Jaws 2 (1978)

Genres

Horror, Thriller

Director

Jeannot Szwarc

Country

USA

Cast

Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey Kramer, Collin Wilcox, Ann Dusenberry, Mark Gruner, Susan French, Barry Coe, Gary Springer, Donna Wilkes, Gary Dublin, John Dukakis, Marc Gilpin

Storyline

Four years after killing the shark, Police Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) once again must hunt a man-eating great white shark as the animal begins terrorizing the swimmers.

Opinion

Jaws is a fantastic piece of filmmaking basically because of the man behind it, Steven Spielberg, and Jaws 2 is the utterly proof of that since there's no Spielberg involved and the film is pretty disappointing. Still, it could have been way worse.

The plot is basically the same of the original. Still very simple and predictable and manages to be even more silly that before. It starts off pretty slow and it isn't as interesting as the original, but eventually the pace gets better and the story gets a little engaging.

However, Jaws 2 doesn't rely on suspense, tension and the right atmosphere to engage and entertain like its predecessor did. This one entirely relies on the action. It's as if the filmmakers didn't give a damn about making a scary movie so they did an action flick instead. But at least the non-stop action is nice. Sure, there's a lot of blood and guts, and cheap horror movie sharks, but it somehow manages to be a bit compelling.

And that's pretty much it. Like I mentioned above, the special effects are pretty cheap and not that effective. The acting also leaves a lot to be desired and the absence of Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss can be easily noticed.