![]() True, the actor would later admit to being high on coke in "every frame" of the film - something which perhaps explains the intensity of his performance - but he remains captivating nevertheless, leaping on jet skis, commandeering a golf cart, and repeatedly plunging in and out of the water. Prefiguring Jurassic Park by a decade, the idea of a theme park under assault from a giant monster is strangely prescient, allowing for a range of compelling scenes from pyramid water-skiers being pursued to the climatic sequence in the Underwater Kingdom where a smorgasbord of civilians is trapped in sub-aquatic tunnels slowly filling with water.ĭespite Roy Scheider refusing to return as Police Chief Martin Brody, Dennis Quaid is charismatic as his son Mike. But could it be that these perceived weaknesses - which caused so many to scoff - are, in fact, the film's greatest strengths?įor starters, the shift in location away from Amity is a much-needed game-changer. And despite the writing talents of original Jaws scribe Carl Gottlieb and genre legend Richard Matheson, the script is stuffed with quirky one-liners ("You're talkin' about some damn shark's mother?!"). You know you're in for a wild ride from the opening shot of a severed 3D fish head – its mouth still gasping after being bisected by the titular shark. Released in 1983, Jaws 3-D was critically panned and would prove a nadir for the series, so much so that when Jaws: The Revenge came out four years later, one press release heralded it as the "third film of the remarkable Jaws trilogy," essentially erasing its predecessor from existence: a brazen but perhaps understandable burn given that 3-D floated in its own pocket universe, narratively disconnected from the rest of the franchise. Some stereoscopic films had been successful the year before – not least Friday the 13th Part III – and Universal hoped this could be the way for the Great White to swim back to box office glory.Īlas, it was not to be. Brown and Zanuck abandoned ship, and the studio decided to go instead for a more straightforward threequel set at SeaWorld Orlando, shot in 3D. Universal got cold feet, however, and the project was canned. Tapping creatives from National Lampoon - including '80s icon John Hughes – and eyeing The Howling-helmer Joe Dante for the director, Jaws 3 People 0 (as it was pitched) looked set to lean in hard to the potential comedy of its man-vs-fish conceit. ![]() ![]() Zanuck hatched a plan to revive the ailing Jaws franchise: make the third installment a spoof. After Steven Spielberg's zeitgeist-defining proto-blockbuster and its less-successful sequel (marred by an on-set punch-up and fired director), exec producers David Brown and Richard D. ![]()
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