L'année du requin

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.

It hurts me to write this review because I like the three main actors, and enjoyed TEDDY, the former opus of the brothers Boukherma, but it's easily the worst French movie I saw in 2022.

There are a lot bad French movies, but with this one I kept wondering the whole time if Marina Foïs, Jean-Pascal Zadi and Kad Merad even read the script before accepting their part. To me it's a total failure, mixing unintentionally laughable drama, no-thrills shark movie and a little pinch of flat unfunny humor. Beyond that it's a huge waste of talents, I couldn't help laughing while watching Marina Foïs trying to keep serious in this dull mess. The worse point could be that it's one more nail in the coffin of European genre films, if I was an investor I wouldn't want that this kind of accident happens twice.

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?

As I'm writing this review, there's just another one here about this movie and damn it's harsh!

No, it's not a masterpiece as Jaws or other shark movies can be.. Wait a minute, is there any other masterpiece in this genre ? Anyway, there are some very smart camera moves and really good use of short focal length lenses. I've been impressed several times of how intelligent some stuff are revealed on the screen.

Some actors are not that great and some shots feel a bit off, but it doesn't make this movie a bad one. It's honest and sincere and not "woke" (Damn, I hate this word) at all ! I had a pretty good time watching it and you might have one too.

And don't forget that you might need a bigger boat !

"The Year of the Shark" is a drama that makes you smile, a comedy that does not make you laugh, a toothless shark film that makes Bruno Mattéi's "Cruel Jaws" reevaluate, and which it is unworthy to compare to the yet uneven series of "Jaws". Incredible but true: "Jaws 3D" and "Jaws 4: The Revenge" are good films compared to "'The Year of the Shark'"! Admittedly, French "genre" cinema has not always shone with its dazzling successes, its indisputable masterpieces, but in the case of "The Year of the Shark" we can speak of a complete failure as the film fails in all registers and bores its viewer, because of the lack of a decent screenplay, direction and rhythm.