Review of Jaws: The Revenge (1987) by Keenan S — 25 Apr 2014

Oh, boy. I just had to come back and revisit this one, didn't I? I didn't like it as a little kid and I hate it even more now as an adult, even though I'm a B-movie fanatic. Now I can really see why this film sunk the franchise for good, as it is easily the worst Jaws film, period (And this is coming from someone who is a die hard fan of Jaws 2 and even salvaged Jaws 3 for camp value). Still, I wanted to give this film another chance before writing it off for good, and sadly, it still sucked. Now let me explain why.

The plot mostly focuses around Ellen Brody, the wife of Chief Brody from the first two films. After her son, Sean, is killed by a shark, Ellen becomes convinced that her family seems to be cursed and will be endlessly pursued by this new Great White until it finishes off her family for good.

Despite her new fears, she decides to go to the Bahamas with her son, Mike, and his family to get her mind off her grief and even meets a charming pilot while she's there, whom she grows close to romantically. But, her worst fears are confirmed when the shark starts to come after Mike and his family, and now Ellen must do everything in her power to take down this shark.

Honestly, even though some of the ideas are hokey, the premise of Jaws: The Revenge sounded really interesting. I also admired the fact that it tried to go back to the roots of the original film and also tried to be more dramatic. Had the story been properly written and the film had been directed properly, it could have made for a hell of a drama mixed with harrowing shark attack scenes, and peppered with just the right amount of 80's cheese to make for a damn good Jaws film to close out the franchise. It could have been a thrilling, harrowing, and terrifying film, but it sadly didn't work out.

As a drama, this film falls flat on its face thanks to a poorly written script which drowns its talented cast in a sea of cliches, flaccid emotions, and unrealistic scenarios. Worse yet, the film can't even be salvaged as trashy fun because shark attacks are few and far between, and what does happen doesn't get interesting until the final confrontation (Which results in a bizarre and unintentionally funny death. The shark not only explodes when the boat rams it, but it also causes the boat to explode into pieces). It's a bad drama and it's also a crappy shark film that can't be salvaged for camp value.

I do feel, however, that the cast did their best with the material and I really enjoyed the performances by Lorraine Gary and Michael Caine who I felt managed to deliver even in the midst of so much awfulness.

In the end, Jaws: The Revenge is a disappointing conclusion to the franchise that is filled with a lot of interesting ideas that it never utilizes. The direction is bad, the story is crap, and the shark attacks are disappointing and filled with bad special effects. It's a probably a good thing they never made another Jaws film again because it would cause too much pain to fans to have to endure another one.