Jaw 3 (1983)

Film of 2012 #52

The third film in the Jaws series, filmed in glorious 3D is a terribly produced, bad story, poor continuity enjoyable piece of entertainment. This is by no means a good film and without the 3D effects the film looks really poor with floating fish heads and arms looking really out of place as they are supposed to be sitting in front of your red and blue glasses. The story follows the Brody brothers Mike and Sean played by Dennis Quaid and John Putch. Their romantic interests Kate Morgan and Kelly Ann Bukowski played by Lea Thompson all work or are visiting the Florida Sea world run by Louis Gossett Jnr. Their man made sea world is invaded by a 35ft Shark and it's offspring.

This film is a monster movie that plays on the popularity of the Steven Spielberg original and the brothers while carrying the names and having a few after effects are not the emotional wrecks you would imagine after they went through what they did when they were children. Apart from the name there really is very little correlation between this and the original 2 films other than it is a shark attack film. The most surprising thing to me is the fact that Richard Matheson actually helped write this story, you can see glimpses of what they were trying to get with the story but they really needed to do their research on sharks.

I enjoy this film when I watch it, it really is one of the most guilty of pleasures and I think it actually get's an easy ride as the 4th film is terrible so people remember this film more fondly. I give this film 3 stars knowing full well that many people will not enjoy watching it.

Jaws 2 (1978)

Film of 2012 #33

The Sequel to the Spielberg classic that follows the residents of Amity Island as they have to deal with a second Shark attack in and around the waters of Amity Island. This film is directed by Jeannot Szwarc and does not have any input from Spielberg. The main adult cast with Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gray and Murray Hamilton reprising their roles but the focus of the film is split a bit more and follows Mike Brady the chief's oldest son who after a near miss in the first film is still very content to go in the water.

This film has the same basic formulae as the original with a different twist on where the end goes, ultimately you still have Chief Brody heading out on the water to hunt the shark. You have similar issues around the council and the chief clashing over whether there is a shark or not. You have the same issues around Mike wanting to go out on the water and his parents not wanting him to go out due to the threat of the shark. And him still going on to the water ignoring the risk his parents perceive. Thinking about this film in review it is very similar to the original in a lot of it's ideas and basic concepts, yet when I thought of it previously it was always a very different film. Overall though I still really enjoy this film. There are some great performances from the kids when they realise that they are in trouble and showing the fear. There are some stereotypical teens in the group but the cast is too big overall with the main character still being chief Brody, the lesser characters do not get fleshed out enough.   

It would have been interesting to see if they had removed the Chief Brody character and just concentrated on the kids and one of them had fulfilled the Chief Brody role at the end, I think that this would have made an interesting sequel. Overall I still consider this a great follow on to the original film and one of the stronger sequels out there. I also always want to watch it after watching the first and would say that this is a 4 star recommend, it has it's flaws but you can get past them.

Jaws (1975)

Film of 2012 #32

The Speilberg classic and the first Summer Blockbuster it is an all time favourite of mine, it is still to this day a scary film that has me on the edge of my seat even though I can quote many lines from it. I think that while Speilberg is a master of the film making art, there is an element of luck with the well known fact that Bruce, the shark did not work as well as they hoped. Therefore they went with a lot less Shark and lots of Point of View shots that help build the tension fantastically. There are jump scares in this film that still get me when I watch it and I will continue to watch this film in the future. 

The story is around a New York cop that moves to Amity Island as the Chief of police and in his first summer there are a couple of what appears to be shark attacks. The story is him trying to convince the council who cannot afford to close the island and subsequently his battle to beat the terror of the deep. You have an excellent and defining role for Roy Scheider as Brody the chief of Police, Richard Dreyfuss as Matt Hooper the Shark expert and Robert Shaw as Quint the expert Shark catcher. You also have an Iconic score by John Williams that sets the tone for the film and fits the piece perfectly and I think that it is a piece of music that everybody will know on hearing.

As well as being a childhood favourite this film still holds up to this day and is a very solid 5 star recommend to me, it is a film I will continue to re-watch and always look forward to seeing it again and again.

Super 8 (2011)

So the film from Steven Spielberg and J. J. Abrams is finally here and i went to see it at the cinema as all Steven Spielberg films should be seen there as I think that he is the quintessential film maker. I knew very little of this film going in and have to say that the hype worried me, how can a film from the master of subterfuge J. J. Abrams be that good when all of the advertising is so subtle.

Now I feel I gave this film a fair going but did make a throw away comment just before the film started that at the end I thought I just about nailed it with that one comment. The comment I made was "JJ is remaking E.T. with Mr Spielberg, lucky him." now it is not really a remake of E.T. but thinking about this film it is really a cross of  E.T. and Cloverfield and I cannot get this out of my head. I will say that the start of the film pulled me in there were enough questions going on that I was like oooh I wonder what that means and I wonder how it will all fit together. I have to say that the Train wreck was epic and immense and looked cool, but hey the car was untouched which was convenient.

I feel that this film is over hyped from the outset and the story is a mash up of 2 works from these directors and I feel cheated for some reason. I have no idea what I wanted but I don't think it was this. For that reason I am going to say 2 stars and the only reason it is not 1 star is the performances and effects are worth more than 1 star/ Ultimately I might be wrong about this and I will see it again on DVD but at the moment this is a failure for me.