Jaws – 1975, US, 124m. Director: Steven Spielberg. Streaming: TBS, TNT
Jaws 2 – 1978, US, 116m. Director: Jeannot Szwarc. Streaming: TBS, TNT
Jaws 3-D – 1983, US, 99m. Director: Joe Alves. Streaming: TBS, TNT
Jaws: The Revenge – 1987, US, 89m. Director: Joseph Sargent. Streaming: TBS, TNT
JAWS (1975) The original summer blockbuster, Jaws still holds up as not only a terrifying experience, but a brilliant piece of suspenseful filmmaking. In the days leading up to the annual Fourth of July regatta, the quaint island community of Amity is turned upside down by a series of shark attacks, engulfing the beachfront hamlet in terror. New Chief of Police, Brody (Roy Scheider), wants to close the beaches, while greedy town Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) wants to keep them open for the lucrative summer season—which became the benchmark plot device for all Animal Attack movies that followed. Steven Spielberg’s masterful direction keeps the audience tuned into what’s happening on screen while keeping our brains constantly on alert for what we don’t see. As with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the psychological impact the movie’s title had on its viewers before they even saw the actual film, Jaws opens with a white-knuckle attack (made all the more intense by showing less) that gets under your skin until the end. And while the shark is the central figure that draws the characters together, it’s said characters who make the material work. If we didn’t care about them the suspense would be drastically lessened. For an example, just watch any Jaws clone. A+
JAWS 2 (1978) In many ways, Jaws 2 is the ultimate underrated sequel. Sure, it pales in comparison to Spielberg’s masterpiece, but when viewed on its own merits, Jaws 2 delivers the sharky goods. The years following the original shark attacks have been good to Amity officials, Brody (Roy Scheider), and Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), with life returning to normal on Amity Island. That is until a series of disappearances and deaths cause Brody to believe another Great White has staked a claim off the coast—and he’s right. Refusing to again go through the financial turmoil the town suffered at the teeth of the first shark, Vaughn ignores the facts, causing Brody’s suspicions to spiral out of control—leading to Brody’s removal from the police department, and the beachgoers defenseless. This proves especially bad for Brody’s oldest son, Mike (Mark Gruner), when he and his high school friends go on a sailing escapade, becoming potential shark chum. More of a high-tech monster movie than anything else, Jaws 2 is no doubt flawed, but in terms of a big-budget shark movie, it’s good stuff. Admittedly the middle half, dealing with Brody’s paranoia, drags a bit, but once Mike and gang are out on the water and terrorized by the toothy menace, the film kicks into high gear, with some fairly spectacular set pieces. It lacks the characterization of the first film, and most of the suspense, but Jaws 2 is undeniably exciting. According to John Lemay’s book, Jaws Unmade, Spielberg agreed to take over after original director, John Hancock, was fired by Universal, but only if Spielberg could rewrite a better story. He couldn’t and dropped out. B+
JAWS 3-D (1983) The Brody family is once again terrorized by a Great White in this second sequel to Spielberg’s cash cow, and by making the two Brody sons the central figures of Jaws 3-D one can’t help but feel the filmmakers wrote themselves into a corner. Why Mike (Dennis Quaid) and Sean Brody (John Putch) are important to the plot is incidental; their characters could be named Flotsam and Jetsam and it wouldn’t change any aspect of the script. Taking place at least ten years after the events of Jaws 2, Mike is now an engineer and, along with his marine biologist girlfriend, Kathryn (Bess Armstrong), working for SeaWorld in Florida. On the verge of the park’s grand opening of a series of underwater viewing tunnels, SeaWorld is invaded by a shark. The owner (Louis Gossett, Jr.) believes that, if caught alive, it would be a money-making attraction—that is until the shark’s 35-foot angry Mom crashes the party and begins making a buffet out of the never-ending line of bathing beauties and water skiers. Jaws 3-D (or just Jaws 3 depending on what version you watch) isn’t exactly bad as it is misguided. The screenplay focuses its attention on the baby shark for a good chunk of time, with the mother shark not even appearing on-screen until an hour into the 99-minute movie. This wouldn’t be a deterrent if the film, like the original, had an ounce of suspense, which it doesn’t. Fortunately, the movie’s last 30 or so minutes are rousing enough to pass muster, including an Irwin Allenesque sequence where the shark traps tourists in one of the flooded underwater tunnels. Unfortunately, there are too many instances of mismatched shark stock footage and badly directed (by the first movie’s production designer, Joe Alves) scenes where you can see the mechanical shark’s floor track. It never really works, but under the right circumstances, Jaws 3-D is cheesy entertainment. C+
JAWS: THE REVENGE (1987) Jaws: The Revenge has the rare distinction of being labeled one of the dumbest movies of all time. Is that a fair assessment? Yes and no. I’ve seen far dumber movies—just watch any of the ten Fast and the Furious films—but Jaws: The Revenge definitely takes the cake when it comes to complete lapses in logic. Ignoring the Florida-set Jaws 3, Revenge heads back to Amity where Sean Brody (Mitchell Anderson) has stepped into his deceased father’s shoes as police deputy. Before you can say “repetition,” a revenge-seeking Great White, which has been patrolling the waters looking for its nemeses, the Brody family, gobbles up Sean—which sends distraught Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary) to the Bahamas to spend time with her other son, marine biologist Mike (Lance Guest). In an extremely unbelievable plot twist, the shark follows Ellen from Amity to the Caribbean, where it tortures her psychologically by terrorizing her granddaughter in a scene that must have been inspired by the Jaws attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood. The script never explains how this seemingly supernatural shark can track Ellen from New England to southern waters, or how it knows where members of the Brody family are at any given time. There’s also a brief moment suggesting a psychic link between Ellen and the shark. Pretty dumb stuff. But–I’m going out on a limb here, and sawing it off—the movie isn’t that bad. It’s actually well-directed (by Taking of Pelham One Two Three‘s Joseph Sargent) and acted, with the previously underused Gary in fine form. Where else do you see a grandmother as the heroine? It’s not great, but Jaws: The Revenge is a fun, though very stupid, shark flick. Try to ignore the ludicrous plot and could enjoy yourself. B–