Big Shark

For years, fans of Tommy Wiseau have been waiting for the release of Big Shark. A trailer was dropped, then the project seemed to be on hold, up next it appeared to be canceled, suddenly a new trailer dropped and the film was finally released last year. It was a unique experience watching this film at Ottawa's legendary Mayfair Theatre with much crowd participation and a few drinks beforehand. This is the exact attitude you need when watching Big Shark. This film is so absurd that it requests a complete suspension of disbelief to take this feature humorously. Otherwise, you will get frustrated by the movie's excessively weird characters, terrible dialogues filled with stunning grammatical mistakes and paper-thin plot that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

To keep it short, this movie revolves around three firefighters who spend their time partying, hitting on women and drinking booze every single day. One day, one of these firefighters named Patrick claims to have spotted a thirty-five-foot shark in a muddy lake that he calls a river for unfathomable reasons. His friends don't believe him but soon a gigantic shark surfs through New Orleans on randomly appearing rivulets of water. For vague reasons, the three firefighters decide to kill the shark as the military and police don't intervene at all. They decide to catch three pigs as bait for the shark that they ultimately decide not to use. Instead, they get a dead pig at a butcher's place, fill it with blood and dynamite and launch it on a rubber dinghy to kill the shark.

For those who are not familiar with Tommy Wiseau's work yet, there are several reasons why people enjoy watching his movies. First of all, his movies are so uniquely bad that they don't compare to anyone or anything else. Even other controversial directors look like experienced geniuses next to Tommy Wiseau. Up next, these movies are so hilariously bad that they are genuinely entertaining as viewers will come back revisiting them by remembering their favourite worst scenes, plot twists and awkward dialogues. The characters in his movies stand out because they act entirely irrationally and sometimes change their attitudes, behaviours and mindsets from one minute to the other. The technical aspects of the movies also leave a lot to be desired as the shifts in the sound department are excessive, lighting work at times blinds the audience and the settings offer numerous awkward choices.

You might now wonder why people watch a movie like Big Shark that sounds bad on paper and is actually even worse than you expect it to be. This movie offers unparalleled escapism and invites for a light-hearted fun ride that is best enjoyed with a few drinks and friends. I have watched The Room time and again and would watch it again in a heartbeat. Big Shark is even more consistent in its absurdity and thus appeals even more to me. I'm prepared to return to the cinema to watch this film again, I would purchase it physically to enjoy it at home and I have written this review to promote this weird masterpiece to the entire world.

For those who are already familiar with the works of Tommy Wiseau, this movie is everything you expect it to be and might even exceed your expectations as you will be crying tears of joy while watching this unbelievable cinematic accident.

As for Tommy Wiseau himself, I have nothing but genuine respect for him as I sincerely admire his resilience at creating movies despite innumerable obstacles. This man deserves recognition because he is living his dream and has offered hours of comedic entertainment to fans from all around the world. I would like to encourage him to continue doing his work as long as he wants to as I'm willing to give all of his releases a shot.

On a closing note, I would rather watch a ridiculous but entertaining, funny and sympathetic movie such as Big Shark than an intellectual but depressing, overlong and pretentious feature such as the heavily overrated Anatomy of a Fall.

The first star is for the appreciation and love shown to New Orleans. The second star is for the majority of the shot composition and lighting, that crew did a very great job and the style came through and worked. The third star is for character Tim and the actor's energy and commitment, he brought his A game to a sloppy and incoherent script and never wavered, bravo.

I love The Room and the Wiseau personality because they are entertaining, and that film was a genuine effort to make a good film that failed in many ways but succeeded in unexpected ways.

Big Shark feels like a film meant to be bad and succeeding as just that. Scenes are drawn out to the point of insanity, with pointless ad-libbed improv of certain phrases, possibly several takes worth of the same dialogue and plot beats. In fact, the film consistently retreads itself, the characters setting about a rarely discussed "The Plan" only to find them drinking or playing pool or having a stroll or a drive.

It almost comes across as allegory for the aimlessness and arrested development of modern men, bold attitudes and bravado as a facade for underlying insecurity and inaction, always proclaiming goals they never quite reach, with the big shark representing the chaos of the world and its perception as impending doom in broadcast reaction but its treatment as an inconvenient interruption in actual action.

