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Jaws (25th Anniversary Widescreen Collector's Edition)

Jaws (25th Anniversary Widescreen Collector's Edition)

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a thriller
Review: A shark is terrozing a beach. Brody, Quint and Hooper are sent to investigate. They find the shark. We got a great white. Quint blows the radio and engine =/. Hooper goes in a shark cage and barly avoids gettin eaten. Quint is on the back of the boat. The shark gets on the boat and eats Quint. =D Brody climbs on the mast and shoots a tank in the sharks mouth.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Movie and DVD Review.
Review: "Jaws" is one of the best 70's movies ever made! The film deals with the police chief (Roy Scheider), an oceanographer (Richard Dreyfuss), and a fisherman (Robert Shaw) who were riding on the boat to find, hunt down, and kill the giant shark that was killing people who were swimming at the beach in Amity Island. The 25th Anniversary Collector's Edition DVD is great! The picture and sound quality are outstanding. The extras are wonderful including the "Making Of Jaws", the deleted scenes, and the outtakes. If you haven't seen "Jaws", what's wrong with you? See it right away! It's excellent!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the greatest action-adventure-horror film of all time
Review: jaws was a phenomenom when it came out in 1975 and it still a fabulous movie. Spielberg can thank bruce the shark for what he has become thanks to this film and the producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Making the best movie even better!!
Review: I don't think there is anything I can say about Jaws that you probebly haven't already heard. I mean, everyone knows that this epic tale of carnage is one of the most difinitive films in history! I know of no other film that can put a hurt on the whole beachside tourist industry! People were actually afraid to go in the ocean after this flick came out! Jaws had quite an impact on people when it came out, and, I believe, it still does.
I didn't think you could improve upon Jaws, but they have. The wide screen dvd version of this movie was so clear, and if you have surround sound, all I can say is WOW! The soundtrack will just pop! I believe that John Williams is just as responsible for this films success as Spielburg!
All in all, the dvd version, I believe, is worth the price you have to shell out for it. Jaws is clearer, sounds better and has some great extras!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This Movie is SOOOOOOOOOOO overrated!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This movie is SOOOOOOOOOO bad! By far, the most overrated movie of the 70's. What's the big deal? And how many times can you say "Shark attack! Get out of the water!" in five minutes? Well, find out when and IF you rent this crap, even though everyone of Earth has seen it already.

They don't show the shark until 5 minutes to the end of the movie, either! Every time a scary or suspenseful part comes, it turns out to be a fish or something in the water, but not the shark.

The sequels are the same exact thing, too. Just Roy what's-his-face in a boat looking for the shark, that Jaws 2. Jaws 3 is just a stupid attack on Marine SeaWorld by a shark looking for its babies and Jaws: The Revenge was actually pretty cool because that's the one you saw the shark the most and there's a lot of gore and action. If you're going to see any of these movies, see Jaws: The Revenge. DO NOT SEE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "We're going to need a bigger boat."
Review: Was there ever a better suspense thriller than Steven Spielberg's "Jaws"? There can't be very many films that have matched the thrills and quality of this film. "Jaws" became the biggest moneymaker up to the date it was released (1975) and helped to create the summer blockbuster. It also made a young unknown director into Hollywood's golden boy, a position that Spielberg has kept for the past two and a half decades.

Spielberg's detractors have claimed that Spielberg ruined Hollywood by churning out "juvenile" blockbusters, but I demure. Spielberg's films are so much better than the junk that Hollywood regularly makes. "Jaws" is better written and directed and has better characters than almost all thrillers made since. Spielberg can't help it if so many inferior directors try to copy him by turning out inferior films.

Roy Scheider stars as Martin Brody, the chief of police of a small town on Long Island. Brody thought he was getting away from it all by moving here from New York City, but instead finds his problems are just beginning when a young girl is found devoured by a shark. Brody must find a way to close the beaches and kill the shark to keep further people from becoming the shark's next meal. Unfortunately, the town's slimy mayor and deadbeat locals are determined to keep the beaches open to take full advantage of the upcoming fourth of July weekend ("We're a summer town. We need summer dollars.")

