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ACTOR
Roy ScheiderLorraine GaryMurray HamiltonJoseph Mascolo
DIRECTOR
Jeannot Szwarc
SYNOPSICS
Jaws 2 (1978) is a English movie. Jeannot Szwarc has directed this movie. Roy Scheider,Lorraine Gary,Murray Hamilton,Joseph Mascolo are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1978. Jaws 2 (1978) is considered one of the best Adventure,Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
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Jaws 2 (1978) Reviews
As far as sequels go, this one deserves another bite!
When Jaws was released in 1975, I don't think audiences knew what hit them. People were scared to death to go into the waters and Jaws became the very first summer blockbuster. As set by example by later Hollywood, it made money, WE NEED A SEQUEL. Well, Jaws 2 was an actual book, but why not capitalize on it's success? Jaws 2 actually is a decent movie, I don't know why this film is so picked on. I think because it does have a bit of a slow start, but the ending is fantastic. This was one of the first times we saw good looking teenagers terrorized. Arguably yes, it's silly to think the shark would come back for a second bite, but why not just let go and have a good time with this one? I went back for seconds and still like this movie. Once again, Mayor Vaughn doesn't share Brody's belief that the town has another shark problem and warns him not to do something hasty. The following day, while Brody is in an observation tower, he sees a large shadow produced by a school of bluefish, which he mistakes for a shark. In his haste, Brody orders everyone out of the water and fires his gun, causing a panic. The town council fire Brody for the beach incident, with Mayor Vaughn being the only one to vote against dismissal. The next morning, Mike sneaks out and goes sailing with his friends, but has to take his young brother Sean along to stop him telling his parents about Mike's trip. But as they sail on the waters, the shark decides it's time for some afternoon lunch and terrorizes the teens. Martin realizes with his sons missing, they may be in trouble and goes to save them and their friends. Does the movie have it's flaws; yes. The acting is alright and the plot is a bit silly. The beginning is a bit slow and the story isn't as interesting as the first film with intelligent adults as clearly this was made more for the scare and bringing back old characters for the fans. Not to mention that the boat scene was a bit sloppy where the dumb woman is grabbing a bottle of gasoline to light the shark on fire I'm assuming but looses her balance and dumps it on herself and proceeds to shoot a flare gun! Yeah, she had it coming. There is a really bad mistake caught on film when the shark reaches in to bite Michael, Jaws scraps it's mouth on the boat and the mouth bends as if it was plastic, lol. But one of the things I like about the film is that it still does give a good scare with the teenagers. Especially when Marge has to save Shawn out of the water and she can't get back up on the boat and keeps slipping, as you see Jaws going after her and it just breaks your heart when Shawn witnesses her death. Also I have a guilty pleasure for the actor Keith Gordon(Christine, All that Jazz, and Back to School), this was one of his first films and he does a very good job. The cast seemed to really click and did a good job working together. Plus you have to love how "marine" Martin Brody gets when he faces down Jaws for his last time and goes for that money shot. Jaws 2 is definitely flawed, but honestly a fun film that too many people judge harshly. I think it's just a fun popcorn flick that you need to let go and just have a good time when sequels had good intentions. 7/10
Pacing could have been more tight, but it's often suspenseful and exciting.
*** out of **** As a sequel to an immensely popular classic, Jaws 2 had a lot to live up to, and while it doesn't reach the level of sheer terror of the original, it's still effective in creating thrills, some scares, and excitement. The biggest flaw is the pace, since the scenes on land drag on over and over. These moments hurt an otherwise entertaining and often fun motion picture. The plot is mostly a re-hash of Jaws. It even takes place in the same town, Amity. It's been years since the first shark was killed and Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) begins to have his suspicions of another great white in the vicinity when two divers are reported missing, a boating accident that results in the mysterious disappearance of a mother and daughter, and a killer whale washed ashore with large bites all over it. Brody voices his beliefs to the mayor (Murray Hamilton), who, along with real estate developer Glenn Petersen (Joseph Mascolo), disregard this because of the current production of a hotel on the beach. Brody's constant paranoia of the situation eventually gets him fired. Meanwhile, his two sons, Mike and Sean, sneak off to sail with a group of other teens. When another shark attack occurs and is confirmed, Brody sets off to find his sons before it's too late. I've heard a lot of interesting things involving the making of this sequel. Apparently, Spielberg and Dreyfuss were interested in returning, but couldn't due to their filming of Close Encounters. The original story was supposed to be more character-oriented, without as much focus on the teens in peril, but when Spielberg had to back out the studio executives got nervous and went with Szwarc to make a more formulaic and "effective" sequel. Roy Scheider would be the only big star from the original who would return. I'm a huge admirer of Steven Spielberg's film, and it would be hard for any other director to equal, much