Day 183: Jaws 2 (1978)

Including today there are only three more days left of Shark Week and we are definitely still going strong and we made a great choice for today. So, it is some time later and things seem to finally be coming back to order in the summer vacation resort island of Amity in the film Jaws 2. Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) is kind of looked at like a hero in this small community, but the chief begins to have suspicions once again after they find a ship with no crew. Accidents start happening on the beaches of Amity again and Chief thinks that it’s another great white that has come to extract some revenge. Despite all the skeptics that are on the island, the chief will have to set out to protect the island once again from the killer shark. The film also stars Lorraine Gary (Jaws) as Ellen Brody, Murray Hamilton (The Graduate) as Mayor Larry Vaughn, Joseph Mascolo (Shafts Big Score!) as Len Petersen, Jeffrey Kramer (Jaws) as Deputy Jeff Hendricks, Collin Wilcox Paxton (To Kill A Mockingbird) as Dr. Lureen Elkins, Ann Dusenberry (Basic Training) as Tina Wilcox, Mark Gruner (A Little Game) as Mike Brody, Donna Wilkes (Angel) as Jackie Peters, Keith Gordon (The Legend Of Billie Jean) as Doug Fettermen, and the film was directed by Jeannot Szwarc (Supergirl).

There is always this stigma around Hollywood that no matter what, sequels are never better or as good as the originals. That is kind of true when it comes to this film because Jaws had a magic of it’s own that made it iconic in the first place. While the sequel is a very good film on it’s own, it is not however better than the original. The original had a mystery to it where because the shark wasn’t working properly, they depended on the suspense. This film had it’s own kind of suspense to it, it just had a lot more shark in it than the original and that sort of took away from that mystery. This Jaws however had more personality than the original because it looked as if he was out for vengeance. He looked like he had a purpose to him and he was a little more diabolical than the original. It was just the way he continuously stalked the same boats for a while and if anyone tried to save them, he stepped in and intervened. There was really nothing else really wrong for the film because the acting was great, the cinematography was great, and it featured Roy Scheider again. What more could you possibly ask for? It’s films like this one that made me happy to dedicate a whole week to Shark Week, but not all of them can be as good as this. That is why I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.