Under Paris (2024)

A refreshingly serious take on a shark movie that doesn't skimp on the spectacle, Xavier Gens' "Under Paris" begins with marine scientist Sophia (Berenice Bejo) losing her team to a mutated mako shark, before skipping forward to the summer of 2024, where said shark re-emerges in the Seine, posing a deadly threat to the people of Paris. Forming dual alliances with environmental activist Mika (Lea Leviant) and river police commander Adil (Nassim Lyes), Sophia embarks on a mission to stop this supersized Mako from claiming more human victims -- a plan which is hindered by the mayor (Anne Marivin), who intends to see the city's pre-Olympic triathlon goes ahead.

"Under Paris" is far from perfect, suffering from lugubrious pacing between its highlight sequence in the Parisian catacombs (where a chaotic encounter between multiple makos leads to rampant bloodshed) and a suitably action-packed final act taking place during the mayor's ill-advised sports contest, but it hits enough right beats to be worth its while. It helps that the cast generally share great chemistry, even if Anne Marivin detracts from the efforts of Bejo, Leviant, and Lyes with her somewhat over-the-top display as the aptly delusional mayor. And what helps even more are the multiple shark attack scenes executed throughout the movie, which mercifully attempt to recall the likes of "Jaws" and "47 Meters Down" moreso than cheesefests like "Sharknado", et al. This isn't to say that "Under Paris" doesn't have its moments of accidental cheese, but it's mostly successful at playing it straight.

I went into "Under Paris" with low expectations and was pretty pleasantly surprised. This movie does what a good shark movie really ought to do: it entertains without descending into self-parody and incorporates some important themes (pollution of the world's oceans and the destruction of aquatic species) without becoming a lecture. That its characters' fates don't seem set in stone and it's able to deliver a few surprises along the way is an added bonus. If it isn't quite on the level of the aforementioned "Jaws" or a couple of director Xavier Gens' other movies ("Frontier(s)" and "The Divide") it is leagues ahead of most shark movies being made in this day and age. Give it a shot; you might be surprised too.

Imaginary (2024)

Blumhouse's latest act of terrorism against the horror genre, "Imaginary" is ostensibly a movie about a killer teddy bear -- in the vein of "M3GAN" -- but ultimately becomes a fifteenth-rate knock-off of "Coraline" and "Insidious". The killer teddy bear in question, Chauncey, is actually sidelined in pursuit of a derivative plot that finds Jessica (DeWanda Wise) trying to save her stepdaughter Alice (Pyper Braun) from supernatural forces with links to her family's tragic past.

To call this movie boring would be an understatement, and the dullness isn't alleviated by the cast, especially lead DeWanda Wise, who gives a disinterested performance that recalls Rooney Mara in 2010's "A Nightmare on Elm Street" more than it could ever hope to recall Allison Williams' brilliant turn in the superficially similar "M3GAN". Maybe more killer bear action would have helped, although it's worth pointing out that when Chauncey's monstrous form does interact with the human characters, whatever threat he's meant to pose is negated by the clear and apparent fact that he's a limited animatronic prop incapable of actual menace. A more talented team of filmmakers might have been able to paper over the cracks on that one, but alas. This is a horrible horrible movie that represents everything wrong with wishy-washy, watered-down modern horror. Complete with insufferably dark cinematography and messy writing, this has to go down as pure crap.

Tarot (2024)

In many ways representative of a lot of what's wrong with modern day horror movies (what with its intolerably dark cinematography, lame comic relief, watered-down violence and general sterility), "Tarot" manages to be better than the likes of "Imaginary", but it's still a by-the-numbers affair. It follows a group of friends who unleash a nefarious supernatural force when they misuse a dusty old tarot set they find, which naturally begins to pick them off in ways reminiscent of the readings main girl Haley (Harriet Slater) gave. A la "Final Destination" (a vastly superior movie, by the way), the friends frantically try to unravel the origin of their foe and escape their fates. There's a hint of a compelling horror story here, but its not capitalized on by flat, flavorless direction and neutered death scenes that are more reminiscent of those in the lesser 2000s PG-13 horror movies than the more adventurous and thematically similar "Final Destination" movies. There's nothing particularly novel about the film either, unless you count its fealty to astrology. As for the characters: they're a personality-deprived bunch, even if the cast put in a good shift. Give this one a miss unless you're just looking for background noise.

The Whale (2022)

"The Whale" is a movie built around an essay about Moby Dick, Brendan Fraser in fat guy prosthetics, and the skeletons of the relationships that Fraser's character shares with those around him. It's left up to the actors to fill in the rest, which they (Fraser and Hong Chau in particular) do remarkably well. This isn't enough to make it a good movie, however, and Darren Aronofsky's direction doesn't gel with the performances. The finale, for example, is ruined by a couple of shot transitions (and one horrible thematic indulgence) that took me right out of the drama at a time when Fraser and Sadie Sink were really giving it their all. Maybe a director like Todd Solondz would have done something more interesting with this story. It wouldn't have been Oscar bait -- even for the actors -- but it would have been a better movie.

Child's Play 2 (1990)

Two years removed from the events of the first movie, killer doll Chucky (Brad Dourif) is unknowingly revived by the Play Pals Corporation and promptly sets his sights back on Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent), intent on possessing his body, lest he remain permanently trapped in that of a Good Guy doll. An improvement on the original movie in most of the ways that matter, "Child's Play 2" jacks up the action, gets creative with the kills, and boasts a crazily strong cast (featuring the likes of Christine Elise, Jenny Agutter, Grace Zabriskie, and Beth Grant). Best of all is a final act that takes place within a doll factory, in which Chucky, Andy and Kyle (Christine Elise) exchange various shots leading up to a gooey, glorious finale that feels cathartic. Armed with arguably the best incarnation of Chucky (second, perhaps, only to "Bride of Chucky") and scarcely wasting a moment of an apt 84-minute runtime, "Child's Play 2" remains one of the 1990s' most essential horror sequels.

Villains (2019)

After fluking their way through a successful convenience store robbery, on the lam couple Mickey (Bill Skarsgard) and Jules (Maika Monroe) hit a patch of bad luck when their escape vehicle runs out of gas a couple of hundred feet from a house in the woods, in which they discover a chained up child and a, well, villainous married couple who move to give them an education in menace over the course of a brisk 89 minutes. "Villains" hinges on the ability of its small cast to execute the hilarious moments of awkwardness and bad timing that keep its characters' battles of wits (minor as Mickey and Jules' may be) trucking along. Fortunately, Bill Skarsgard and Maika Monroe are more than equipped for the task of making their roles equally sympathetic and hilarious, whether they're extracting each others piercings or hatching hare-brained schemes to escape their entrapment. The standout performer, however, is Jeffrey Donovan, a charming, drawling antagonist who manages to maintain an aura of danger even as he goes for the movie's biggest laughs. Ultimately, "Villains" isn't quite as outrageous or extreme as it might have been ("Cheap Thrills" is in the clear on that front) but it never wears out its welcome and navigates a route to an ending that works well without being too unrealistic. Recommended.