What a movie. I obviously didn't expect anything crazy from this.
Sharknado has unfortunately reduced every new shark movie to mediocre at best. Some how,
Under Paris is not even that.
Really the only thing this film has going for it is the acting. There's so much unnecessary dialogue which is about as fun as a root canal, but the performances during those scenes are solid. Nothing to write home about, but they do hold this train wreck of a movie together as best as they can.
Everything else is unbelievably bad. I expected this to be a more grounded film; the first 30 minutes give you that impression. Tonally it starts out very similar to
The Shallows or
47 Meters Down. The film has a pretty interesting message about climate change and pollution. However, at a certain point shit hits the fan, the tone does a 180, that message gets thrown out the window, and this film becomes a joke. There must have been some clashing opinions during the creation of
Under Paris with how often things go from sensible to outrageous. Some of the scenes are so bonkers that I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open.
This film has some of the most stupid characters I have ever seen. In typical "horror" movie fashion, no one listens to the one knowledgeable character. Instead, they'd all rather jump to their deaths without a thought. Even the smartest characters aren't safe from the horrible writing as they too make some of the worst decisions I have ever seen.
The shark itself has CGI that is not that much better
Sharknado at times. There's some practical work that's really cool to see, but there's not nearly enough of it. The jump scares associated with it are embarrassing. They use a screaming sound almost every time it appears even if none of the characters acknowledge it. I'm sure they couldn't come up with a way to make it scary otherwise which is kind of sad. I thought we were past the point of lazy jump scares...
The ending got a giggle out of me. Not in a good way. Wouldn't recommend this to anyone.
Lists:
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2024 Ranked***
