5 Underappreciated TV Films

The 21st entry in this series took a while to do because I had to do some serious digging to find films for todays topic. What is that topic? Well, today we're looking at 5 Made-for-TV films that don't get a lot of attention anymore.

5: Bloodsuckers (2005)

The galaxy has been colonized by humans but it's also packed to bursting with vampiric alien species'. A team of vampire hunters working for the V-San (vampire sanitation) company goes around hunting vampires - obviously.

Bloodsuckers was a Canadian production and aired on the Sci-Fi Channel on May 8, 2005. The cast is largely unknown - at least as far as I can tell. Natassia Malthe plays Quintana, the vampire on the team, and she does a good job of playing up the ethereal nature of her character. The only other names that I recognized on the cast list were A.J. Cook - who played Kimberly in Final Destination 2 - and, get this, Michael Ironside.

That's right, Michael Ironside plays the lead antagonist Muco and is clearly having an absolute blast because he's hamming it up every chance he gets. This film had a mixed reception and doesn't get nearly enough love. It's corny, that's true, but it's great fun to watch on a Friday night.

4: Tarzan in Manhattan (1989)

Tarzan has been thrilling audiences ever since his debut in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1912 novel, Tarzan of the Apes. Over the last 112 years, as you'd expect there have been many film adaptations of the character - some better than others. Tarzan in Manhattan is one of the...weirder ones out there.

When his ape mother Kala is murdered, and his chimpanzee friend Cheeta is kidnapped, Tarzan leaves the African jungle to put things right. Where does he go? Why, to modern day Manhattan of course! Wait...what? Well, that's what this film does; it puts Tarzan in modern society.

Now, Joe Lara does a really, really good job as Tarzan and the cast members are generally great. It's not a great film, but it's also not a bad film. At 94 minutes in length, it's not too long - although, it does feel a bit longer at times. The film released on the CBS network in April 15, 1989.

3: Malibu Shark Attack (2009)

I almost put this one on the last entry in the series, but I couldn't remember the name. Well, I got the name so here's the movie.

A massive tsunami strikes Malibu beach and brings with it a group of man-eating goblin sharks. A group of beachgoers who managed to get to safety are now stuck having to deal with them.

This is a really silly movie, but it's a lot of fun if you're in the right mood for it. Shark attack films are always somewhat silly, but there's always some element of believability to them. They typically use either Great Whites, Bulls, and Tiger sharks. These are common species that frequently encounter humans so attacks do happen - even if rarely.

Goblin sharks are a rare - as in very rare - deep sea species that is considered threatened. Now, I wasn't able to find out much about whether or not they've interacted with humans but from what I understand they pose little to no threat to humans. Still, it's not necessarily a bad film as long as you've got enough popcorn, chips, and soda.

2: Lost City Raiders (2008)

This is a very silly movie, but it's also quite an entertaining one to watch. After global warming has raised the global sea levels most of the earth has been submerged. Ian Somerhalder plays Jack Kubiak an archaeologist of sorts who goes through sunken cities for various artefacts. After the death of his father, he and his brother Thomas meet with the Cardinal in New Vatican City.

The Cardinal subsequently sends the brothers after the scepter of Moses - the staff Moses used to part the Red Sea. This artefact is apparently able to lower the water level...yes, really. Of course, there's a greedy real estate company that's looking to stop them because...why not?

1: Titanic 2 (2010)

100 years after the original Titanic's sinking, a new ship - the titular Titanic II - sets off on its maiden voyage along the exact same route as its predecessor. The only difference in the crossing is that the Titanic II is headed from New York to Southampton - the opposite direction that the RMS Titanic took on her voyage.

During the crossing, the ship gets caught between two nasty tsunamis (thanks to global warming melting glaciers). You can probably guess the rest of the film.

Released by a company called The Asylum in 2010, Titanic 2 is a bit of an oddball. Usually, Titanic-related films are serious and focused on being accurate, even James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster, as entertaining as it was, was quite a serious film. Yeah, the effects work here is cheesy and the dialogue and plot probably don't make sense at times but Titanic II is just a silly popcorn movie meant to entertain and while it won't be for everyone, I enjoy it from time to time.