Just when you thought you wouldn’t read any more Jaws reviews…

I like independent film politics, you know, the stuff Lloyd Kaufman is preaching. And Roger Corman has said in some interviews that it was Jaws (1975) that killed the independent genre productions because the majors found out what they were doing and turned into something bigger and better. This reason alone was enough for me to stay away from this evil film by Steven Spielberg. The fact that I don’t like his movies in general didn’t help either. I didn’t even find depth in Schindler's List (1993). And I regret spending my cash to see the boring Artificial Intelligence: A.I. (2001) and the ridiculous War of the Worlds (2005) in a movie theatre.

But now the time has come. I finally decided to watch every film in the entire franchise. As the above paragraph reveals I am not an expert (quite the contrary I would say) so this article should be read as a reviewer’s journey and nothing more than that.

Wikipedia tells me that the first film was based on Peter Benchley’s same-titled novel, which in turn was based on some shark attacks from 1916. The success of the novel and then the first film (considered by many to be the first high-concept blockbuster flick), spawned sequels, video games, theme parks and merchandize of every kind; which generated hundreds of millions of dollars. Go ahead and read the reviews of the four films.

 

Movie Review: The Island (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)

Peter Benchley's always seemed to have a hankering for the horrors of the sea. It also helps that he was damn good at constructing a story that’s riveting to readers. Whether it's creatures with Jaws and The Beast or with diamond thieves in The Deep the scribe did superb work using the dangers of the ocean to his advantage. In The Island he takes pirates and does pretty much the same thing with some twists here and there. Michael Ritchie (The Bad News Bears, Fletch) did the honors of directing this horror/action hybrid film adaption that's now being released for the first time ever in a Blu-ray and DVD Combo pack from Scream Factory.

Michael Caine (The Hand, The Dark Knight) plays the role of reporter, Blair Maynard, who has been investigating the mysterious deaths of vacationers and fisherman out in the Caribbean. Maynard takes it upon himself to grab his son and go to the "mysterious" area and find out exactly what's going on. Of course, it's not that easy for Blair as his plane crash lands and he becomes stuck on an island that may just be the point of trouble.

Movie Review: Bait 3D (DVD/Blu-ray Combo/ 2012)

When Peter Benchley's remarkable novel Jaws was adapted for the screen by Steven Spielberg, no one could ever look at going in the ocean the same - much less the bathtub. Naturally there were knock-offs that took the template of Jaws, like the Italian cash-in The Last Jaws (The creators of The Last Jaws even stole the soundtrack!!).

It wasn't always the shark film either that tried to duplicate the success of Jaws. Joe Dante's fantastic Piranha (original) is a good example of that. We do though occasionally get a fun new spin on the shark film - like with Renny Harlin's Deep Blue Sea. The Aussie creature feature Bait has some similarities to Deep Blue Sea but it thankfully brings about a few original turns. Anchor Bay has just recently released Kimble Rendall’s Bait 3D on the masses of shark movie enthusiasts and will not disappoint those looking for a departure from the Sy Fy Channel cheese-fests.