Well.....

I'm a guy who'll defend JAWS 2 as a decent but not great effort at continuing the story.

I mean, it didn't have Shaw, of course, but it did have Scheider and most importantly, John Williams.

Granted, it was just "Friday the 13th Goes to the Beach," but it did have some suspenseful moments.

In my book, JAWS is an A+. JAWS 2 is a B.

I have the Universal release with DTS and it's great! I remember watching parts of it on TBS awhile back, but decided to pick this DVD up as a "semi-blind" buy. Needless to say I loved it! Great anamorphic picture and sound for such an old movie.

Not just a great movie, but when, inevitably, anyone talks about an adapted screenplay and its merits in comparison with the book, the movie always comes up short.

For my money, Jaws is the one great exception. A wonderful movie, perfectly written, filmed and directed. The book, meanwhile, is 70's Peyton Place shite.

Jaws rules, IMO

My mom took me to see at the tender age of six (I had a cool mom) and I loved it! I remember going to see Grease a week after that and the Jaws 2 trailer played. I sat there wishing I could go into the next theater and see it again

Of course as I got older I realized the brilliance of the original Jaws and it stands as one of my three favorite films of all time (Star Wars, Apocalypse Now being the others) but for the reasons you mentioned Jaws 2 remains a very watchable film (especially compared to the pieces of crap known as Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge).

I remember reading a portion of JAWS in Reader's Digest years ago. It had painted image of the shark going after the Doctor in ahte shark cage. The shark was huge and that image stays with me to this day.


Question....does anyone remember it being mentioned that the shark in the story wasn't actually a Great White, but a Megaladon?

Agreed! The book is filled with all kinds of pointless sub-plots (that Hooper/Ellen having an affair went nowhere for one). Also having the Orca head back into port every evening really undercut the drama (and the Danger) of being isolated in a great big ocean against a Force of Nature.

And the ending makes NO sense whatsoever. The shark just up and . . . dies. "Gah! I'm having a stroke! I shouldn't have eaten that last fatty tourist!" What the HELL!?! Sure the ending of the movie is completly implausable, but you're so hooked by that point that you just don't care.

The movie on the other hand makes me weep for what Spielberg has become. I remember the Steve from the 70's and the 80's - Jaws, Close Enounters, Raiders - hell I didnt like ET, but I'll still freely admit that it was an amazingly well crafted flick.

The style that Jaws oozes from every frame (The jump cuts on Brody on the beach just before Alex Kintner dies), the razor sharp writing, the acting from even the supporting actors and background characters - all of this coming together in a perfect movie.

Counterpoint this with, say - the first Jurassic Park. Everything from Annoying Movie Kids (instead of the very real Brody clan) to one dimensional characters all points to Spielberg's rather tired bag of Tricks. His 90's and 00's stuff is ok, but it doesnt have the balls of the 70's and 80's.

Spielberg's had some stinkers (all Jurasic Park movies, Hook) but his most recent movies have been some of his strongest. A.I. and Catch Me If You Can are two of his very strongest films, and Minority Report is very watchable fun.

Interesting you say that. I consider Jurassic Park (the first one) and Hook to be much better than A.I. (Haley Joel is a dork), Minority Report (was pretty good I guess), as well as Catch Me If You Can (DeCraprio?? no thanks)

Jaws is an absolute masterpiece - one of my top 5 favorites of all-time, and my favorite Spielberg movie. I agree with the person who mentioned how well this film has held up over the years - it has aged amazingly well indeed. To this day, I still won't go swimming in the ocean....

And Jaws 2 is a very worthy, underrated sequel, IMO.

Yeah, but you're a guy named Natural Mystic who enjoys powerlifting and cars, and you bought Jaws off a blind buy after catching it on TBS a couple months ago. Forgive me if I discount your opinion of Spielberg’s oeuvre.

Agreed. Scheider continues to shine, even through vastly inferior script and direction.

I have always liked Jaws 2.