Why So Blu?

Brandon’s Blu-ray Wishlist – June 12, 2014

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the wishlist!

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Jaws 2 (1978)

Summer is here, time to be afraid to go to the beach again.  And what better way than the sequel to Steven Spielberg’s “birth of the blockbuster” film, Jaws 2.  Jaws set even more of a tone by having a sequel and becoming a franchise in leading to it being the “original blockbuster”.  People take the whole “event” and large impact of the original starting the blockbuster craze, but its life afterward would set the tone all the while.  No, it wasn’t the first franchise or even the first big horror movie to get a sequel (Exorcist II: The Heretic came out the year before).  Funny enough, its decent sequel hasn’t found its way to Blu-ray yet.

I know you may be thinking, “why didn’t you do Jaws 2 and 3 or beg for a box set during your double feature month, Brandon?”  Good question.  Well, mainly I don’t really care for Jaws 3 or 4 to come to Blu-ray.  They’re both pretty poor features (even though some good unintended laughs can be found throughout both).  Jaws 4 or Jaws: The Revenge, which had the glorious tagline of “This time, its personal”, was actually a TV movie and a lot of the times when they do a set they’ll stick to just theatrical.  So that leaves Jaws 3-D.  Aside from being crummy, its also one of the 3-D films from the 3-D fad of early 1980s.  And as we’ve witnessed from other 3-D films from this era (Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D and Amityville 3-D), these films kinda don’t transfer well.  Their 3-D honestly works better with the red/blue lensed cheap cardboard glasses than they do with modern 3-D.  And when watching them on the regular, there are a lot of scratches, dirt and weird things that show up from their prints.  Also, many shots look really soft and out of focus.  I just don’t think it would do Jaws 3-D any sort of justice coming to Blu-ray.

Now onto Jaws 2, the movie I want on Blu-ray.  This is a nice sequel that manages to rope back in the main star of the original cast along with a lot of the memorable side players.  It deals with another shark and Police Chief Brody coming off as sort of a paranoid lunatic to the townspeople as nobody believes him that history could be repeating itself.  The town is trying its best to forget the events of 4 years ago, but Brody is still haunted and mentally disturbed by what has happened.  Oh yeah, and for those of you into those sorts of things, the shark in this movie is scarred, making him a darker, gritter version of the great white we all feared in the first one.  So that’s a better shark right?

For the first 3/4 of the film, I think its a rather solid and pretty good followup to the original.  I like the character work being done, despite the sort of silly “How can the same thing happen to the same guy twice” storyline going on.  The film never approaches the greatness of the original, but it does manage a good rendition on the sort of B-picture that the original was made in celebration of.  What I find funny, is that the final act of the film (which is where it kinda steers into goofy, somewhat eyerolling but fun territory), feels more the kind of story setup a Spielberg movie would come to be associated later on, and he didn’t have much at all to do with this movie.  I’m referring to the final act being kids in danger and fighting and surviving the shark on their own.  It really is Spielberg before Spielberg did it.

This was once again a troubled production, even changing hands at directors.  Roy Scheider didn’t even want to return.  But, once Universal offered him out of his 3-picture contract with them if he did it, he changed his tune.  At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film ever done by Universal (a whopping $20 million budget) and also the highest grossing sequel of all time, grossing $77.7 million domestic/$187+ million worldwide.  Jaws 2 was a very successful film.  And in retrospect, after 2 more sequels that were downright awful, many have lightened up on Jaws 2 and enjoyed it for what it was.  Its no comparison to the original, but in its own right, its still solid and features some really good shark action/horror sequences and can easily be enjoyed.  For me personally, I’m from a different era when it comes to my mentality regarding sequels (I think we’re pretty spoiled with the quality of them nowadays).  A sequel can still be a good/great movie even if it doesn’t surpass the original.  And that’s just fine.  It definitely should try, but it doesn’t HAVE to be better to be a success quality-wise.

Universal owns the Jaws franchise, and I’m really surprised they didn’t put this one out, considering that their Blu-ray of the original was one of the best Blu-ray releases of 2012.  If they dumped it out for just $12.99, I’m sure many people would “bite” and love to have it in their collection.  Its the only sequel in the franchise that’s really worth it, in my opinion.  You get the main players back (aside from Hooper), and there’s a lot of fun to be had jumping back into the water and treading.  If you simply just wanted “more Jaws” then this movie really won’t disappoint.  They already started announcing some of their fall titles, and to be honest I think Jaws 2 would be a better and bigger seller than People Under The Stairs, but what do I know?  If they’re not going to release it, how about sending it off to a smaller independent distributor like Twilight Time or Shout! Factory.