This Nu Image production that originally aired on Sci-Fi Channel (who crank out these creature features with great regularity and suspect quality) and while Jeffrey Combs is a welcome sight as a completely nut bar scientist, Hammerhead is the type of overblown and sloppy monster flick to avoid.

Opening in the usual manner as a boating couple is attacked by some sort of shark, we're thrown into a story that has employees of a major medical corporation going on a trip to the remote island of Combs' vague scientist who's been experimenting with stem cells to try and cure disease. Along for the ride are biologist Hunter Tylo (who looks damn fine here and spends a few scenes in a wet T-shirt), technician William Forsythe, company president Arthur Roberts, and various other "fodder".

Soon enough they find out that Combs has been up to no good with his experiments as it turns out he's created a half-man/half-hammerhead shark being who has the intelligence of a human being and the immune system/strength of one of the ocean's deadliest predators. And to top it all off not only is our creature Combs' son (who was thought to be dead) but our mad scientist is also out for revenge on his visitors as they work for the company that ousted him. Plus it seems Tylo's character was once engaged to his son, which is convenient since Combs wants to breed the creature.

At first Hammerhead gets by on generally decent performances and it's outright dopiness, but soon it wears out it's welcome as it has Nu Image's typical low-grade CGI effects, all the attack and action scenes are shot by director Michael Oblowitz in a jerky and hyperactive way almost like they're custom made for people with a short attention span, and it even manages to throw in some gunfights and big explosions (like the ridiculous moment a helicopter goes up in flames) in the last third. And what a doozy of a finale it is, as it's so outright poor that it bumps the movie down a half-star (and gives the audience a chance to chuckle at the fact our creature gets a faceful of nitrogen enriched fertilizer - which looks an awful lot like regular windshield washer fluid).

Being made for Sci-Fi you can also expect the gore to be kept to a minimum and while there are a few chunks of body scattered about along with a few sprays of blood, the movie is pretty tame. It's just too bad that the last third was so bad, the script was too by-the-book, and Combs just seems to be going through the motions as I did enjoy Hammerhead for it's first hour or so as a silly B-movie. (Chris Hartley, 10/12/05)

Directed By: Michael Oblowitz.
Written By: Monty Featherstone, Howard Zenski.

Starring: William Forsythe, Hunter Tylo, Jeffrey Combs, Elise Muller.

Picture Ratio: Full Frame.

Picture Quality: While the picture does have a few problems when there's large groupings of certain patterns (like window blinds) that's the only real noticeable flaw with the transfer here are the colour is solid and clarity quite decent.

Extras: As with a lot of First Look releases we just get a trailer and previews for other DVD releases from the company.