Cyclone (1978)
2/10
Weak Disaster Exploitation
27 March 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Cyclone is basically a mash up of two previous Rene Cardona Jr. movies, Survive and Tintorera. It takes Survive's cannibalistic struggle for survival and throws in the occasional shark attack in a vain attempt to liven things up. The plot traces a group of people who become stranded on a tourist boat after a hurricane.

This film has so many problems it is difficult to know where to begin. First of all, the hurricane in the film literally appears out of nowhere, catching the authorities and boats at sea off guard. Don't storms like that usually take days to form? Furthermore, shots of a plane crashing during the storm are unconvincing, as they were clearly taken during clear weather.

The film suffers from a serious lack of dramatic tension, as much of the film consists of people sitting around the boat and complaining. Their actions are largely reactive, giving us little investment in the characters. Even the scenes where they resort to cannibalism fall flat.

The sharks only turn up in the last ten minutes of the movie, with shark attacks just as laughable as their counterparts in Tintorera. The sharks are clearly mauling ragged clothing with some meat wrapped in it to get them to bite it.

Simply put, don't waste your time.
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