Subsequently, I just bought "Jaws - The Revenge" on DVD (cheaply) just for fun. It was the first time, since it's opening night in 1987, that I have watched it (13 years ago, I walked out of it before the end and sneaked into "Robocop" which opened the same day). Now that I've seen the whole thing, I feel humbled. It's really not that bad.

I have actually read all of the reviews here at Amazon, and some others (Roger Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times review and TV Guide Online's Move Database - an excellent resource) and I am ready to debunk those who had (ironically the same) jaded opinions. Let's begin, shall we?

"The shark looks fake" - well DUUUUUHHHHHHH! This was made 12 years before "Deep Blue Sea" and two years before James Cameron helped break special effects ground with "The Abyss." Yes, it looks fake, but for the first time in the series, the shark occupied a lot more screen time. Spielberg didn't show the shark early in his film because he really couldn't - the mechanical sharks made for the first "Jaws" were very difficult in the beginning of the shoot - there's still one missing out at sea from 1975. Also, CGI was almost unheard of at that time. I'm sure if the filmmakers had the technology at the time, they would have tried to utilize some of it.

"The story has continuity problems" - actually, it doesn't. There are two scenes where Ellen Brody (played for the third time by Lorraine Gary) has flashbacks to events where she wasn't present; one was from the first film (and justified later in the story) and the other was from several key points in this film. The only other way to convey these thoughts/flashbacks would be to say them out loud - guess how awkward that would've been.

"The shark roars" - OK, it did, but it was only for dramatic effect (the shark in the Orlando ride roars, too - listen in the boathouse). Remember, we're not defining Pi here.

"The shark leaps out of the water like Shamu and stays there indefinitely" - well, no; the scene in question is in extreme slow motion and probably should've been edited a little better.

Roger Ebert stated there was no "establishing shot" before the shark was killed, and it did happen pretty quickly, but if you put yourself in the same situation (I know, now I'm supporting the realistic quality of it), you don't exactly get a lot of "establishing shots" in life to perfectly set up a climax.

Please understand, I do realize this isn't a fantastic movie, but the bad reputation that it has, and the fact that a "part five" hasn't occurred in over a decade and probably never will, is unfortunate. Given the advancement in special effects technology, maybe someone will write a worthy script and another will be made (maybe on the 30th anniversary of the first film). Jamie Lee Curtis came back to Haddonfield 20 years later, so I guess anything's possible.

By the way, the DVD version is the one where Jake (Mario Van Peebles - did you know his father Melvin was in the movie, too?) lives. I saw that question a lot here, so I thought I should probably mention it. The DVD has absolutely no extras, which some may scoff at, but hey, I said I got it cheaply.

So, about "Hudson Hawk" and "The Last Action Hero"...


And this time... its horrible   January 11, 2003
 14 out of 17 found this review helpful

Wow. This movie is so insanely stupid that I dont know where to start. Lets take an incredibly great movie classic and destroy it with idiotic sequels. 1.Sharks cannot roar. 2.Sharks cannot stand on their tails. 3. When sharks are impaled with large sticks they do not automatically explode. 4.Mama Brody cannot reminice about things she didnt witness. 5.Sharks cannot follow people vast distances. 6.Sharks do not enjoy swimming in warm bahaman waters. 7.Michael Caine shouldnt be in this movie. 8.Sharks do not have feelings. I could really go on forever there. Do not buy or even rent this piece of cinematic garbage


Painfully bad...   November 6, 2005
 11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I remember first seeing Jaws-The Revenge when I was around [...]. I was a big fan of sharks and luckily, my parents were cool enough to let me watch the original Jaws and sequels at such a young age. The first two movies in the series were wonderful. Maybe it was the 70's atmosphere, and the fact that no film maker had ever really covered the "killer shark" view on the big screen-but, the first two movies were scary! The third movie tried to hit it big by going 3-D which just makes the film's overall appearance look grainy and blurry. Jaws 3-D was actually even worse than the mess they created with this movie. The only slightly good thing about the movie is the character developement. We are comfortable as movie viewers watching the Brody family, who have endured numerous shark attack scenarios, and aside from Elaine Gray's lopsided hairdoo, we enjoy seeing what's left of the Brody family interact. The mechanical shark in this movie is so bad that it is actually unexplainable. It literally moves so slow that anyone who knows how to at least swim laps could outswim it in the water. There are only two scenes in this movie that are slightly scary-but the slow, OVERLY exposed shark pretty much ruins it for the moviegoer. My biggest issue with this movie though is that I am confused about why the Brody family even goes around water at all anymore?!? Mike Brody works in the water constantly-which is odd since he has been in ALL of the movies and has been attacked on numerous occasions. Why not just find a career away from the sea? I live in Ohio and have only been to the ocean a couple times but, I know that If i DID live by the ocean, and a vengeful shark seemed to want to ruin my life, I would simply MOVE. The shark can't come up on land, so it's not that big of a deal. It's so sad that they have let this series go downhill so bad. If they ever do make a sequel they should really do a LOT of research and come up a halfway decent plot that doesnt involve a shark that is seeking out revenge. One more sad fact about this movie is that the young girl who played Thea (and also provided the voice of DUCKY in THE LAND BEFORE TIME)-Mike Brody's daughter-was tragically murdered by her father shortly after this movie was made.


Not as bad as i'd thought but downright unbeliveable   September 25, 2004
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

This movie took the series out of hand even more than the third one. Reverting back to the character line from the first two The fourth one follows a shark who is supposed to have scared the major character from the first two into a heart attack and now he's killed his youngest son. His widowed wife takes a trip to the Bahamas so she can see her eldest son who is a marine biologist there. But the shark is apparently a mastermind and knows where she's going and decides to follow her there. Of course they have to kill the shark in some stupid way this time shoving a bow of a boat through the shark.

This movie was the most idiotic of them all. The body count was too low and there was no possible way this could've actually happened. Not worth seeing and just plain bad.