Jaws 2 (1978)

1978
Directed by Jeannot Szwarc
Starring Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton

A long, long time ago, I reviewed the original Jaws back when this here blog was still called the International Horror Registry.  The short version for anyone who doesn't feel like browsing the history for it: it's a truly great film, that rare horror movie where the scary stuff is matched by the sheer lovability of its characters.  And it's for that reason, kids, why I pray that a remake never comes to fruition.  You can make a good scary shark movie; there have been a few of those since the release of Jaws.  But what you CAN'T do is replace the people in that flick.  More than anybody else, I actually feel sorry for the poor bastard who draws the Robert Shaw role.  Good luck with that one, boyo.

One thing I have yet to do on the ol' blog is review the sequels.  So that's where we're at now.  For the uninitiated, Jaws was such a phenomenal success in the summer of 1975 that it actually MADE summer movie season.  Before it came along, summer was typically the dumping ground where studios dumped exploitation films that weren't expected to give great returns.  The first-ever $100 million box office gross later, and summer movie season now begins in May, arguably April.  It didn't take long for the brain trust at Universal to commission a sequel, with a bigger, (supposedly) more impressive shark, the same lead star, and veteran TV director Jeannot Szwarc calling the shots.  Hence, Jaws 2.  Is it any good?  Read on.

PLOT:  The beauty of this type of film is the simplicity of its setup, and Jaws 2 is no exception.  It's four years following the events of the first movie, and another giant, decidedly ill-tempered shark has made its way into Amity Island's coastal waters.  Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is still the man in charge of Amity's police force, and spends a good portion of the first act of the film going through the familiar motions of the original film to convince the still-endearingly-dickish Mayor Vaughan (Murray Hamilton) of the threat and close the beaches.  After a series of horrific opening attacks by the shark (one of which leaves it with a somewhat hokey looking burn on its head), the personal stakes are raised when Brody's 17-year-old son, along with his little brother Sean and several of his teenage happy-go-lucker friends, find their sailing caravan trapped at sea by the shark.  In this respect, this flick really does kind of turn into Jaws the 13th, in that it is a monster versus a group of kids just interested in having a good time before tragedy strikes.  Anyway, the story occasionally becomes a little too familiar when it comes to the first movie, but there are enough new wrinkles (most notably Brody's lead deputy undermining him in order to curry favor with the Mayor) to make it pop fairly well. 
PLOT RATING:  *** out of ****.

CHARACTERS AND ACTORS:  Once again, Scheider does a really good job in the average joe with the heart of gold role.  He isn't given quite as much to work with in this movie, most notably the absence of Richard Dreyfuss and the aforementioned Shaw to play off of.  The other two returnees from the first movie are Hamilton and Lorraine Gary, and both do an admirable job going at it in a slightly different way.  Since a good portion of the second half of the film takes place with the teenagers at sea, however, this aspect of the movie takes a slight hit.  Other than Mike and Sean Brody, I have problems remembering the names of any of the characters, instead referring to them as Nice Girl, Hot Blonde, etc.  I guess this movie is Jaws the 13th in more ways than one, but at least none of the characters are as much of a nonentity as, say, Ethel and Junior.  Then again, I remember those losers' names, so it's kind of a Catch-22.
CHARACTERS AND ACTORS:  ** 1/2 out of ****.

COOL FACTOR:  Of course, the key element in a Jaws movie is the shark itself.  In the first movie, it looked fantastic, but the "less is more" approach that Spielberg utilized in that flick was really the kicker.  I don't quite know what the ratio is when it comes to how much the fish is onscreen this time around, but the animatronic monstrosity isn't quite as lifelike and fluid.  That's not to say that it looks like crap.  It's serviceable.  When it comes to the kill scenes, this movie definitely has its more visceral moments although nothing approaching the leg slowly falling to the ocena floor in the lagoon or that shocking geyser of blood shooting from Alex Kintner.  Still, since the first movie is almost impossible to top in virtually every way, it's hard to fault this flick for failing on a horror level.  The scene pictured above (for my money, it's THE scene in this flick) should do a more than commendable job fulfilling this film's scare quotient.
COOL FACTOR: *** out of ****.

OVERALL:  For a brief period of time, this was the highest-grossing sequel of all time.  It was definitely worthy of that distinction, because this is a movie that manages to replicate the atmosphere of the original movie without fucking up too much of what it decided to add in the form of its teenybopper-heavy story.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  I can appreciate Jaws 2 for its obvious reverence for the original film and its desire to entertain in much of the same ways, but at other times, it feels like a simple retread.  What are you going to do?  I don't know.  All I know is that this is the first Jaws movie I ever saw, so for that reason alone, this film is getting a thumbs up from me.

OVERALL RATING: *** out of ****.  Get some friends over and pop this one in after watching the original movie for a guaranteed double-shot of fun.  As for the next one?  Well, we'll be getting to that in due time.