Jaws 3 [DVD]

I actually find this film entertaining as a b-movie schlock horror, rather than a tense thriller that was the original. Just to remind people about the effects: yes they are shoddy, but then again the shark in the original is unconvincing too (when it appears). This film was shown at cinemas as 'Jaws 3D' and was supposed to be viewed with those red/green spectacles, hence the rather perplexing scenes such as the fish head or when jaws smashes into the control centre.
If you view it as a horror fan, there are some great death scenes; the shark is really quite ominous due to its ridiculous proportions and there is great shock value at some of the grisly deaths meted out to unwary divers. Best/worst death is Simon MacKorkindale's (Holby city/casualty) character's ( you just know that the English guy is going to die in the most horrible way!) : he is attempting to lure jaws into a vent to trap her (she's a mother, after all) but his life-line snaps and he gets trapped in the vent with her...he then somehow ends up (still alive) inside her over-sized mouth. You then hear his bones cracking!! Truly disturbing, even if it's totally absurd as well!
Don't know if I'd buy it, perhaps best to watch it on channel 5 ha ha!

i have never laughed so much at an ending of a film. The bit where the shark is coming towards them in the control centre is cringe makingly poor. The rest of the film was not too bad, though an even more unrealistic scenario. What was that under water tunnel made out of? Acrylic it would seem. Terrible 'special effects' at their best.

Jaws 3 is directed by Joe Alves and features a screenplay written by Carl Gottlieb & Richard Matheson from a story by Guerdon Trueblood. It stars Dennis Quaid, Bess Armstrong, Simon MacCorkindale, Louis Gossett Jr, John Putch & Leah Thompson. The second sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws, this was originally released in the 3D format that had a brief rebirth in the early to mid 1980s. Plot centres around a WaterTheme Park coming under attack from a great white shark.

It was originally mooted to have been a spoof movie, along the lines of Airplane et al, now that could have worked you feel, what we actually get is an unintentional spoof movie that was made in appallingly bad 3D. Yet the 3D gimmick was enough to get the punters into the cinema and keep those tills kerchinging to the point where Universal Pictures were rather happy. Happy enough to green light another sequel, the god awful Jaws: The Revenge in 1987. As I was one of those punters who shelled out for the 3D Jaws experience back in the day, I feel partly responsible for part 4 assaulting the eyes of everyone who has ever seen it.

Watching it now over 25 years later in 2D, the film is actually worse than I originally remember it being. Of course now in this internet age we can find out about the numerous script tamperings that went on with it, and subsequently look at the non directing career of Alves post this fishy garbage and fully understand why. Perhaps the biggest mystery of all is how Messrs Quaid, Gossett Jr & Thompson survived to have careers afterwards? But the reality is it's not their fault, Quaid is badly underwritten and a bit too fresh faced to carry the male lead role this early in his career, Gossett Jr actually does OK in the role of SeaWorld park manager Calvin Bouchard, showing the only moments of acting gravitas as he tries to keep things under control. While Thompson is a third arc character called on to look pretty and say a couple of lines whilst trying to keep a straight face.

Even if we shy away from the poor effects work, that were, yes, poor effects even in 1983, Jaws 3 has an amateurishness about it that is laughably bad. The shark sequences look like they were filmed in a bath tub with some kiddies drawing used to scale, while the dialogue, too, seems to have been lifted from a 4 year old's memoirs. Then there is the performances from the likes of Armstrong and MacCorkindale, the former is bland beyond compare, the latter is, if you pardon the pun, wetter than a fish's blanket. There's some decent choreography on show for some water skiing sequences, but even these are countered by the ineffective use of the shark. Don't believe anyone who tells you that this is still fun in a popcorn no brain kind of way, it isn't. It's as bad as its reputation says it is and its only saving graces are Gossett Jr and that it isn't as bad as part 4. 2/10