Second rate stuff

Rating: 5/10 (26 March 2005)

To paraphrase a bit from Chris Rock's recent Oscar monologue: If you want Eddie Murphy, and all you can get is Will Smith--WAIT!
"A Shark's Tale" suffers from the worst maladies of modern mainstream comedy film-making--a complete de-emphasis of story and character; frantic, pointless action; slumming stars; rampant clichés; recycled gags; new jokes that suck; sitcom sentiment, all slopped over with tons of crappy pop tunes.
The film starts to come together in the last act, but even then it's just a retread of clichés that were already tired when they were used in Don Knotts movies forty years ago.
Ugh.