Tintorera bills itself as a "Mexican Cult Classic." If that's true, then Mexico is in worse shape than we thought.

The story is set in a seaside resort where a couple of guys brimming with machismo meet up and begin exhibiting some strange courtship rituals as they battle for the sexual favors of a female tourist. No sooner does she get eaten by a tintorera, though -- a tiger shark -- than the two become fast friends, living, lounging and napping together.

Both are divers and one introduces the other to the joys of shark hunting. Spearing what appear to be half-dead fish, which they then use as bait, they lure one shark after another within reach, only to kill them with shotgun-tipped spears. After each hit, the sharks tumble to the bottom, writhing this way and that as blood pours from their gill slits. Made as it was in the 1970's, there are no special effects here -- and no messages during the credits that no sharks will killed or injured during the filming. Unfortunately, this is all too stupidly real.

The emotional turning point of the movie supposedly takes place when Susan George shows up and announces to the dynamic duo that she's woman enough for both of them, to which they agree. Let the menage e trois begin.

It isn't long before, though, before one of our heroes gets chomped by a tintorera, and George realizes that the lone survivor isn't man enough by himself for her. This only serves to give him cart blanche to go out and butcher more sharks, until the inevitable eventually happens.

This is a bad movie. Although it has a fair amount of diving, little of it is interesting and most of it -- namely, the for-entertainment-purpsoses-only killing of a dozen or so sharks -- is a morally objectionable. Don't waste your time with Tintorera, cult classic or not.