Fourth installment of Syfy’s silly ‘Sharknado’ jumps the … you know

THE TV-MOVIE: “Sharknado: The 4th Awakens.”

WHEN, WHERE: Premiered Sunday on Syfy.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Megabillionaire and high-tech guru/playboy Aston Reynolds (Tommy Davidson) has saved the world from the sharknado menace by inventing something called a “nuclear astro pod” which subverts the low pressure inside tornadoes by infusing them with isotopes — or something like that. But on the eve of his opening a grand new hotel in Las Vegas, something goes terribly wrong. Coincidentally, Fin Shepard (Ian Ziering) is in Vegas for a little R&R, along with his cousin Gemini (Masiela Lusha), also to attend the wedding of his son, Matt (Cody Linley) and girlfriend Gabrielle (Imani Hakim). Before long, April Wexler (Tara Reid) rejoins her family, along with Fin’s dad, Gil Shepard (David Hasselhoff).

Spoiler alert: April — presumed dead in the third installment, “Oh Hell No!” — is back and has been technologically enhanced by mad scientist (also her father) Dr. Wilford Wexler (Gary Busey). As usual, expect lots of cameos, including Cheryl Tiegs, Carrot Top and Duane Chapman.

MY SAY: An ice-cold fear may suddenly grip you while watching the fourth installment of “Sharknado”:

What if there’s a fifth “Sharknado” installment?

Then the fear grips a little tighter, along with its twisted, cruel, possibly ineradicable logic — what about a sixth, seventh or eighth one? There’s probably no stopping them now.

The dark night of my soul arrived while watching a scene with the Hoff struggling to get out of a car — 35 years in front of the camera may not have made him a better actor but certainly a less agile one. The car is subsequently sucked up by a tornado and then caught midair by Tara Reid’s April who does a double-flip beforehand. How will “Sharknado” 5, umm, improve on that?

Yes, “Sharknado” is now officially far over the top and far over the rainbow too (And do try to catch all “The Wizard of Oz” refs). The first installment back in 2013 had a vague air of plausibility: There are such things as sharks and such things as tornadoes, and all “Sharknado” did was go the extra step of combining them. But that got old fast. The second movie destroyed New York, the third demolished Orlando’s Universal Studios, and the fourth takes out every other city in America left standing.

But what’s best about “The 4th Awakens” is that it never loses sight of the stupid. Every single scene, and just about every line, will remind you that this is an unapologetically, gloriously idiotic enterprise.

BOTTOM LINE: Over the top — beyond way over — but still entertaining.