CHOMPFEST 2023

Well, the time has come to review the last film of the Jaws franchise to many it would also be the last of the good sequels to the beloved classic horror thriller; I had taken a few years to finish four parts and did them by celebrating their anniversaries and now in 2023 we come to the 45th for this flick. The movie has a good tagline that instantly became a comedic reference and parody “Just when you thought it safe to go back in the water …” (created by copywriter Karen Levitt) nevertheless the critics and many others held contempt for its creation though it did earn $100-miilion in 1978 which is $458.8 million today. Regardless of the criticism and some oddness in the film it did very well, on a $22-million budget for director Jeannot Szwarc, who had then recently made the b-movie Bug [1975], who was asked to come in to replace director John Hancock, over creative differences with the producers, he later stated  “it was the shark” as it wouldn’t work correctly. As with most sequels a common thread exists in them, bigger and more embolden kills, well both accomplished herein the shark is clearly over 20-feet in length and it survived being on fire, Szwarc makes sure to fit numerous pieces together to get the audience a substantial thrill ride, by setting slow build-ups and mightily rush of action in attempts to offset the viewers. This was because Steven Spielberg had used the Hitchcockian suspense versus surprise effectively well, he knew that technique wasn’t going to work hence showing the dorsal fin as much as possible since audience already about the design of the shark. Carl Gottlieb (Jaws 3D [1983]) handled the primary duties of the screenplay with some assistance from Howard Sackler.

The film tries to build the same tension as the first however it overlooks two significant problems with that approach first it’s called Jaws 2 and everyone knows it’s about a killer shark and there’re many moments throughout the movie where nothing happens, it’s just some scenic shots, yet often filling the screen with numerous individuals instead of focusing on a few and building character dynamics from that point. Now, I believe 90% of both cinema and horror fans have seen this film at least once, and instead rehashing a full movie, which is essentially the same movie once again. I’m going to work through the film noting nuances, outrageous scenes, strange dialogue, and some silliness.

We open a few years later with two divers checking the wreckage of Orca (which has a nameplate in the wrong location, clearly not the same vessel as it hadn’t aged much for a wooden ship) soon enough the fish in the area were frighten away as a new shark predator enters the scene quickly though not much is seen due its size, a camera snaps away photos of the attack. Meanwhile a get glimpse to the Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton (The Amityville Horror [1979])) opening a new hotel on the island while men in the audience old enough to be Miss Amity Island’s Tina Wilcox father ‘wolf whistles’ of her in a one piece swimsuit, as a terrible band performs in the background all for the world’s longest engagement title.

Vaughn is still the mayor, who again presents a hypocritical stance and never stands up to other judge mental individuals who are only interested in money over public safety. Then one witnesses the typical small-town antics of numerous townsfolk, most would be considering ‘Karen’ and ‘Darrens’ complainers about CB Radios, seductive dancing of other sheer dopiness, with returning Chief Brody (Roy Scheider (The Curse of the Living Corpse [1964])) back to handling both policing and politics. Then it’s back to shots of water activities around the island, including parasailing where one almost witnesses an attack, a false alarm, but audiences miss out would have to wait for Piranha 3D [2010] for a graphic brutal killing in that manner. The shot is POV via the shark, except for its vibrant bright color, sharks don’t see well hence their accidental attacks and usage of the superior sonar senses, the angle is done for benefit of the viewer. However, the shark continues its pursuit for tasty chomp as it begins a wonderful high-speed chase of mother (Jean Coulter) and daughter water-skier, Terry (Christine Freeman), fun-time resulting multiple deaths, burned scared Shark and an explosion that has Brody suspecting the worse. It wouldn’t be the last time during the Jaws franchise that a shark would go after a waterski, in happened again in Jaws 3D.

On Fire… But Not Dead… Yet

As the investigation begins Brody looks out to the horizon and the fear lurking below it, first missing divers and now this, also an interesting trend would also begin in the film the actual shark sightings started to have the character of Tina (Ann Dusenberry (The Possessed [1977])) surround them. After bit of foreshadowing, it’s back to the teens on Lighthouse point and once again Tina discovers a dead Orca whale, a reference on multiple levels, Great White sharks fearful of these ‘Killer Whales’ and to ship.

Oh, did you notice the continuity error, here it is, with another foreshadowing hint that was dropped:

Learning that sharks don’t take things personally, that’s good news I hate see a Great White take revenge on a family… oh wait, too late Jaws: The Revenge [1987], too bad no one heeded this advice.

A curious shot occurs on the beach of a child running and getting his kite blue and white to soar to Brody’s shark lookout tower, as to hint of a great white shark chasing him and endangering his life.There is that haphazard, reckless scene when Brody was paranoid and pulled his gun on the beach and shooting into the sea, endangering children which I feel presented an unwanted direction for the story all of it feels forced, there were many better ways to encounter the beast and still support to this character. Afterwards, everyone was fearful of him, considered him a stark, raving lunatic hence all goodwill deeds are lost, with mothers clutching onto their scared children – excellent direction and cinematography capturing absolute fear.

