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Jaws 3 (1983)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
December 18th, 2007
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'Jaws 3-D' seems to me like little more than a stupid gimmick, something to exploit the enduring popularity of Spielberg's 1975 classic. At least it changes the location, from Amity to Sea World, where a mama shark finds her way into the park through an outer gate. Dennis Quaid is Mike Brody, all grown up, who works at Sea World, and is romantically attached Kathryn Morgan (Bess Armstrong), a dolphin trainer. His younger brother, Sean (John Putch) arrives from somewhere out west for a visit. And then you have a photographer named Philip (Simon MacCorkindale) and the owner/manager of the facility, Calvin Bouchard (Louis Gossett Jr, fresh from his Oscar win for An Officer and a Gentleman). The shark wreaks havoc, as it goes after performers during a water show, people on a boat ride, and people strolling the halls of an underwater aquarium, which subsequently starts to get flooded when the shark rams into the side of one of its glass tunnels. The movie is hopelessly cheesy and the special effects are terrible, they don't even really care about making the shark look convincing or menacing anymore. The premise is interesting, though much of the surrounding story is dull. Quaid is bland; Gossett's is the most lively and memorable character, a replacement for Murray Hamilton, just as stubborn in his insistence that the park (like the beaches) remain open despite the presence of a big, hungry, predatory fish.
I have never watched it in 3-D, nor would I want to, since this was the old 3-D that required those ridiculous glasses that were flimsy and never wanted to stay on your face. A real step down in quality from Jaws 2, a distinctive break from both Spielberg and Peter Benchley, as it tries to take the series in new directions, even when no series was ever intended. Sadly, it would be followed by one of the worst movies ever made, but at least Quaid went on to have a productive and respectable career, like Gossett, and the two of them would work together again on Enemy Mine. John Putch is the son of Jean Stapleton, best-known for her role as Edith Bunker on All in the Family.
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