In Review: Sharknado 5: Global Swarming

Synopsis: With much of America lying in ruins, the rest of the world braces for a global sharknado, Fin and his family must travel around the world to stop them.

Review: Making America and the rest of the world Shark Bait is this fifth instalment of the ‘Sharknado’ Franchise.

The film starts in London. Takes a brief side trip to Stone Henge for some Indiana Jones style antics, which get punctuated with the line, “Sharks. Why does it have to be Sharks”.

As always the films story makes hardly any sense, but you just go with it anyhow to spot the guest stars and the various influences taken from various films.

In this case we have gags, which borrow from Indiana Jones, Star Trek and Back To The Future.

Which goes to show that no franchise is safe from having fun poked at it in these films.

The Star Trek in joke sees Nichelle Nichols give a spirited performance as the Secretary General Of Nato. The references to Star Trek’s Federation were chuckle inducing and Nichols plays it so straight. 

As with all of these movies. Some of the funniest moments involve the varied ways in which the sharks take people out as well as the methods employed by Finn to kill them.

But also funny are the various news casts dotted throughout the film as the various news shows report on the action. A favourite was seeing the UK Breakfast news reporters say, “Please do not confront, aggravate, pet or feed the sharks!” before signing off.

The guest stars come thick and fast as the movie gains momentum. We have a brilliantly fun performance from Olivia Newton-John as the Australian scientist Orion who cautions April not to get to ‘Physical’ with her new upgrades. Of course any child of the 80’s would chuckle at that line. 

Ian Ziering and Tara Reid pretty much lead the pack with their own special brand of Ham Acting and as the movie pushes forward. It becomes a battle of the actors in their attempts to out ham each other. 

The movie saves the biggest guest star to the very end and introduces him with a hilarious twist that even I didn’t see coming. The guest star concerned being Dolph Lundgren who completely invests himself into the spirit of the movie. 

To sum up. ‘Sharknado 5: Global Swarming’ is a real treat for fans of the franchise and continues its quests to tickle our funny bones. How the actors manage to keep a straight face is beyond belief.