Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Andrew's Cinematic Adventures: Jaws Movie Review

I don't know why I'm calling this a movie review. Literally everyone on the planet has seen Jaws, the classic Steven Spielberg movie about a hella big shark eating really stupid people. Regardless, it was number 1 on the list of the movies that self-proclaimed movie buff Andrew (that's me) had never seen. Yes, I know. How can I claim to be a movie buff and enjoy reviewing movies if I had never seen one of the biggest cult classic films of all-time? I'm embarrassed to say that I saw the film for the first time a week ago.

But it doesn't really matter. I'm reviewing the shark flick anyways. The following words shall be my initial thoughts and feels about the movie that everybody already loves.

I went into this movie fully believing that it was going to be one of those terrible movies that people love. Maybe I was mixing it up with Sharknado? Perhaps I just remember how fake the shark looked on that Studio Tour ride at Universal Studios? (It really did look fake and I was only like 13 years old). I mean look, don't you just wanna hug that adorable mechanical shark? ---->

Because of that experience, I was expecting the shark in Jaws to look incredibly fake and completely unconvincing. I am pleased to say that I was very wrong. The mere fact that this film was released in 1975 and the effects still hold up today is a huge testament to the abilities of Steven Spielberg as a filmmaker. I was convinced Jurassic Park was his only convincing film that doesn't use CGI, but we can go ahead and add Jaws to that list. Consider me impressed. I felt real bouts of tension, fear, and dread at times during the movie when you knew that shark was about to reveal his dorsal fin and chow down on some poor chap/chapette.

Despite that, there are times you can clearly tell that the shark is fake. But for some odd reason, that doesn't take away from the film. If anything, it makes the whole thing even more enjoyable. Jaws is the reason people watch movies. It's pure entertainment value.

The movie is also filled with interesting, hilarious, and well-done characters. It stars Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss as the three men who take it upon themselves to rid the waters of Amity of the shark that has been terrorizing the community. It centers around their efforts at catching the shark in a comically small fishing boat. Eventually they acknowledge this fact themselves with the famous line, "We're gonna need a bigger boat." I can't lie. I giggled audibly hearing that famous line for the first time. Bahahahaha. Idiots.

The clear winner of the entire movie, besides the big-ass shark, is the character Quint, played by Robert Shaw. He plays the gruff fisherman that claims to know how to kill Jaws (I'm not sure if they ever refer to the shark as Jaws in the movie...if they did I would have freaked). Quint has many one-liners throughout the movie that are really only funny because you can't understand a damn thing the guy says. Don't believe me? Watch for yourself.


There's not much else to say about the movie that hasn't already been said. The shark is convincing and terrifying, the characters are hilarious and interesting, the movie stands the test of time, it's memorable...blah blah blah. I was incredibly impressed and plan on adding Jaws to my library and recommending it to friends for years to come.

If you haven't already, watch Jaws. It'll make you never want to go into the ocean again.

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