Reviews from the Motion Picture Encyclopedia
JAWS 2
JAWS 2 is a fairly good sequel to JAWS but most of the suspense is gone because we've already seen the behemoth wreak so much havoc in the first film. Missing here is the humor in the original, despite being co-authored by the funnyman-writer Gottlieb (who can be seen in many roles as an actor. He appeared as "Meadows" in the first film which he also co-wrote with originator Benchley). Most of the old Amity Island crowd has returned to face the threat of the shark and they don't seem to have learned much from the first onslaught. A few years have passed and the island is now again busy with scads of tourists. Two divers and a water skier turn up missing and that sets Police Chief Scheider's antenna tingling. Could it be? An underwater camera that belonged to one of the missing divers is found and the processed film indicates what appears to be a large shark fin. Naturally, the wimp mayor, Hamilton, wants to keep this quiet because he recalls how this hurt business on the island a few years before. Scheider climbs the observation tower and watches the water. When he sees a dark shadow cutting through the waves, he orders all the swimmers out of the sea. Later investigation proves his fear to be unfounded as the shadow came from a school of benign fish. Scheider gets fired for his efforts and his wife, Gary, stands by his side--as all good wives must do in times of stress. Dusenberry and Dubin are two youngsters who sail their small boat to a quiet area where they are attacked by the shark. Dubin is swallowed and Dusenberry watches in horror. Scheider locates Dusenberry and his worst dreams have been corroborated; another great white shark has arrived to dine on the community. Scheider's two sons, Gruner and Gilpin, have gone on a small fishing trip with a couple of pals and he is frightened for their safety. A helicopter is sent to look for them and just as the pilot is about to save the lads, the shark rears its head and drags the chopper into the water in the most spectacular sequence of the film. Scheider doesn't hear from the ill-fated copter pilot so he takes a cabin cruiser and goes out searching for the kids on his own. All this time, the shark is toying with the kids and eyeing them like canapes. Scheider gets there in the nick of time and recalls that sharks are attracted to clanging noises (this theory was used in 1985 in real life when a hump-backed whale swam up the wrong stream in Northern California and was helped out to sea by several boat owners who banged on pipes and drove the whale back to his, or her, natural habitat) so he hits a metal cable that supplies power. The shark rushes toward the sound and Scheider is saved when the huge teeth bite through the metal and the shark electrocutes itself. JAWS 2 began with John Hancock as director but a dispute erupted when he and producers Zanuck and Brown didn't see eye to eye, so Szwarc, a TV director, was hired to take over the direction. Despite the flaws of being a sequel, it had enough "legs" to earn more than two hundred million dollars. Not bad for a sequel, and a lesser one at that. Lorraine Gary is an underused actress but she prefers it that way and has now decided to spend most of her time as the wife of Universal Studios chief Sid Sheinberg. Barry Coe will be recognized as one of the bright young men seen in many Fox films of the 1950's and 1960's. JAWS 2 is an escapist movie that did well enough to, unfortunately, give birth to JAWS 3-D.
JAWS 3-D
The third time was not the charm in the case of the JAWS series. This time, the action moves from Amity Island to Florida's Sea World with a new cast (except for the fact that Roy Scheider's two sons are now old enough to be played by Quaid and Putch). Gottlieb again co-authored the screenplay but he would have been wise to have bypassed this job. Gossett runs the theme park and Armstrong is a marine biologist who works at the place and lives with Quaid. A baby great white is caught after some divers disappear. They think they have a great attraction in "the only great white in captivity." But they haven't reckoned on a mother's love for her offspring so when Big Mama comes to call, things get out of hand and she wrecks the place. This one is 35 feet long and if this were the first JAWS, it might have had some impact, but the film submerged immediately for any number of reasons: we'd seen it before, the effects weren't startling, the blood-count was low, the acting was ordinary, the 3-D photography wasn't unique, and there were hardly and characterization. Consequently, when various actors were chewed, we didn't care at all. It cost almost $15million to make and may not have recovered that in rentals. Putting it on TV, sans the 3-D process, only pointed up the flaws even more and it became funny, sort of like the 3-D satires the Second City troupe did on their late night TV shows from Canada in the early 1980's. Would that this were as enjoyable. Gossett, a graduate of Coney Island's Lincoln High School, spent his early life at the beach near the ocean. He should have recognized the smell of old fish when he accepted the assignment after his stirring job in AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. In a small role, look for chanteuse Kaye Stevens, who was a Las Vegas sensation when she brought her own redheaded madness to the nightclub stage. She has since decided to become a legitimate actress and that's a loss to saloon patrons who never failed to give her a standing ovation for her boite work. Director Alves had been production designer on the first two JAWS features and was rewarded for his efforts by the assignment to handle the lensing for this.