There’s a fine line between a good dumb shark movie and a bad dumb shark movie. Obviously, Jaws is exempt. It is the pinnacle of achievement for this genre.Nothing has touched it since, though a few films have really put an interesting spin. I wouldn’t call The Shallows a dumb shark movie, for example.Under Paris is like Deep Blue Sea. It has its charm. Dumb charm, but charm nonetheless.

This film is actually a French title that is now living on Netflix, and has audio description done by Diffuse, Narrated by Vito DePhillippa and written by Bryn Poudie. Those are total guesses on spelling, by the way. Vito is most recently known for saying yes to Vi-Tech where he was assigned to the most recent seasons of Abbott Elementary and The Good Doctor. Some people have heard him on other things, and I’m sure he has a place, but as a narrator, he’s not dynamic enough. Part of the conversation we are having right now is against the use of AI voices, or the proliferation of TTS, and that comes through with narrators who deftly enhance the product without distracting. Honestly, a lot of this starts in the hiring/casting phase, and some narrators are just miscast for what they do. But,Vito is more appropriate here than he is for a half hour sitcom. That is for sure.

In general, I thought the film was fun, and felt like it somehow was elevated, like it was the way snobby French directors would have made something like The Meg. Bernice Bejo, an Oscar nominee for The Artist, leads the cast, and I’m sure does nice work. I got an English dub cast, and they all sounded like accomplished voice actors giving 110%. I’ve heard way worse dubbing.

The plot gets sillier and sillier as the scientists try to study or protect these sharks, even though they are doing some serious damage. The ending to the movie is a big swing, and kind of over the top hilarious. I’m not sure what a sequel might look like, but it would be really really dumb.Leave it on that bleak ending, and walk away.

Lots of people die, and for the most part the carnage is decently written. It doesn’t quite go for the gore, but I’m not sure this film goes for the gore. I’m perfectly fine giving a film like this a good grade, because I think it knows what it is, and I think it delivered on being that. It truly is trying to follow in the footsteps of things like Jaws 3, Piranha, Deep Blue Sea, and The meg. It just feels a little different, being shot through this French lens.

It’s kinda the perfect summer blockbuster if you are stuck at home and can’t get out to see an actual theatrical blockbuster. But yeah, it’s still a good dumb shark movie. They haven’t defeated Jaws.

Final Grade: B