I have heard the film is unfinished, and the lack of polish, fx, credits, or coherent editing reinforces that. Fixing the audio, more cuts, added missing fx, and some editing fixes would go a long way to making it less a slog than it needs to be. It is entertaining with an audience because Tommy Wiseau draws and interesting and eclectic crowd, but unlike The Room, this film is a hard watch and even the typical complementing Wiseau crowd was getting worn out of these sections.

I did enjoy it for what it was, but Best F(r)iends and The Room are better films in my opinion. Big Shark makes it seem like Tommy hasn't learned much as a filmmaker over his 20 year career. I am sure there are talented people willing to work with him, obviously there are, and his production side wasn't given the care the other aspects of the film deserved. I am not dismissive of TW's talent to entertain, but this film left me disappointed even for the skewed expectations I have as a fan of the man.

Tommy Wiseau's latest horror monster film is an enjoyable ride that's true to his signature style, with nods to his cult classic 'The Room.' The film's imperfections add to its charm, and it's clear that Tommy put a lot of heart into it. The story and characters are well-crafted and entertaining, making up for any limitations in the movie's budget. Best watched with friends, you'll laugh, sing along, and maybe even shout at the screen. If you're a fan of Tommy's previous work or simply looking for something different in the horror genre, this film is worth checking out. But be warned, seeing this movie in theaters may turn into a midnight rocky horror style experience that you won't forget anytime soon.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: yes, it's a bad movie and somehow a huge technical step down after 2003's The Room, but I can't bring myself to hate anything Wiseau makes, especially if it made me laugh as hard as this did.

The best way to describe it is it's as if Wiseau decided to mix a John Cassavetes film with Birdemic: Shock and Terror, but with a shark instead of birds. There are so many clearly unrehearsed scenes of the actors talking over each other and having cyclical conversations that it felt like I was watching a nightmare at times. I spent most of the movie trying to guess where Wiseau was going to end a scene because so many just keep. On. Going. The pacing is nonexistent; our lead characters go from speeding away from the Big Shark to getting drunk at a bar and partying as if nothing happened, then they're back to figuring out how they're going to kill it. It's almost frustrating how often the tones switch but the movie never got boring. The first time the shark makes its appearance had me laughing so hard I had tears coming out of my eyes. The logic behind the shark and how it operates is so insane I'm surprised The Asylum didn't pick this up for release to rival Sharknado.

Are there good things about the movie? I mean, the camera they used had a nice quality to it. There are a handful of good looking shots. The shark animations aren't awful, though the complete lack of sound effects when it appears lessen the impact of its rampages. I liked one song used during a party scene. The guy that played Georgie was Steve Howey on 'Reba' levels of funny, I think he was fully aware what kind of movie he was in. Everyone else is clearly trying, but the sound editors definitely did not. Wonder what the hat budget was for this movie, because there are a lot of hats and a whole scene dedicated to hat buying. It's so weird.

I know I'm making it sound like the worst movie ever but seriously, watching this with a crowd was one of the best theater experiences I've had in a while. Everyone was erupting with laughter almost every other minute, whether it be at the technical incompetencies or the truly strange dialogue that never gets any better. There are also moments of Tommy bursting out into song that left me cringing with embarrassment but by the end me and everyone else in the audience were singing along with him.

I recommend it for sure, anyone familiar with Wiseau's work or anyone that finds enjoyment watching badly made films will get so much mileage from this. I'm glad I experienced it, I'm definitely buying it if it ever gets a physical release.

I was invited to see this movie and after reading the reviews, I thought what the hell. Why not see a movie at 10PM in this disgusting theater in Dallas, and WHY a premiere??? I had to leave an hour in because I couldn't hear a damn word. The crowd attracted to this movie is utter trash. If you've seen Gremlins, that scene of all them in the theater, that's the crowd. Loud. Throwing spoons? Drunk. Making inappropriate comments about body parts and screaming random stuff trying to be funny. I work too hard to be surrounded by idiots and yeah, I said it. So now this movie... I gave it an honest 3. Wish I could've heard the damn thing! They did a lot of nonsense improving, talking over each other yet I could tell they spent a lot on the shark and CGI. The acting wasn't bad, I've seen worse. The scenes were cut weird and drawn out but that's what makes these movies so popular I guess. I'll never know what happens unless it's screened in the comfort of my own clean home. If Tommy decides to make more movies and he wants a premiere, premiere them in a normal theater to weed out the trash.