs. Happy that Franco has whooped ass on the goon squad, a local takes him out for a bit of parasailing. I know, I know. You’re thinking to yourself that while hauling in a fishing line hooked to a man-eating shark is tough, and making love on the beach to a sexy gal is tough, and beating up half a dozen hired bruisers is tough, there’s not much tough about parasailing. That’s what sunburned fat Americans do when they visit resorts, right?
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FROM THE VAULT
- Twilight of the Werewolves — posted by KeithA on May 7, 2012
- Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit making smart**** remarks — posted by lyzard on July 24, 2010
- For the love of Pete, lady, give it up! — posted by kbegg on September 1, 2014
- B-Fest Roundup, 2008 — posted by El Santo on February 11, 2008
- Two minds with but a single silly thought — posted by lyzard on February 5, 2010
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- 61: WTF!?
- 62: In The Key Of B
- 63: The Forgotten Dawn Of Horror
- 64: The Most Dangerous Roundtable
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- 68: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 2
- 69: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 3
- 70: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 4
- The Links We Love
#1 by Ed on January 27, 2008 - 1:29 am
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Cool review, I love reading about late 70’s and early 80’s Italian flicks. Truly the apex of exploitation cinema from outside the U.S. Also, it’s good to see I’m not the only one who digs the scuba scenes in Thunderball.
#2 by Blake on January 27, 2008 - 8:46 am
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Does this count as a belated entry in We’re Going to Need a Bigger Roundtable?
#3 by HP on January 27, 2008 - 10:29 pm
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G&M, who also worked under collective name Oliver Onions for some reason
I don’t know if this really explains what was going on in Guido and Maurizio’s collective mind, but Oliver Onions was an Edwardian author of ghost stories. The Beckoning Fair One is pretty good. I don’t know if it was made into a movie (IMDB says no, which is a shame), but I’ve seen it ripped off without attribution a number of times.
[On further searching: Looks like The Beckoning Fair One was made into an episode of the Hammer TV series Journey into the Unknown. Like I’ll ever see that at my local Best Buy.]
Anyway, Oliver Onions is a pretty funny name, but it might not have been obviously so to an Italian speaker. (Would you snicker at, say, Olivio Cebolle?) Oh, and look, G&M have a really shittily designed fansite here, that offers no explanation for the name. But you could always join their forum, which runs in a small popup window with no scroll bars.
#4 by KeithA on January 28, 2008 - 12:10 am
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The window of opportunity is still open, considering the time frame set by Stomp Tokyo and Dr. Freex.
#5 by El Santo on January 29, 2008 - 8:46 am
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Yeah, this is the movie you said you were going to review for that one, isn’t it?
#6 by KeithA on January 29, 2008 - 10:35 am
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It was, indeed, until I watched it (en Espanol!) and realized it wasn’t really a Jaws rip-off. But hey! I can always go and add it to the list for that roundtable!
#7 by Blake Matthews on January 29, 2008 - 10:45 am
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I say go for it!
#8 by lyzard on January 29, 2008 - 1:07 pm
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Are you going with that as your OFFICIAL explanation?
#9 by KeithA on January 29, 2008 - 1:15 pm
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I thought laziness was my official explanation.
#10 by Matthew Fudge on January 30, 2008 - 5:35 am
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“In Espanol”
Is this in Spanish? I’m confused, not italian?
#11 by KeithA on January 30, 2008 - 10:44 am
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It was a Italian/Spanish co-production, filmed on location in Mexico, so the Spanish language version under the title Cazador de Tiburones is common. In fact, I picked it up on dollar VHS at a Wal-Mart many years ago, having no idea it was in Spanish. What with the title and the back of the box blurb being in Spanish, how was I to know? All I knew was there was a drawing of Franco Nero screaming and brandishing a harpoon. Some things transcend the language barrier.
#12 by Matthew Fudge on January 30, 2008 - 12:07 pm
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“Ah-ha,” you thought, “a subtle exploration of a man’s inner journey”