Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Film | June 19, 2024
The most popular original film on Netflix since February, and the second most popular of the year, so far (behind only Damsel), is not necessarily what you might think: It’s not the popular but critically derided Jennifer Lopez sci-fi flick, Atlas, nor is it the popular but critically adored Richard Linklater film, Hit Man.
The film, in fact, is twice as popular but has a fraction of the budget of Atlas and comes from a director behind a completely different movie called Hitman, French filmmaker Xavier Gens (he directed the Timothy Olyphant videogame adaptation of Hitman). It’s a shark movie called Under Paris, and it’s gnarly as hell.
It’s fun, too, at least when it doesn’t get too stuck up its own ass. But its efforts to be an almost earnest eco-thriller earn it laughter of the best kind: the unintentional. Under Paris has something to say, but thankfully, its message is mostly buried beneath the severed arms and legs of its victims.
Under Paris stars Bérénice Bejo (The Artist), who is slumming it here in a paycheck role for a film that will probably be the most popular of her career. She plays Sophia, a scientist whose husband is killed by Lilith, a mako shark that evolves faster than Charles Darwin can say “survival of the fittest.” Three years later, Lilith adapts to the freshwater in the Seine River and brings along some family members for a bloody good time in the catacombs. Bloody stumps, half-chewed bodies, and hysterically bad CGI bring the film to life after an otherwise slow first act as it heads toward a thrilling third act involving a Paris mayor who ignores all warnings and moves ahead with a Paris triathlon that begins in the Seine. It all ends in an explosively bleak finale that features one of the year’s more memorably impressive shots, all the more impressive for a film produced by the Netflix factory.
Big action-driven spectacles like Furiosa, Fall Guy, and Bad Boys 4 are exactly what I want to see on the big screen this summer, but Under Paris will make excellent use of those home theater systems. It’s big, dumb fun but thankfully — unlike the Sharknado-like movies — it’s not self-aware, which makes it all the more enjoyable to watch. The bloody torsos don’t hurt, either.
