Jaws IV: The Revenge

This time it is personal.

Okay, this is a bad film. It was a rushed production with a terrible script, loaded with lots of plot holes. No matter how you try to take up for it, a shark will not purposely swim on a mission of vengeance towards the Brody family all the way from Amity to the Bahamas. It is confounding that any of those involved in the creative process would even suggest it as a possibility for us to consider. That this shark would know that Chief Brody's son, a cop with Amity, following in the footsteps of his pops, was on the water this very night is preposterous. That Ellen would believe that a shark is purposely targeting her and the Brody family is a bit much, too. Say what you want to about Jaws 3D (1983), the plot of that film was at least plausible. Yes, the notoriety of Michael Caine starring in this the year he'd win the Oscar has been written about ad nauseum, but I don't think he does anything wrong. He's charming and nice, exactly the kind of expatriate gentleman flying a biplane that Ellen (Lorraine Gary) needed after losing her youngest son to a shark attack and husband to a heart attack. Yes, this provided Caine a nice payday for a house and a trip to the Bahamas. I agree with him, that isn't too bad. Caine always recovered from such films at this. I will say, this film isn't boring...not that this is an excuse for the film to be so stupidly plotted. There's no fucking way Jake (Mario Van Peebles) would have survived that chomp-down inside the mouth of a Great White. The shark had him in a vice like grip in its mouth, carrying him deep into the water...so if he didn't die from the injuries, Jake would have perished from drowning. And as reported by critics in the day, yes, there is no reason to show flashbacks that didn't involve Ellen.

That is out of the way. I liked Gary a lot. She just brings a pleasant presence to the film I appreciated. I liked seeing her on screen. I miss her with Scheider, but who could ever blame him for avoiding both parts 3 and 4 like the plague? The film does have Guest and Young bickering about garbage, often thinking about having sex or in the process of having sex, and inviting Gary to the Bahamas to grieve and get away from Amity. I was glad the film departed Amity for the Bahamas. What the film did for me was take me to the Bahamas, so to speak. I sure as hell don't fault Caine for taking an easy check and vacationing in this beautiful place. On our big screen, the film does look really great thanks to a lovely transfer -- I opted for my daughter and I to watch HBO Max instead of my DVD copy -- and I will say the one scene with the shark I did enjoy was the underwater pursuit where Guest's older son to Ellen, Michael, must give chase to Bruce, the Shark, using ship wreckage as a method of avoidance and escape. The roaring shark at the end and how its killed is just shit. There is just not any other way to put it. It was really poorly shot and organized. Even how Caine's Hoagie drives his plane into water and somehow avoids the shark coming right at him is questionably plotted. And Ellen opting to take her son's boat and pursue the shark on her own is a boneheaded idea that leaves much to be desired. But I didn't mind the callback to the first film where Michael Brody and his daughter are sharing a dinner table moment similar to Chief and his son...it was an attempt to bring some emotional brevity to the fourth film. I can't fault those involved for wanting to recreate that to some extent.

So the film is idiotic in its plotting. There is just no sugar-coating it. While I don't personally hate it, and it actually for us tonight flew by, Jaws: The Revenge (1987) is appropriately the end of the franchise and should be. I'm glad no other films have been made officially tied to this franchise. Now, there have been plenty of shark films -- actually some really good ones -- but that first Jaws (1975) is just a perfect film. And it will just never be matched. I think the second film -- which Stephanie, my daughter, wants to watch Tuesday night -- is as close as any films in the franchise comes to Jaws, but even that one lacks that masterful chemistry of Scheider, Shaw, and Dreyfus. 

My daughter asked if we are revisiting the franchise during the summer. We watched the first film just two Saturdays ago, and I could revisit that one right now, but I admit that sitting through the third and forth film gives me pause. But you bite the bullet for your baby girl. 1.5/5