less surpass, his filmmaking techniques. Director Jeannot Szwarc does an overall solid job here. He knows what made the first film effective and holds off long camera shots of the shark for a while (in my opinion, maybe a little too long). The beginning of the film does a nice job of creating interest and a good set-up is appreciated. However, this set-up goes on a little too long. A half-hour would have been just fine, but Szwarc takes nearly 75 minutes for the film to focus on the shark hunting down the sailing teens. You may wonder why I voice my complaint for this when in the original the shark didn't make it's first full appearance until near the end. Well, in that film's case there were three great characters (only one of whom returned) and some classic suspense sequences to crank up the tension (Dreyfuss and Scheider's exploration of the abandoned boat, anyone?). While Szwarc should be noted for trying to build up momentum, he slows down everything a little too much and thrill seekers looking for non-stop action may find it disappointing, and it might be more up their alley to look for Deep Blue Sea (which is considerably faster moving, though is an overall weaker film). It is initially interesting to see how this sequel builds up its story with such scenes as the examination of a dead killer whale and a diver who runs into the shark, and it is quite entertaining to revisit Amity again, but Brody's constant back and forth debates with the town committee get tiresome after awhile. We know he's right and they're wrong and the film makers should have realized that these arguments get old quickly. To be fair, Scheider's performance does put in a bit more tension into these scenes, but it takes something more clever than that to keep things moving at a brisk pace. The film does finally get moving in the last 35 or so minutes, and it's in those moments that make the film the overall effective sequel it is. The constant shark attacks deliver the goods. Szwarc knows how to milk tension into these scenes and doesn't disappoint. The finale is particularly an exercise in creating seat-gripping suspense. It's almost a match for the conclusion to Jaws. The final showdown between Brody and the shark is just as memorable and edge-of-the-seat as his final confrontation with the other great white in the original. John Williams' score is as effective as ever and serves to heighten the tension factor by a notch. Admittedly, there are some implausibilities abound. Great whites aren't nearly that aggressive and for one that eats as much as it does, it's really quite hungry. The shark even pulls down a helicopter in one scene to presumably eat the pilot (In the TV version, there's an added scene of the shark trying to chomp the pilot). Brody's plan to kill the shark relies on quite a bit of luck, though I won't complain as much about this since it is the film's highlight sequence and is an example of masterful direction. Most people tend to ridicule the visual effects in the Jaws series. In my opinion, they're more effective and significantly better than CGI renditions of animals seen in the more recent thrillers like Deep Blue Sea, Anaconda, and Lake Placid. Szwarc's high angle shots of the great white are the best, evoking a sense of terror by just looking at the top of this ferocious animal. With an animatronic shark, it's not nearly as mobile as what can be rendered by computer technology, but it beats having the animal look like a refugee from a video game. There are also other things that set this film above those aforementioned movies, such as restraint, seriousness, and no annoying over-reliance on mostly unfunny self-deprecating humor. To mention how effective the script is would probably be a moot point. Anybody watching this movie wants to see it for the shark attacks. Howard Sackler and Carl Gottlieb do a reasonable job of repeating what was successful in the original story without completely ripping it off. This time around, there's no compelling monologue like Robert Shaw's retelling of the fate of the men on the U.S.S. Indianapolis, but the screenwriters can be credited for not writing any laughably ludicrous dialogue. When the stranded teens argue, everything they say is reasonable within the context of the situation they're in. The film's performances are overall decent. Roy Scheider has always been one of my favorite actors; he's easily the best here and is very good as the man determined to save his sons. Martin Brody is still by all means a great character, and Scheider's portrayal of him as an everyman caught up in a terrifying situation makes it extremely easy to sympathize with him. Lorraine Gray is decent as his wife and though she gets more screen time than before she's still not given a chance to fully flesh out her character. And, boy, we all saw her character develop in Jaws the Revenge, but we all know how that turned out. Murray Hamilton and Joseph Mascolo are appropriately sneaky and sly as the town mayor and real estate developer. They're really not so much people as they are those who have to be wrong all the time. It's a cliche, and it's not as effective as it was in Jaws. I can't really say which actor who portrays the teens does the best job. They're all fairly equal and they are pretty good at not annoying us, which makes it easier to feel for them when the shark attacks begin. It's basically like this: when the film takes place on land, it's sometimes slow-moving and not always interesting. When it's on water, it's often exciting and tense, with suspense that sometimes equals the original. It's definitely not as great a thriller as Jaws, but it is a worthy sequel and certainly is better than the likes of Deep Blue Sea, Anaconda, and Lake Placid.
