Jaws the Revenge

Plot

When Sean Brody – now a Deputy at Amity police department is killed in a shark attack, mum Ellen travels south to be with her last son Michael and his family at their home in the Bahamas.

When the shark travels to Bahamas too, the family believe it is out for ‘revenge’

Direction

Bad.

Really not much to say – nothing of note, and I hated the ‘slow-mo/inaudible ‘NOOO’ when a characters ‘fake out’ death occurred.

Also, that character would have been dead. No way he survived that.

Cast/Characters

Lorraine Gary is the only returning cast member from J1 or J2. While Sean and Michael are present, they are once again played by new cast members – here with Lance Guest as Michael.

Mario van Peebles plays Michael’s best friend and co-worker Jake.

Michael Caine plays the character of Hoagie, one of the islanders and a love interest for the widowed Brody.

The late Judith Barsi played Thea, the daughter of Michael and his wife Carla. Reportedly Guest himself was one of her pallbearers as she tragically passed not long after filming this movie.

Screenplay/Settings/Themes

Let’s dissect.

This has been historically the worst of the series, and no one working on this film reportedly liked it. It went through so many rewrites that the producers just said ‘yep, this will do’ and it’s clear that s*it ran downhill here.

The logic that a shark could travel from NY (where Amity is set) to Bahamas in days is not the silliest part; that it acts the way it does (chasing Michael in a wreck of a submarine – or roars at the end) might just surpass it.

It’s also the worst looking shark – and considering that this was 10 years after the first film, this is quite disappointing.

The overacting is just groan inducing, and the whole character of Jake – all of him is surely insulting to all Bahamians AND Mario van Peebles too.

The screenplay is one of the worst I’ve seen lately, and includes dialogue by characters that actual people surely would never say, or act the way people would never act (sex talk between mother and son in front of kids, and yelling at someone for being away because his brother died).

With more focus on drama and romance than horror, it also has the dumbest ‘kill’ of the shark.

Overall

While not a complete fail of a film. There are a couple of good moments, like when Thea copying dad Michael – a la Sean/Martin from the first movie. The fact the filmmakers were brave enough to kill one of the family members was a brave move.

That being said, it gets the record of being a bad movie for a reason.

1.5/5