Octopus 2: River of Fear (2001)

Just perfect...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

As far as B sci-fi are concerned, this is a solid middle of the road movie. I've watched other craps like the Carnosaur series, and the likes of the Dog Soldier where I have no idea why it gets a high score. Many of these so called sci-fi movies are rip offs in that they state certain monster will appear, but when you see it, the total appearance time of the monster is less than a minute or two, and other 90 minutes is a filler where soldiers or who ever is acting scared and shouting macho BS. Many of them happens in such a dark setting that you can hardly see any details like AVP 2.Compared to these, Octopus 2 has solid performance both from the actors and the octopus. There's a story that's believable, and the actions are not bad either. There are other bad movies out there that's lot worse, and after seeing sci-fi movies for years, this is a solid middle of the road piece.

"Octopus", released one year before, was a bad movie that wasted an hour and a half of my (not-so) precious life, so why the hell would I bother to see a sequel? Actually, I don't know why but I did bother. And I'm somewhat glad I did, because part two is definitely a slight improvement over the first! "Octopus" was a really boring underwater monster-movie and, in the end, a ridiculously over-sized sea creature ate an entire cruise ship! At least here the action is more spread, the pace is faster and the script is less ambitious. Part two is more like a silly & cheesy "Jaws"-rip off that can easily be enjoyed by horror fans as long as they switch off all brain functions. A couple of days prior to the big 4th of July celebration, there are an unusual amount of accidents happening in New York's East River. An over-enthusiast diver cop quickly suggests that a flesh-eating octopus made the river to his territory but, of course, no one in his force or at City Hall takes him serious. Apparently none of the characters ever watched any 70's creature features, as it takes several more casualties before the Captain acknowledges there really is an octopus swimming in his river. The phony sea-critter is pretty damn huge, yet the screenplay never attempts to give a reason for its enormous proportions. No water pollution theories, genetic mutations or leaking barrels of toxic waste here… Just a mean big squid sightseeing the Big Apple for no reason! Quite clever, actually! At least this way they're not making things any worse! The heroic scuba-cop and his fresh love interest eventually blow up the eight-armed monster (twice!!) just in time to enjoy the Independence Day fireworks. I love happy endings. The special effects are okay, I guess, considering it's a typical Nu-Image production. The acting performances are pretty weak and there should have been at least a bit of nudity. Near the end of the film, the story really exaggerates with the use of embarrassing clichés, though! An entire bus of foreign children trapped in an underwater tunnel? C'mon

*Mild Spoilers*When it's a sequel to something that you've probably never heard of and something that was probably awful to begin with, you know you're in trouble. You know you're in even more trouble when it's directed by a certain Yossi Wein, the master of cheap and crappy Eastern European filmed action pictures like U.S Seals, Disaster and the likes. I have been actively seeking out his pictures which are often so bad they're funny.The premise of a giant octopus terrorising New York Harbor isn't really something that can be easily accomplished in a direct to video movie as with the budgets Yossi Wein works with, he could never afford to shoot there let alone get a convincing giant octopus created, CGI or not. So, how exactly has Yossi managed to make a movie called "Octopus 2" set in New York involving a giant octopus?Badly, is the first word that comes into mind and I wasn't expecting anything else from Yossi but if you've never seen a movie of his, the low quality will amaze you. Firstly, instead of actually filming it in New York, this movie was filmed in and around Sofia, Bulgaria. In an attempt to convince us that it's New York we're seeing, between almost every scene it cuts to stock footage of Manhattan, the New York centre and boats going through the river. A bunch of underwater stock footage and stock footage from "Daylight" starring Sylvester Stallone is also used and in the end, a good 30% of the movie must consist of stock footage mostly of New York and it isn't fooling anything, as all of this leads to a bunch of continuity errors. For example, it will show footage of a boat going through the river then cut to new footage of a completely different boat back in Bulgaria. Also there are big conflicts in scenery. The area in which Octopus 2 is filmed is obviously in a river or lake located outside of Sofia as we can see hills and woodland in the background, as opposed to the built up area of New York Harbor. But we'll be treated to another 20 seconds of stock New York footage after seeing this! More and more stuff keeps popping up, such as horribly out of sync voice dubbing of local Bulgarian "actors" being used as filler and the ever obvious European cars.Now to the effects which are cheesy, cheesy, cheesy. You were probably wondering how they managed to fill in the giant octopus on a budget. Well, apparently not even filming it in Sofia, Bulgaria could spare them enough to create a convincing looking octopus as the giant squid in this is if anything, even worse than the mechanical shark in Jaws 4: The Revenge. It's a completely laughable rubber thing which we never see in full other than in some awful CGI and a small plastic model. The rubber object is quite obviously operated by hand off camera and gets wrapped around or hits it's victims from a bunch of different camera angles (obviously to hide the human operating it). It really is that bad. But it doesn't end there. Incredibly cheesy modelwork is used several times including a small model boat and an absolutely hilarious scene in which the lead has a nightmare about the "octopus" attacking a plastic toy of the statue of liberty while he is inside it. What this toy means to him, we will never know! When the octopus is broadcasted on the news, the news footage is absolutely laughable. We see a woman reporting it over a completely black background. Talk about cheap.The characters are also ridiculously unimaginative and clichéd such as the long time detective who witnesses this giant octopus and everyone else basically telling him he's insane and that they want to get on with celebrating the 4th of July and the drunk witness named "Mad Dog". None of the characters are likable or convincing at all and you don't remotely care for them. The acting level is really embarrassing and is even harder to take seriously when you see them in action around stock footage and laughable effects.With all the above taken in, this movie has no decent suspense, drama, thrills or action and like most Yossi Wein movies just comes across as a complete joke. Don't look at this expecting anything resembling a decent action/horror movie, this is a bad, bad movie but it's so bad and played so straight that it is unintentionally hilarious and is another Grade Z flick for those that enjoy awful cheese!

******WARNING. Spoilers ahead... although the movie is called Octopus 2. You kinda know what you are going to get really.******I got this movie for Christmas along with 23 other top quality movies (including the first one) from my fiancee and her mother. They must really hate me! Only joking! Can't beat a load of bad movies for a great xmas!Now Octopus 2 is a movie you have to be in the mood for. It's bad. The movie is about an octopus attacking people in New York. Okay this will be a stretch of the imagination from the very beginning. The first question that sprung into my warped little mind was how deep is that river? I mean that octopus is pretty damn big. It tries to cop a feel of the Statue of Liberty at one point. It's obviously very lonely too. Now here is the plot spoiler- big mutant octopus attacks and eats random people in New York using bad special effects and stock footage from the first Octopus movie. What a cheap killer octopus!Now I don't think that this review needs an in depth synopsis of this masterpiece. It's bad and that is all that needs to be said really. BAD! However I would like to highlight just one thing that stands out in this movie and that is our hero Detective Nick. I like this guy. Once he has an idea in his head he will not let it go. About twenty minutes into this movie he has realised that there is an octopus killing people and everyone else is wrong. There is no evidence to support this but damn it he is right! How could it be anything else! His partner as well was so stereotypical it was scary. He was leaving the scuba team that week! He might as well have tattooed VICTIM in glowing letters across his forehead. My recommendation for this movie is buy it! Hilarity prevails in every scene. Not for the faint of heart or the sane of mind. Oh this is so bad. Did I say that already?