The Firelight Shocks DVD Review Section

Jaws 2 Distributor: Universal Region: 1 Ratio: 2.35.1 (Enhanced for widescreen televisions) Sound: Dolby Digital Mono

WARNING: Typical Calum style rant ahead! The first Jaws film was obviously going to be a hard act to follow. In fact, as a child I became positively obsessed with sharks after seeing Jaws, and went on to read university sized books about them. At such a young age (we're talking seven or eight here), part of me was disappointed to learn that great white sharks are not the bloodthirsty predators that Jaws depicts them as. I was even surprised to learn that they rarely attack swimmers (sometimes confusing us for seals) and are likely to spit a human victim back out once they realise their mistake. So basically - shark attacks are as likely as being struck by lightning. It's somewhat amazing, then, that a seven-year old kid could learn a bit about sharks but that the producers of this film evidently could not... Anyway, that aside - this is a killer shark movie, albeit one controlled by those who don't seem to know a thing about the beasts! Okay - so you have to have 'Jaws' eating people. Fine - but surely even the biggest dunce knows that a shark doesn't feed compulsively, or even daily, and that the giant fish is certainly not intelligent enough to rise out of the water and pull a helicopter into the sea! Nope, this really stretches credibility. At least with the first film Steven Spielberg spaced out the attacks, making it seem a bit more plausible. Still, if recent blockbuster Deep Blue Sea can make such idiocy entertaining then so can Jaws 2 - and new director Jeannot Szwarc does his best with the material. Yes, for while it may sound as if I dislike Jaws 2, nothing could be further from the truth. I just love sharks - and with great whites so horribly endangered I was just a tad pissed off at the misleading and utterly made up 'shark facts' extra that accompanies this movie (more on that later). However, as a monster movie - Jaws 2 is excellent. As a sequel to one of the best films ever made it is slightly less successful. Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton all return from the first film. Obviously Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw are missed, but considering the plot, I cannot see where the former would have fit in (the latter is, of course, shark munchies). The story is reminiscent of a slasher film - with a few teenagers marooned at the deep end of the ocean and prowled by the killer shark. The scenes with Chief Brody (Scheider) seem a little like padding, but the great actor stills give an impressive performance. Ditto for Hamilton as Mayor Vaughn. The now famous scene with the jet skier remains very exciting, and the conclusion to Jaws 2 is, if you'll pardon the pun, explosive. Again, the fact that the film is taken to delirious heights of stupidity really puts a damper on many scenes: just as you're being pulled into the movie something ridiculous seems to happen (be it a killer whale being massacred or the shark tumbling over boats on its own will). It's a shame because a lot of this movie really works well and it has some really effective moments. In short - this is probably the best sequel anyone could have hoped for and the returning Scheider is a Godsend. Just don't expect anything approaching the brilliance of the first and you'll be fine. Jaws remains such an awesome movie that it is hard to fall in love with the notion of any sort of followup. Still, credit where credit is due, Jaws 2 is compulsive viewing and well worth buying. It's certainly far better than most monster movies you'll see and the photography frequently stands out (except for a scene where the boom mike is most evidently in shot - see if you can spot it). As for the next two films... well, the less said the better!

EXTRAS: Remastered and letterboxed (there goes that widescreen VHS copy I bought last year) Jaws 2 looks fantastic. The mono soundtrack stays faithful to the original sound recording, and should appease anyone. Yes, this disc is a good one. As for the extras... Well, the most significant extra here is a forty-five minute documentary about the production of Jaws 2 entitled The Making of Jaws 2. Sadly, not one member of the main cast seems to have been lured into adding their comments, so there is no Roy Scheider (who was contractually obligated to do this movie and even the director admits that the actor was unhappy making it). Obviously this is very disappointing, but the director, Jeannot Szwarc, is happy to take viewers through the turbulent experience of directing (at short notice) the followup to an instant classic. It actually makes you wonder why Szwarc wasn't asked to contribute a commentary track to the DVD. All said, this is fine documentary, and it's great to see Jaws 2 being treated with at least some of the affection afforded to the far superior first movie. The one cast member who does talk about some of his memories of the production is Keith Gordon, who is better known for acting in such popular genre titles as DePalma's interesting but flawed Hitchcock wannabe Dressed to Kill and Carpenter's underrated Christine. Gordon chats away for about seven minutes in a short, but no less intriguing, 'portrait' (their words not mine) of the film - although I'm sure his comments could have been spliced into the actual 'making of' documentary instead of being singled out. Next we have something called 'the French joke' which is a very short feature of the director telling us about the problems encountered with the translation of the film's title into French for his home market. This could also have been added into the documentary, but it is not - and I presume that this is because the producers of the disc want buyers to believe that this release has more extra features than it does. The 'joke' itself, incidentally, is so middling that it does not even warrant any sort of further mention. John Williams is the subject of a small featurette dedicated to the music of the film. This is all fine and well but adds little to your knowledge about the making of the movie. Of more interest are four deleted scenes, all shown in widescreen and of varying quality. The best of these scenes is a little bit of footage showing the shark attacking the doomed helicopter pilot under the water. This would actually have worked quite well had they kept it in the final edit. You also get storyboards, the aforementioned and truly pisspoor 'shark facts' (which accompanied the film's release and which amount to: 'sharks will eat you whenever you swim. Kill the buggers because they are evil') as well as some fimographies. Production notes and two theatrical trailers are also present. A fine collection of extras and a disc which warrants a place in the library of any self-respecting fan of great white related carnage. If only they would make a Jaws 5 with Steve Irwin in the lead role...