Fin (Ziering) has travelled back to the dinosaur age to stop the first sharknado, joined by his wife April (Reid), teammates Nova and Bryan (Scerbo and Friedlander), and later cohort Skye (Fox), all rescued thanks to the miracle of time travel. Mission accomplished, they find themselves propelled to Arthurian England for more mayhem, then to the American Revolution, the Wild West and a 1950s beach party. They also get hijacked to 1997 San Francisco on a personal mission before visiting the distant future.

Each stop along the way involves these intrepid heroes saving history, Quantum Leap-style, from yet another sharknado. In between are comical set-pieces, crazed action beats and hilariously melodramatic emotion. At the centre of the wackiness lies the deranged epic love story between Fin and April, which encompasses a robot head with laser-gun eyes, a jealous megalomaniacal ice queen and some random cloning. Their children also feature here and there.

Acting is never a factor in this franchise, so the cast hams up every scene with nutty dialog and movie references. They deliver each one-liner with a straight face, and dive fully into both the action and the over-the-top emotional drama. Clearly, much of this was filmed against a green screen, with sets and chaos added in later by what seems like a child using an iPad. But at least the characters register, and the action is vaguely coherent within the total lack of logic.

As always, the steady stream of famous faces never quite makes sense, but each pokes fun at their celebrity before getting chomped on by a shark that's flung out of a tornado. And along with the leads, famous faces from previous episodes pop up, including Bo Derek, Gary Busey and the late John Heard. As Fin shouts, "There's no time to stop and think about the madness of it all!" The massive climax set within a time vortex inside a sharknado throws in everything including the kitchen sink, leading to a rousing coda worthy of the series. And as for the title, don't bet on it.

themes, language, violence

20.Aug.18