Have Cheetah,Will View #488 “Santa Jaws” (2018)

  So its Christmas time and that means its time for the cheetah and I to watch some Christmas films.
I decided that we should watch a movie we were supposed to review LAST year but somehow got skipped over. But better late then never,right?? So we went downstairs and pulled “Santa Jaws” and prepared for the worse.

The movie starts with a crazed man dressed up as Santa holding a woman hostage and a tough hero type attempting to rescue her. They toss one liners at each other and begin to fight. As they do,a great white shark is spotted swiming towards the dock where the two men are fighting.  After a brief struggle,Santa thug is pushed into the water where he becomes shark bait. As the hero unties his girl,the Santa hat floats to the top of the water which in turns lands on the dorsal fin of the great white as it swims away.

We then see it was Cody who was daydreaming while working on a comic book with his friend Steve.
  The two friends have created “Santa Jaws”,with Steve writing it and Cody drawing it. They’re hoping to sell at the local comic shop as Clark likes their books.
The two friends leave and Cody heads home….he looks out his window as a new family has moved in across the street and the new girl has caught Cody’s eyes. But he is insecure and has already looked like a klutz in front of her.
  It’s a couple of days til Christmas and Cody’s family is all meeting at the house,his grandfather,his Uncle Mike and his new girlfriend along with his older brother and parents. It is clear this is a close knit family except for Cody and his mom,that relationship is strained and when a incident at school is phoned in to Cody’s parents,she grounds Cody which disrupts his plans to attend a Christmas party with his friends.

  He does into his room angry and sees a small Christmas gift has been left for him by his grandfather,its a very old pen which unknowingly is also magical. Cody mutters he doesn’t need anyone and grabs his copy of “Santa Jaws” and while he is making a change in the art,he wishes Santa Jaws would get his whole family…….and opens Pandora’s box as we saw the same shark in the comic book pop into life,Santa hat and all. Cody is about to get his Christmas wish,like it or not.

  Santa Jaws is a complete hoot. We didn’t know what to expect from this movie but for it to be this good was a very pleasant surprise.  While this is basically “Krampus” set in the water,just like “Krampus”,this film is filled with humor,thrills and a lot of heart. 
   “Santa Jaws” comes from Active Entertainment,the same company that produced some other bad shark movies that we reviewed here. But I have to say that while “Santa Jaws” does have the SyFy quality CGI effects,that this movie is not a bad shark movie,it’s actually a very good movie. 
   Written by Jake Kiernan (I suspect this is a ghost writer) and directed by Misty Talley,what makes “Santa Jaws” really work is its cast. Every actor puts in the work to make this movie work and it shows.
Not a single performer phones it in as it sometimes happens on these low budget creature features. It also helps that we like every single character as well,there are no “bad” guys here,everyone cares for each other and when Santa Jaws strikes,you find yourself caring what happens. Cody learns to treasure his family a lot more and not to take them for granted. It’s a lesson you generally don’t see in a bad shark movie. 
  There are some really funny moments in “Santa Jaws” as well which will make a lot of people laugh when the way a traditional part of Christmas is treated. 

“Santa Jaws” has a run time of 90 minutes and should be considered a PG-13 rating. You can buy a copy of “Santa Jaws” by heading to the website of Active Entertainment.

The cheetah and I gave “Santa Jaws” two thumbs and four paws straight up…..