I don’t know who let Roger Corman back into making movies, but this resurgence has brought with it a lot of the old fashioned monster movie. We’ve seen bizarre stuff: Mega Python Vs. Gatoroid, Sharktopus, a dozen other such strangenesses, and all thanks to Corman and his newfound partners in cinematic crime: the SyFy Channel. And today, thanks to the crew at Anchor Bay who sent a copy out for us to review, we’ve got one more: Dinoshark.

Dinoshark follows the titular creature as it’s just emerged from its hundred and fifty million year slumber in the heart of a patch of glacial ice. And after all that time, it’s feeling a bit peckish, so it heads in search of sun, surf, sand, and human beings: Mexico. And armed with huge jaws, enormous teeth, a hide more than bulletproof, and a downright prehistoric appetite for people meat, it’s going to lunch up a lot of humans before it meets its end. That is, of course, if it meets its end.

One thing that’s really dismaying about Dinoshark is that it takes about the first twenty minutes to see the monster really get going. Considering that this is a ninety minute movie, they really don’t have this kind of time to spare, to be frank. They need to get started right in with the dinoshark and the mayhem, not spend a lot of time on the beach checking out the attractive women in the skimpy swimwear. Not that they’re not awesome, of course, but they need to be better interspersed throughout the movie.

But for the most part, this is your op-standard, basic chunk of monster movie joy, the kind of which you normally find on the SyFy Channel’s lineup, or formerly, in Saturday afternoon matinees in the 1950s.

It’s got its charm–a very low-budget charm but a charm nonetheless–especially if you’re into monster movies and just love it when barely intelligent things the size of city buses or bigger decide to lunch up whatever–or whoever–happens to be in munching range.

Dinocroc is a surprising dose of low-budget fun, and if you’re looking for a monster movie to perk up a friendly get together, then you’ll likely do pretty well with this.

The Screenhead Ten Scale is very surprised to hand over a seven out of ten to Dinocroc, a surprisingly fun little movie that will do a good job of keeping your interest throughout. It’s not the best movie you’ll see this year, but it’s better than you might think.