Good start, but then it gets ruined

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Talented director Yossi Wein gives this powerful second entry in the Octopus franchise verve and intelligence as he helms this production with imagination and vision. Octopus veteran Boaz Davidson contributed to the story of Octopus 2 and his trademark wit, sensitivity, and talent for penning powerful, deeply moving sequences is clearly seen in the remarkable results. A fine cast does some extraordinary work and there are some superb performances given by the stars. Michael Reilly Burke and Meredith Morton are particular standouts with Fredrick Lehne giving an absolutely inspired performance in the role of Walter. The atmosphere is appropriately dark and forbidding and the almost surrealistic environment almost unendurable. The suspense could be cut with a knife as this horrific creature stalks the population of New York and terrorizes the harbor. The closing sequences may be some of the most emotionally draining and deeply moving ever committed to celluloid. With tremendous thrills, deep emotions, and overwhelming power, there is no denying the haunting horror and heartfelt emotion that is Octopus 2: River of Fear.

Released in the US in January, 2002, "Octopus 2: River of Fear" is a sequel in name only. Whereas the original "Octopus" (2000) had a highly creative storyline involving terrorists, a submarine, a cruise ship and a bizarro-James Bond, "Octopus 2" takes the tried-and-true "Jaws" route. The setting here is New York City. A giant octopus decides to make the East River his home and people inevitably start dying. Two harbor patrol officers discover the cause of the deaths, but are ignored and ridiculed. The city is preparing for its biggest Independence Day celebration ever and the mayor doesn't want the officers' preposterous monster 'story' getting out and causing a mass panic.As you can see, the basic plot mimics "Jaws" to a 'T.' Regardless, I was pretty impressed with the first half. You could tell the filmmakers and cast really put some thought and effort into making a quality Grade B creature feature, reminiscent of "Kolchak - The Night Stalker." Where "Octopus 2" takes a wrong turn is the last act, which morphs into a disaster film involving a school bus of kids and other vehicles trapped in a river tunnel. Not that it was a bad idea, especially since it gives evidence that the creators wanted to deviate from the basic "Jaws" plot, which I respect, but they failed to execute it. The last act seems rushed and sloppy, like the filmmakers were just trying to get the film done and over with, with almost zero effectiveness. In other words, they started with good intentions and quality vigor, but somewhere along the line they lost their focus & enthusiasm and decided to just go through the motions and collect their paychecks. It's unfortunate because the first half is a solid creature-on-the-loose flick in the manner of "Kolchak." For a good example of what I mean, check out the scene near the end where the monster -- thought to be dead -- rises up for another attack; this scene is so poorly presented it's hard to believe it was done by the same team that produced the first half.BOTTOM LINE: The first half is a well-done nature-runs-amok flick featuring a quality cast, particularly the two officers who investigate the killings and the mayoral worker who befriends them, but when the film attempts to morph into a disaster flick it inexplicably falls apart. Yet it's still worthwhile if you like movies along the lines of "Kolchak." The film runs 94 minutes.GRADE: C

(There are Spoilers) Ridicules but entertaining monster movie involving this now you see it now you don't giant octopus who's causing havoc in the East River. Almost all the action in the movie takes place not far from where the World Trade Center used to be in downtown Manhattan.The killer octopus who was swept down to New York Bay, from its breeding grounds in Nova Scotia, by a major storm has found that New Yorkers are a lot more tasty then what it's been feeding on up north and decided to make New York its home away from home. New York City Harbor Patrol cops Nick Hatfield & Walter McNair,Michael Reily Burke & Fredric Lehne, get involved with the octopus almost by accident by arresting a top New York City Judge,Harry Anichkin, for trafficking in illegal drugs on his sailboat. Da Judge almost gets the two cops busted for false arrest but, being the drug peddler that he is, later in the film ends up being dragged down, with his stash of drugs, to the bottom of the East River by the shadowy octopus.At first treated as nothing more then a practical joke the octopus makes himself known by eating a number of tourists and destroying a tug boat and it's entire crew in the East River. With the evidence mounting that there's a real danger looming over the city's millennium July 4th celebration the Mayor, Duncan Fraser, is determined to have it go on even if it means the possible deaths of hundreds of New Yorkers by attracting the killer octopus, uninvited of course, to it!The inept special effects make the killer octopus about as scary as the rubber octopus used in the Ed Wood bad movie classic "Bride of the Monster". In fact the Ed Wood vision was a lot more funnier by having a 72 year old, who's recovering from heroin addiction, Bela Lugosi have it out with it with Bela doing the work of both the octopus, who's mechanical motor conked out during the filming, and himself.The movie itself didn't end where the octopus was supposed to have its last stand in the waters of New York Harbor but of all place in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel that just happens to be water free! We were given this big build up about the octopus planning to crash the big July 4th celebration that's supposed to have some 20,000 boats of all sizes and shapes in New York Harbor! But about the only boats we saw celebrating, if you can call it that, was a few tug and NYPD harbor patrol boats with their crews totally oblivious of what was going on, the big July 4th celebration, all around them.The movie seemed to get lost in its storyline when it started to forget that it was about a giant killer octopus not a sequel to the Sylvester Stallone auctioneer "Daylight". Nick who has his hands full saving a bus load of school children stuck in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel suddenly realizes, by probably being reminded off camera, that he's in the wrong movie and gets back to business by blasting the octopus, who seems to appeared out of nowhere, to pieces only after he already put it away, or seemed to have, some 15 minutes earlier! One of the last movies to have in it on location shots of the now non-existent, due to the 9/11 attacks, World Trade Center which has more screen time then anyone, including the killer octopus, in the film. There's also the oddity of having the WTC moved around in the movie where we get to see it both south, where it actually was situated, and north, where it never was, of New York's City Hall!

As if the world hadn't already got enough cheap Jaws imitations, writer Boaz Davidson decided to make the sequel to his ropey-but-reasonably-enjoyable creature-feature Octopus a complete rip-off of Spielberg's classic, right down to having a concerned cop who no-one believes, and a mayor more worried about his 4th July celebrations than people's lives.Even in the hands of an extremely skilled director, it is unlikely that this derivative rubbish could have been anything other than hokey B-movie garbage, but with Yossi Wein (yes THE Yossi Wein!) calling the shots behind the camera, a man with a fraction of Mr.Spielberg's talent (I estimate about 1/10000th), Octopus 2 is guaranteed to be every bit as bad as one might imagine!The predictable and extremely clichéd plot isn't worth describing in much detail (substitute Jaws' Amity Island with New York, and Bruce the Shark with a giant rubber octopus and you'll get the gist), although several points about the film are definitely worth mentioning, simply because they are so funny: all of the octopus attacks involve the actors struggling to make incredibly fake-looking giant tentacles look real, which is hilarious to behold; Bulgaria's capital, Sofia, unconvincingly stands in for New York, and overuse of stock footage makes the illusion even less convincing; best of all, a silly dream sequence that sees the rubber octopus attacking our hero atop the Statue of Liberty, is not only gut-bustingly stupid but also features some truly dreadful special effects.Davidson's script also doesn't know when to quit: there are several points in this film at which it could've (and probably should've) ended, but the action goes on and on, with the octopus surviving several explosions, and causing a tunnel to collapse (trapping the film's love interest and a bunch of kids), before finally being blown to smithereens by the hero.Sometimes very silly, always awful technically, but never actually scary, this STV stinker may find fans amongst those who actively seek out cinematic trash. Most normal people, however, would be advised to steer well clear.