The best thing about this blog is that I get to write about movies that I love. I know I have said this statement before in other posts, but it doesn’t really sink in to me since I have been doing this for over a year now. Sure, I should be writing about classic movies, timeless movies or critically acclaimed movies, but where the fun in writing about bad movies that are awesome? I will at some point get around to reviewing or posting about classics like Jaws or Shawshank Redemption or 8 1/2, but for now, I want to talk about bad good movies. Jaws 4 is the baddest of the bunch. Jaws 3 was just shit and there was nothing enjoyable about that movie, but this one, oh it just throws its fins the air and says, “fuck it!”. Prepare for some awesomely bad reasons why Jaws 4: The Revenge is the best worst movie of the Jaws franchise.
This third sequel to the 1975 mega-hit Jaws returns Lorraine Gary to the role of Ellen Brody, widow of the Roy Scheider character from the first two films. When her son Sean, the current police chief of shark-plagued Amity Island, is killed by the beast, Ellen goes to the Bahamas to comfort her surviving son. Michael Brody (Lance Guest) and his friend Jake (Mario Van Peebles) are marine biologists there to help, but in the end it is up to Ellen and her new beach-bum love — played by Michael Caine — to put a halt to the fishy horror. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
One of the best things about this movie, which there several things I will talk about, is the title of this movie. The title insinuates that the great white sharks of Amity Island have sentient capabilities to rationalize the actions of the past movies and deemed the Brody family as threats to their livelihood. The sharks are out for revenge and they are determined to kill the Brody family. Now it could be said that Ellen Brody is out for revenge after the sharks took the life of Martin and her son Sean, but I am going to go with the sharks are out for revenge theory since they specifically attack the Brody family multiple times in the franchise. That’s insane to think that the Sharks and Brody Family have a feud like Hatfield’s and McCoy’s.
Next on the list of amazing things in this movie is the actors, namely Mario Van Peebles and Michael Caine. Now I am sure you are scratching your head as to why Caine is in this movie, well he wanted a new house and this movie offered him the money to get. Even he famously said he is proud of the house that he got cause of this movie. Anyways, he plays Hoagie who may or may not be a drug runner in this movie. He does say he delivers people’s “laundry” so I am going to say yes. But the best actor of this bunch of Jaws veterans is Mario Van Peebles as Jake. I have never seen or heard a more offensive, over the top Islander accent than what Mario did for Jake. It’s as if he listened to Buju Banton music and based his entire performance and accent off of that musician. It doesn’t make one bit of sense in this movie and his performance doesn’t even vibe with the mood of the film that it weirdly enhances the terrible enjoyable aspect of Jaws The Revenge.
Last though, is the shark of this movie. I have already established that the sharks are capable of reasoning and have the emotion of revenge in their heart, but I have never seen a shark like this before. Apparently the sharks now have the ability to surface like subs with enough force that they kill by leaping out of the water and chomping on people. I mean the ending of the film basically has the shark doing that dance that dolphins do above the water line and getting some hang time in the process. Also, the shark looks fucking horrific. I mean a lot has changed in terms of effects and animatronics since the first movie, but this looks like something that a high school arts and crafts class put together.
But all this isn’t even what makes the shark so terribly great, it’s the fact that the filmmakers ended up making the shark roar. Yes, it roars. Now I have seen countless hours of Shark Week and I am certain that they have never touched on this roaring aspect. It’s something to see and hear to believe.
Jaws The Revenge, from start to finish, is a masterpiece in disaster filmmaking. They milked just about every bit of originality from the franchise and even stilled amazed me with what they put into the movie. The crowning glory on this movie is that the ending, which spoilers right now, is downright glorious. They, like true Brody’s, kill the shark by ramming it with the mast of the ship. That means that the shark had to basically be above the water long enough for the boat to reach the shark and ram it. But that isn’t even the best part. IT FUCKING EXPLODES! Yes, sharks are made out of explosives and will explode when stabbed.
I love this movie.
