Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Leofwine_draca A solid actioner combining the talents of Franco Nero (without a doubt one of the most charismatic and capable of Italian actors, ever) and Enzo G. Castellari (the acclaimed Italian action director whose use of slow-motion and ultra-stylish action has led to him being discovered as the "Italian John Woo") for what is an entertaining, if not exactly classic, movie. The main problem with this film is the underwater photography. Sure, it looks nice - especially nice here, too, none of that murkiness you see in THUNDERBALL - but, as with all underwater photography ever filmed, it serves to slow down the pacing of the movie.THE SHARK HUNTER is a beautiful-to-look at adventure, filmed in stunning tropical locations with an accomplished cast and seasoned director at the helm. So what's the problem? There's no major one, other than that the lack of action here stops it from being a class act. Aside from an expertly-staged bar room brawl, the first hour is taken up with slow-moving plot shenanigans and lots of deep sea diving. It's interesting at first but after forty minutes I was itching for something exciting to happen. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long until it did.The film's highlight is an extended chase sequence between hero Franco Nero and villain Werner Pochath. Starting off as a snazzy car chase, the action soon changes to a heart-rending (in the literal sense) chase by foot (incorporating a tense shoot-out into the proceedings), then finishes off by becoming a plane/boat chase through swampland! Also in the latter part of the film are a handful of shoot-outs, beatings, and punch-ups to be entertained by, which incorporate Castellari's excellent use of slow motion which happens just at the right times to top everything off - he certainly doesn't overuse it, only bringing into play when the time is right and he wants to finish off a scene with an ultra-cool moment of stylised violence.The plot is fairly standard stuff, with plenty of clichéd characters like a greedy gang boss, a slimy gang of thugs led by a really slimy slime, silent hit men, and some barely-clothed women wandering around to liven up the scenery. Everyone is against each other so plenty of death ensues towards the end of the movie - particularly during the downbeat finale which kills off just about every supporting character there is, for no real reason! There's little gore to speak of, expect for a cool stunt involving a shark ripping off a guy's leg underwater, but this is no horror film (incidentally, Castellari was originally up to direct ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS - which I'm sure shares underwater photography with this movie - before Lucio Fulci took over and the rest is history).As for the smallish cast, it's a winner. Franco Nero effortlessly sails through his heroic, good-natured ex-mafia character and is one guy you can always root for, and slimy villain Eduardo Fajardo (a spagwest veteran) makes for an adequate foil. Michael Forrest plays Donovan, a character whose motivations don't really come clear until the end, whilst the Mexican Jorge Luke has the comedy relief part of Nero's partner, an excitable and slightly dumb - but no less heroic - companion. Keep an eye out for director Castellari appearing in a cool role as a thug who gets to knock Nero's lights out in glorious slow-motion. However, the guy who really shines in his part is the underrated Werner Pochath, playing the aforementioned 'slimy slime' with his usual brand of cocky, seething nastiness - good stuff. An enjoyable treat for fans of the director, star or genre, but lacking the finesse, action and plotting that would make it one to come back to.

Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki Decent enough mob flick/ Jaws ripoff, has Franco Nero sporting a supremely annoying, floppy wig, scouring the waters around small islands in the Caribbean, searching for millions of dollars, the result of a plane crash. Other searchers, as well as corrupt politicians, turn up looking for it as well- despite the fact that it is believed to be located in shark-infested waters. Well photographed in the Caribbean, and with a few good action scenes, but there is a few long stretches of nothing in between the action, and the music is sometimes effective and sometimes almost comically overpowering.Overall, it is good, but nothing really memorable.

Coventry "Guardians of the Deep" could more or less be described as a rip-off of Peter Benchley's "The Deep", only … this version is a whole lot better and numberless times more entertaining! It's a very silly and immensely grotesque adventure movie, with highly implausible stunts and unrealistic characters, but the whole thing is so spirited and so vividly directed by Enzo G. Casterllari that you can't help but be amused. Spaghetti western hero Franco Nero (wearing a blond wig that nearly makes him unrecognizable) stars as a treasure hunter on a quest to recover $10 million from a plane wreck that lies on the bottom of the Caribbean Sea. The valuable loot is located nearby a shark-infested cave, but that can't be an issue, as Mike also happens to be a fearless and ruthless shark hunter who doesn't even hesitate to crash down in the open sea with a parachute to take on a Tiger Shark with his bare hands, now how about that?!? His search is complicated when other parties learn about the treasure as well, like a CIA agent on "holiday" and a bunch of corrupt local police officers. "Guardians of the Deep" features a constantly high level of spectacle & suspense and the film benefices extremely from the lusciously exotic photography by Raúl Cubero. This film is very beautiful to look at … and to listen to, as the De Angelis brothers' score is downright phenomenal and dreamy. Although not exactly a legit entry in the "Sharksploitation" sub genre (like "Great White", "Monster Shark" or "Tintorera"), this film contains some of the greatest and most masterfully enacted shark attack sequences ever in low-budget cult cinema! The sharks in the cave assist Mike during the finale and explicitly devour a couple of his opponents. The action scenes are impressive at sea as well as on the mainland, with tough macho fistfights, wild car chases and shootouts. This puppy is quite obscure and difficult to find, but worth tracking down if you like tropical settings, shark-action and Castellari's versatile repertoire.

MARIO GAUCI In his review of this film in "Stracult", Italian film critic Marco Giusti claimed that Franco Nero's performance was undoubtedly the worst he ever gave. Ridiculously decked out as he is in a long blonde mane and hippy garb, he can't be too far wrong I guess...Anyway, Nero plays a bitter loner who, having lost his wife and kid in a traffic accident, voluntarily enlists for dangerous missions for an unspecified organization but then, unceremoniously, quits his job and relocates to a Carribbean island whose seas harbor the carcass of a sunken plane with a fortune locked away in its safe. The problem is that the site is infested with sharks but, of course, Nero has a penchant for killing sharks with his bare hands a' la Johnny Weissmuller. Those sequences depicting Nero's particular skills reach an unheralded level of silliness when he sky dives into the water onto a moving shark and slits its torso open without batting an eyelid! And what about his dragging a shark onto his motor boat after having previously pursued it on foot?! I don't really know why I should go on writing in detail about such trash (especially since most of you probably won't ever have the chance to see this for yourselves) but, then again, why not? Anyway, there's a love scene early on between our Franco and a native girl, a couple of fistfights with the local bully (featuring a running gag of Nero sticking a piece of chewing gum onto his opponent's forehead), an alliance with a buffoonish salvage expert, a member of the organization is hot on his heels, as is the ubiquitous Edoardo Fajardo who is obviously interested in claiming the fortune for himself and, in the climax, an all-out shark attack replete with fake floating limbs.Director Casterallari (who frequently appears in his own films a' la Hitchcock...yeah, right!) has a fairly large part here as a killer pursuing the man from the Organization! He was still fixated on sharks a couple of years later when he made THE LAST SHARK (1981), a film which was partly shot in Malta and featured such second-tier American actors as James Franciscus and Vic Morrow. For his pains, Castellari was even taken to court by Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios for plagiarising JAWS (1975)...although, if one is to believe Castellari's own statements at the 61st Venice Film Festival, Spielberg and Co. were merely envious that THE LAST SHARK had been more profitable (in the expenditure/profit ratio) than JAWS itself...!!