Another wasteful fuller shot of Fogarty (Herb Muller) showing, well actually still developing the pictures in real life, yes it’s old school as they had them but no need to show the laborious sequence lasting nearly 2-minutes (BORING!) we saw the camera inadvertently flashing at the start of the film.

The scene switches to the confrontation of the photo and the mayor and cabinet who used Brody’s shooting incident against him as well thinking on the town’s bottom line than public safety – just like in the first film. At this point most would like to see the town’s committee on a boat being attacked by the shark, while that didn’t happen (sadly) viewers needed only wait until August for Piranha [1978] to see something similar occur.

Skip to the next day and now for the teens, ugh, all go sailing together to find a place to drink beer and have fun. A quick scene of a diver excursion and brief encounter with the shark who misses his prey again. Oh, Tina’s one last encounter with the Shark, as she witnessed the chomping Jaws up close on her boyfriend Eddie (Gary Dubin (Midnight Offerings [1981])) nevertheless two things about this scene first the weirdest line in the film is uttered here and the glaring false wood breakaway scene “…I’m getting black and blue marks all over my butt, and my mom’s starting to get uptight about them!” (wait WTF, why does her mother see her tush at this age?)

Finally, 83-minutes into the film the shark attacks the sailing party’s boats first was Doug (Keith Gordon (Christine [1983])) and quickly the shark causes full chaos, even as a production vessel mistakenly appears while some teens rescue Mike Brody (Mike Gruner).

The last 33-minutes occurs with destroyed sailing vessels in this half-hour a lot happens, townsfolk are informed by acting-chief Hendricks (Jeffrey Kramer (Halloween II [1981])) that Brody was right a shark is killing their precious island again, and 2 deaths would occur one was off screen, in the outrageous helicopter attack scene, 9-minutes after the first boat attacked which consequentially similar happening in Jaws: The Revenge when Hoagie lands a plane in the water; what’s truly incredible is that propeller blades shrapnel doesn’t injure anyone.

Then Marge (Martha Swatek) meets her end after a heroic act to save Sean Brody (Marc Gilpin), it’s all show from the Shark’s perspective from behind the dorsal fin, no blood, not even a limb falling under the water, a bloodless tragic death.

Finally, Brody arrives using things we learn previous in the film to dispose of the share and rescue his youngest son and all the teens, … smiles abound.

The audiences are treated at different times throughout the script with some contempt and given weak foundation as the screenplay feels disjointed with many scenes lacking a blood loss, the most one sees is either the carcass of the Orca or from the bite reflex from the diver Andrews. Jeannot uses the camera on large booms to create swooping cinematography (thanks to Michael C. Butler) across the water, likely something done today via drones gives a splendid appearance as the high-speed pursuit of a water skier, except it’s a tad past the actual speed of the great white, too long of a duration but then again, we all want the shark to feed. While there are beautiful shots there’s a continuity issues, namely one involving the beached Orca.

As one might notice I didn’t elaborate on Lorraine Gary’s character, that’s because she’s truly a less than a secondary character the teens have more input than she does which is very sad. Like its predecessor, Jaws 2 has its fair share of problems from the removal (firing) of John Hancock, and issues regarding Roy Scheider’s involvement and performance as well as the entire cast of teens in the film were also recast, leading to even a young Ricky Shroeder finding himself on the outs. However, Hancock only had one shot that survived and placed in the actual film which was of The Edgartown Lighthouse that’s seen a brief glimpse in the distance, as the shark arrives in town shown here.

Scheider had walked off the set of The Deer Hunter (1978) due to compensation issues but was still under contract hence Universal counted Jaws 2 as two films to fulfill his duties to their studio obligations. Overall, while the film has some predictable scenes it still works as entertainment, even if it does contain a ‘jumping the shark’ moment when it attacks a helicopter. The leads up to that scene was generating dread, it presents some stillness with that one scene of hopelessness, all experiencing various degrees grief, panic which is a normal response to the dire situation the scenes in the third act could have done without egoism. The ever so talented composer John Williams (The Fury [1978]) returned as composer and had to begin composing the score before the film was finished to production delays name the shark malfunctioning and weather issues.

I found one of the biggest issues was pacing, there’s just too many fuller moments in the film where nothing of significance or importance occurs, a scene or dialogue needs to exist to propel the film forward not tread water. Next, the teens most likely halfway through the film many hope the shark chomp them all to bits, so annoying and almost interchangeable. Resulting in a truly flat calm sea. The presentation of Spielberg’s work can’t be redone, as he made the definitive shark film, and thankfully Jeannot doesn’t attempt to recreate or revision it rather he works to up the body count in more violent manners. Oh by the way, some critics consider this film as slasher, I firmly disagree, just because teens gather in one place doesn’t mean it’s slaughterfest, At least this is was better than many of the animal attack movies from the latter half of the 70s even with the oddball lines spoken and over-the-top moments from Jeannot was all anyone could do to live up the standards presented in JAWS.

TAGLINES:

• All New!
• Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
• One good bite deserves another! (1980 re-release)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077766/

IMDb Rating: 5.8/10

Baron’s rating: 5.5/10

Follows:

Jaws [1975]

Followed By:

Jaws 3D [1983]

Jaws: The Revenge [1987]