Slow To Get Started, But Then Has Some Bite
No, this wasn't as good as the original, but it wasn't bad, either. In fairness, the audiences knew what to expect in this one and had already been shocked by the killer Great White Shark. Thus, it was no way audiences were going to react to the sequel as they did the first Jaws movie. It didn't have Steven Spielberg directing, but it did have the same locale with same principal characters on "Amity:" mainly Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), his wife Ellen (Lorraine Gary) and Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) so one didn't feel as if this was a completely new film. There was continuity to it, and we have the same problem (a big shark eating people). The main difference is that it is just a few years after the first horrifying incidents. This story mainly involves Chief Brody's teenage kids and their friends. Overall, the film moves a little slowly the first hour, but picks up dramatically in the second half. In fact, it turns out quite intense, just like the first film. The main mistake the filmmakers made - which they wouldn't do today, was that it was too slow for too long. That, and the fact that the area residents apparently had a short memory; unrealistically short. Anyway, the shark looks more realistic.....and if you can hang in there, you'll be rewarded with some good escapist entertainment in the second hour.
Nothing will ever compare to JAWS, but this is a great sequel
It's strange, I wonder how this film would have been received if it was directed by Spielberg instead of an unknown. Because this film is about as intense as they come. Granted, it lacks in the personal relationships and that is what made Jaws such the classic that it is. We all know that there is no way a sequel to Jaws could ever live up to what we experienced with Jaws, but this film is about as scary as they come. Here, I must admit that the characters take a back seat to the shark. But is that necessarily wrong? We have already seen the shark in the first one so the mystery is gone, so now the only thing to do is make sure the audience is scared out of their minds. And that I can assure you is done with just as much perfection and attention to detail as the original. Take for example the opening scene where two divers are looking in the Orca ( Quint's sunken ship from the first film ). They are playfully taking pictures in front of the sunken ship. Then suddenly, a shot from behind them, and the ominous music. You know they are going to be eaten, but the scene is done with so much tension and perfect pacing that you are scared all over again. And when the shark finally does strike, we experience that primal emotion all over again. The story is a fairly simple one but affective at the same time. Brody ( Roy Scheider ) is convinced there is another shark in the waters off Amity and he is having a hard time convincing the town idiots that he is right. But this time his two sons are a little older and they will be involved in the final confrontation with the shark. There is one other scene that I wanted to point out and that is a scene where a picture is being developed. Brody is given a camera of the missing divers from the beginning. The developer then tells him that the pictures are about to be processed. As he stands in the red room, waiting for the pictures to develop, he knows. He has that feeling. Something is going to show up on the picture. And sure enough we see it. The mouth. The black, doll-like lifeless eye appears in the corner of the frame and Brody knows. He knows what it is. This is such a powerful scene in the film and it is directed with such skill that it looks like it could have been directed by Spielberg. I think Jaws 2 is a great film and it is just as scary if not a little scarier than the first, but what it lacks is that it's characters don't have time to develop. We don't care as much about these ones as we did about Hooper and Brody and Quint to some degree. But that is a small detail, because the film does it's job and that is to scare us. Look for one more scene where Tina and her boyfriend are boating by themselves. It will stay with you for quite some time. Maybe if this was Spielberg's film he would have done something different. But the one thing he couldn't do is to make it more of a frightening experience than it is. So that is a compliment to Szwarc, I just wonder what happened to him. Because he has a vision and a style that is very reminiscent to Spielberg's original. If you haven't seen this by now, treat yourself to the first one and then watch this one right after. Especially to all the young people that are on the IMDb, Jaws is a classic piece of film making and I have said that it is the best film ever made, and it is. But if you want to be scared, Jaws 2 will fulfill that need just as well as the first and better than any film that has come out in the 90's. And finally, has there ever been a better tagline in the history of motion pictures? Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...... Brilliant.
An enjoyable underrated sequel that deserves a chance
A lot of people come under the misconception that only Jaws is good while all the sequels are bad but that's not entirely true. Of course Jaws 3D and Jaws the Revenge are the ones you should definitely avoid at all costs but Jaws 2 is the one that gets under-looked and unfairly rated because of the bad rep the later sequels did. I assure you all, Jaws 2 is nothing like those said bad sequels films, in fact this film is actually as enjoyable as it's preceding film. Like a proper sequel should do it directly continues from where the first film left off with most of the same characters returning including main protagonist Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), he is just an excellent main character, it wouldn't be a Jaws film without him who has the unfortunate task of dealing with another man eating shark that is terrorising the sea of this island resort town of Amity. Although the film starts off slow but as more of the film gets going the better it becomes. I loved the moments when the shark kills the victims like a horror villain should. Now of course Jaws 2 may not match up to the original film but at least the people who made this film actually tried to make a good film with a decent story. I enjoyed it and I highly recommend it, it's one of the many underrated sequels that should be given a chance.