First-time viewings are indicated with an ^
[Show spoiler]09/04/24: Blink Twice ^ (2024): 
Shaun Of The Dead (2004): 
09/05/24: Beetlejuice (1988):
09/06/24: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ^ (2024):
09/07/24:
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Jaws (1975):
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Jaws 2 (1978):
I usually watch these at the
beginning of summer (in the lead up to the Fourth Of Joo-ly), but a bum UHD disc of the original made me put them off. Now, in the last few weeks of the summer season, it's time to bid farewell and adieu to beach fun with a pair of movies that scared more people away from the water than any in cinematic history.
Steven Spielberg's original remains one of his absolute best films (incredibly, only his second theatrical feature), a ruthlessly effective roller-coaster thriller about a marauding Great White Shark terrorizing the fictional island community of Amity, and how Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and crusty sea cap'n Quint (Robert Shaw) set out to sea in an attempt to quell the massive predator's feeding frenzy.
What could anyone really say at this point about the massive impact
Jaws had on moviegoing and pop culture in general when first released nearly 50 years ago? All one can do is admire the young, hungry Spielberg's careful craftsmanship, the brilliant orchestration of tension and release (this is a movie where the laughs explode off the screen as much as the frights), and John Williams' anxiety-ridden score, with the most famous, oft-referenced and parodied musical signature since Bernard Herrmann's
Psycho. Add to that a terrific trio of leading performances (Quint's sober monologue about "Why I'll never put on a lifejacket again" is one of the most mesmerising pieces of acting in cinema history), and you've got a whopper of a fish story that will never grow old, never be seen as outdated or "problematic", that will continue to thrill new generations of moviegoers when it's approaching its 100th anniversary. Drink to your leg...?
The massive worldwide success of
Jaws (which was pretty much ground zero for what would become the "Summer Blockbuster" studios have been chasing since) meant, of course, that Universal started casting a big net to reel in a sequel to cash in.
Jaws 2 turned out to be as good as a blatantly "unnecessary" sequel reasonably could be expected to be. Three years later, Amity Island is still licking its wounds and trying to rebuild after that infamous summer, and Chief Brody is supervising that reconstruction of the town spirit when more aquatic disappearances and deaths start occurring. Just accidents that a shell-shocked Brody is making into something more in his mind, or is another shark cruising in the waters, looking to turn the townsfolk (including Brody's sons, Michael and Sean) into a veritable smorgasbord?
This is a sequel that was a hard birth, and director Jeannot Szwarc (who replaced original director John Hancock a few weeks into photography) has to be commended to picking up the pieces and delivering a movie that, while it obviously lacks Spielberg's singular vision, nevertheless delivers the goods when the shark makes its appearances (burned in a boat explosion, this is the "Scarface Shark" of the franchise) and who juggles the dozen or so teenage characters around Brody's sons with aplomb. None of the teen characters are very well-sketched, but compared to the hateful ciphers who would doff their tops and get run through with dripping machetes in the 80s "slasher movie" cycle that was just around the corner, they're a likable bunch of kids you don't want to see munched (there's a surprisingly poignant moment where one girl offers up a humble, heartfelt plea for deliverance as the group drifts on the wreckage of their sailboats, drifting out to sea and pursued relentlessly by their fishy foe).
And despite only doing the movie to honor a contract with Universal, Scheider doesn't phone it in, delivering a lacerating portrayal of a man who went through the most terrifying experience of of life, and who finds himself becoming unglued at the mere suggestion that another shark may have arrived. Add to that another superb John Williams soundtrack, which thankfully doesn't rest on his Oscar-winning predecessor and who offers up a bevy of new thematic material ("End Title, End Cast" is one of the most beautiful pieces of music he ever wrote), and you've got a sequel that offers up a more-than-satisfactory facsimile of the original's thrillers without insulting the audience (the insults would come with the gimmicky
Jaws 3D and the wretched
Jaws: The Revenge in the 80s). Watch these one more time before summer gives way to fall, but do it...
before you go swimming.
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