BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Chase_Witherspoon Sonny Stein, shark conservationist and reclusive oddball is seduced by the wife of a wealthy entrepreneur and tricked into giving up his finned friends for scientific research and sideshow entertainment. But when Sonny discovers the ruse, he uses his mystical ability to command his sharks to hunt and kill those responsible.Richard Jaeckel was always an engaging actor to watch over many decades of distinguished film service, and despite his simpleton turn here, there's still a hint of the professionalism in his thespian skills, that will endear his character and have you rooting for the shark guy. Throughout the movie, Jaeckel's rather dim alter ego descends into paranoia and eventual insanity, culminating in a frenzied rampage led by his number one Tiger shark who he commands with a telepathic dominion. In flashback we see that his supernatural power is the result of an ill-fated trek in the tributaries of South East Asia, many years earlier, where he survived in shark infested waters, and was bestowed an ancient medallion by a local Shaman.Being low budget, "The Jaws of Death" can't afford to rely on expensive special effects or the bells and whistles usually associated with shark attack pictures. Stunt men interact with real sharks, offering a raw, realistic view of the relationship between marine life and humans. Despite the daring sequences, it's an unappealing contrivance in which the two species look anything but comfortable in each other's presence, and disappointingly, the sharks look decidedly harassed and exploited, which doesn't convey the mutual respect Sonny is supposed to enjoy with his much maligned 'friends'.As much a character examination as it is a B-grade action-thriller, there's enough in Jaeckel's offbeat portrayal to warrant interest, and some familiar faces in the wings (Harold Sakata, John Davis Chandler, Luke Halpin) to provide character contrast. Worth a look if you find a reasonable DVD transfer that hasn't been re-produced from scratchy VHS source material.

The_Void This film starts off by thanking the underwater directorial team for risking their lives for the making of it. I sincerely hope that this is just some sort of ploy and not actually the case, as Mako: The Jaws of Death is definitely not a film that anyone should even consider risking their life over. In 1975, Steven Spielberg released what is probably the great shark movie of all time with Jaws, but he really has a lot to answer for as that film inspired a whole host of awful (mostly Italian) rip-offs. I've only seen a handful of Jaws rip-offs, but even among the few that I've seen – Mako: The Jaws of Death surely ranks right down near the bottom, and that's actually a shame because it has a fairly decent plot idea going for it. Basically, we focus on a man with a bond for sharks. He keeps a few as 'friends' but attracts interest from local entities - including a scientist and a nightclub. He ends up loaning out some of his sharks, but is not impressed with their treatment and so decides to take his revenge...The film does manage a true seventies exploitation style and while the film obviously shot on a very low budget, it still manages to be fairly good in that respect. The problem really is with the way that the plot is developed as it doesn't fulfil its potential and none of the characters are interesting enough to really care about, and that unfortunately includes the lead who really should have been a lot better considering his strange interest in sharks. There are a couple of familiar faces in the cast list - most notably Richard Jaeckel and Harold Sakata, who is credited in this film as Harold "Oddjob" Sakata. Unfortunately (saying that a lot in this review...), considering that the film is about sharks, sharks actually don't feature all that often and when they do it's a bit of a let-down. The film also lacks a lot of humour, and while it's clear that the filmmakers were not making a serious horror film to the audience; apparently they themselves were oblivious that fact! Overall, Mako: The Jaws of Death is a silly and tepid film and should not really be viewed by anyone!

Michael_Elliott Mako: The Jaws of Death (1976) * (out of 4)William Grefe's film about a lonely man who befriends the sharks and soon trains them to kill. Universal sued the filmmakers of this claiming it was a Jaws rip-off, which it somewhat is but the film owes more to the director's Stanley, which was nothing more than a Willard rip. Either way, this is a pretty bad movie that doesn't have too much going for it except for some of the underwater scenes with the sharks. None of these rips will ever be as good as Jaws but there aren't too many as bad as this one here.

pinoymtb2000 The story is about a guy who received a shark amulet from an old man from Mindanao, Philippines in w/c later he's protecting all of his friends ( the sharks ) and he afters those people who hunts or use sharks for business. Then later, he feels tired, killed those shark hunters and users, when he drops the amulet, his friends ( sharks ) killed him. Very very basic yet enjoyable enough, easy to understand film in w/c the focus is a semi-revenge, semi-friend loving revenge films, an average one, but worth the watch. Recommended for peeps who likes shark movies and underwater and fishing lovers too. The amulet makes it a semi-fantasy film.