L'année du requin

Can you make a movie about a seaside resort terrorized - or at least thrown off kilter - by a killer shark and not take *Jaws* into account? That's the question this movie posed for me. It does not, in any way that I caught, make reference to, much less offer a parody of, the famous horror film. That for me was a problem because it then becomes just another movie on the same subject, with radically reduced resources. The script offers no interesting new angles. So why bother?

If you're going to tackle the same subject as a very well-known film, you can either parody the predecessor or try to outdo it. This film did neither. So what was the point?

First I would like to get things straight. This is certainly not a comedy, and I really don't understand the rating of this film!

A film with a shark probably will have the misfortune to be compared with Jaws. Of course there are similarities, it's about a killer shark. There was a bit of comedy in Jaws, but that certainly didn't make it a comedy. The film is describing the life in a small French city with a very tourist seeking beach. We're in the city of La Pointe, not much happening, the city living off tourists.

Second in command at the police department Maja Bordenave (Marina Fois) is being told by German tourists that they have seen a shark. At the same time a man on a surfboard is missing.

The beach is closed as a leg is found with marks of shark teeths.

Maja is three days from retiring, 49 years old, starting young, but she wants to fight the shark. She is getting a week to solve the problem. With help from her colleagues Blaise (Jean-Pascal Zadi) and Eugenie (Christine Gautier) they hunt the shark down and shoot it with a tranquilliser, capturing it.

But that's not enough, soon the shark is hunting in La Pointe again. Maja is called an assassin, on the ground of more shark victims. She retires from her job.

Trying to relax with husband Thierry (probably the hardest working actor in France, Kad Merad) she really wants to end the horror and kill the shark. Nearly all in La Pointe don't want her help.

Well, that's except her former colleagues Blaise and Eugenie. The three sails out for the final fight with the shark... I think this is much better than what has been written on this site. This is a very good movie, and really this is a very fine acting all around, especially Marina Fois.

Yes, the very famous bigger boat sentence/quote is in this. No pun intended - even if you did not read about it, you can tell that the movie is spoofing (a love letter?) to Jaws. It is not a shot for shot copy mind you, but there are enough visual and quote clues to make it as obvious as possible.

It is a fun little movie, but it may not be the best movie ever. And not your cup of tea - but that is for you to decide. It is nice to see an "older" female lead character. Not every joke does hit (contrary to the shooting skills of the main character), but it is nice enough I reckon ... or maybe I am just too generous once again.

First off I am French so I watched it in French language.

It is supposed to be a comedy but it is not funny (dialogues, situations, etc... all are not funny) , it is excessively woke , the acting and production quality are below par.

AVOID don't waste your time or money !!

1/10.

I saw this movie as part of the programm of the Fantasy Film Fest. They usually chose movies, that are entertaining, good or in any way interesting even if they do not suit my preferences and that is fine. I do not get it, why they took this flic into their program, because I do absolutely not know, what this movie wants, is or deals with.

We have no real story, just episodes that lack a real connection. The episodes are neither funny nor horror. This movie here is tagged as "horror" and "comedy" so I expected that. I do not see any of it in it. This movie is really really bad in any occasion and it really insulted me and all other spectators in the cinema with its presence. I did not hear any positive comment when leaving the screenroom of the ones that stayed til the end.

Yes, it is a shark movie but no good one like Jaws and also, what is really hard to hit, not a trashy one. It is not that complicated to do a trashy shark movie that entertains. I saw 5 of 6 sharknados, other sharky b-movies and so on, but even if I skip their entertaining trashy part, they are even better than Year of the Shark.

I just can strongly recommend not to watch this movie.