YMMV / The Last Shark

• Anvilicious: After finding half of Mike's chewed-up board, and just the hand of a fisherman in his boat, as the mayor's aide continues to argue it may not be a shark, apparently just to remove any doubts in the characters, Gloria tells them to look. Right next to the people in the marina, swimming away, the shark's fin is seen moving through the water with THE OTHER HALF OF MIKE'S BOARD skewered by the shark's fin, much to the distress of Mike's parents. This happens in the first 10 minutes of the film.
• Catharsis Factor: Peter Benton punching out Jerkass TV reporter Bob Morton in the final scene. It is extremely satisfying seeing Morton get some kind of punishment for his film-length disregard of basic human decency in pursuit of a story to break into big-league TV. Especially the movie's Bittersweet Ending.
• Narm:
  • The shark causing an explosion to happen underneath a victim's boat.
  • The mechanical shark itself. Unlike Jaws, The Last Shark does nothing to try and hide its shark, despite how cheap and stiff it looks. You can even see it bounce off of a cave wall at one point.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: The Tagline for the Swedish DVD release boasts "The HUGE HIT Steven Spielberg managed to get BANNED in the US - FOREVER!"
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Whenever this movie is discussed, someone will inevitably bring up the fact that Universal successfully sued to have it pulled from American theaters.
• Serial Numbers Filed Off: Of Jaws. This was why that movie didn't have an official release in America back in the eighties, since Universal saw it for the rip-off it was and successfully sued to keep it out of the States.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • The movie's mechanical shark looks like a toy when it's underwater.
  • The same goes for the helicopter as it's being pulled down into the water. In fact, several shots of the helicopter hovering low over the water are of an obvious toy that looks substantially different from the real helicopter in other shots.
  • The scene of Chris being jettisoned from his speedboat when the shark hits it from below during the regatta. It's so hilariously obviously a dummy that one can't help but chuckle instead of feel any fear.
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: The film largely borrows from the plots of Jaws and Jaws 2. Peter Benton is a sort of hybrid with Peter Benchley, Matt Hooper, and the family man traits of Martin Brody. Hamer is largely Quint. Subverted in some ways, which may be considered beneficial. Mayor William Wells, Sr., the Larry Vaughn stand-in, is quick to believe the resident shark experts when they tell him the community has a problem, and spends a fair amount of money protecting the regatta. Hamer has the scuba diving traits of Hooper, and Hamer and Peter are best friends, which means that the Hamer character is involved in the plot from virtually the beginning, rather than Quint's halfway point. Ellen Brody stand-in Gloria also assists during the first shark hunt, and later, plays a large role in the climax when she's in danger of being eaten. However, for any improvements, the film overall is a cheaper, stock-footaged cash in on Jaws and Jaws 2.

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