Sharknado: the review or preview or, like, whatever

It shouldn’t have worked. It probably shouldn’t have even made it off the back of a beer mat and into an ideas meeting. But this Hollywood-based ‘comedy horror’ caught the attention of the social media army when it aired in America and, frankly, it's the best laugh I’ve had watching a film in years.

Laughing at it, of course. The jokes are worse than your dad’s after he’s had a few at Christmas.

When RadioTimes.com interviewed one of its stars, Tara Reid, who plays shark-bashing mum-of-two April, the word she used more than any other was “absurd” (that and "like"). And it is absurd. The special effects are rubbish. People get eaten by sharks and no-one around them even notices. At one point, an old woman dramatically falls into a pool containing a shark, when moments previously she had been sat a safe distance from the edge...

You yell at the TV in disbelief as April’s estranged hubby Fin’s (Ian Ziering) car still works after being submerged in about 14ft of water… and then you remember you’re watching a film about sharks flying out of a tornado.

Indeed, the ‘big rescue’ comes in the form of two twentysomethings – Nova (Cassie Scerbo) and Matt (Chuck Hittinger) – in a helicopter dropping bombs into the tornados.

Professor Brian Cox will not approve.

There’s a lot of bikini-wearing and a few potential romances to balance out all of the flying shark attacks. But to be honest, watching a shark that doesn’t really look like a shark eat people who look like they’re struggling not to laugh is enough entertainment for me. Snogging while covered in shark remains isn’t what I need.

With some goofy movie parodies, including “We’re going to need a bigger helicopter,” there’s something to keep the movie buffs entertained (and by entertained, I mean mortified).

There’s also some good lessons in beach safety – if everyone is yelling ‘shark’ and running away from the water – it’s best to do the same.

Sharknado – educational? Who’da thunk it?

You can’t watch this film seriously. Not in any way shape or form. It’s the sort of movie that requires a group of friends to confirm that you are indeed watching a man, who was just eaten by a shark, chainsaw his way out before squishing himself back into said shark to pull out a presumed-dead character.

Of course the icing on the cake is the theme tune, (The Ballad of) Sharknado, which – with lines including "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, run away from the Sharknado" – sounds like they let a five-year-old have a bash at writing the lyrics.

Sharknado. Enough said.

Follow @RadioTimes