Finally, after several more deaths, Brody teams up with shark expert Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) on a Moby Dick-like quest to kill the beast.

Spielberg's direction is quite taught. I particularly liked little touches like that scene where Brody is nervously watching people swim in the ocean while people pass him obstructing his vision. There's also little humorous touches as when a person stops to talk to Brody over a trivialty cutting off his view, and when Hooper and Quint get into a contest by showing off their scars.

Certainly the characters are more interesting than in your average thriller. Roy Scheider manages to exude just the right amount of masculinity and vulnerability as Brody. I found it interesting learning about Brody's fear of the water. "It doesn't make sense for someone who's afraid of the water to live on an island," Hooper says to Brody. "It's only an island if you look at it from the water," Brody points out. Brody's confronting the shark will be his way of facing and overcoming his fears. I also really liked Richard Dreyfuss' nutty performance as the eccentric ichthyologist. But it's Robert Shaw who steals the show as the salty, hard-bitten sailor. I thought the speech that Shaw gives about his experiences with sharks after the sinking of the Indianapolis to be one of the highlights of the film. It gives some insight into his character as well as to his apparent death wish.

Not to be overlooked is John Williams' now classic score. Who doesn't now recognize the "Jaws" theme? Spielberg would collaborate successfully with Williams in many subsequent films.

The ending is also very satisfying. Unlike a lot of horror thrillers that leave you feeling unnerved and upset, this film's ending leaves you feeling happy and exhilarated. Spielberg is said to have improvised here, uncertain as how to end his film. Bravo Spielberg!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Tentacles Is Better... and not shoved down your throat!
Review: Lord above save us from Steven Spielberg films!!! Sure I admit Jaws was groundbreaking in the 70's. Do we really need this outdated and overhyped film pumped into our TV sets every weekend from endless showings on TNT, TBS, TCM, and AMC? Spielberg is an inflated ego-head who stopped any Jaws rip- off- type films from being released in the US. He should be glad anyone was inspired by his Hollywood tripe. Spielberg I think is the real "King of the World." Don't waste your money to buy this when you can tape it for free on any weekend!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tam, tam, tam, tam
Review: This is scary, but good. Very good.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A movie that grabs you by the teeth.
Review: Amity is a small beach town that thrives on summer tourists, where the Chief of Police's biggest worry are kids practicing karate on neighbourhood fences. Until a great-white shark arrives and starts killing beach-goers. His new worry is how to get rid of a man-eating shark. That's the basic premise of Peter Benchley's famous novel, brought to screen by Steven Spielberg with some major changes to the plot. The plot consists of two halves: the first half describing the shark threat, and the second half describing the shark hunt. The first half is the most enjoyable, as director Spielberg evokes a sense of fear from the outset with the gruesome discovery of the remains of a shark victim. There is a constant and strong sense of impending doom: "who will be next?"

Unlike most modern movies, the fear that "Jaws" creates is not produced by graphic displays of blood and gore, which are reserved for the conclusion of the shark hunt in the closing stages of the movie. In fact you don't even see the details of the first attack or the body of the first victim, and very little of the shark or its victims is seen in the first half of the movie. Rather, splendid directing creates an emotional fear with small and brilliant touches throughout. After a few false alarms on the beach, we as viewers start seeing the beach-goers as "shark bait" through the eyes of the Chief of Police and share his fear. A most memorable scene occurs as the camera pans between him and the swimmers in the surf, and as he reacts first to an apparent shark which turns out to be an elderly swimmer, and then to the screams of a young couple which turn out to be innocent screams of fun. Similarly, there are other scenes where his wife surprises him as he is looking at a book with pictures of sharks; and where the camera zooms in on a shark attack and pans out to show it is just a killer-shark video game. Creating chilling fear in this emotional manner by suggestion rather than by sight of explicit gore is a skill that has largely been lost by modern movie-makers. Fear is evoked more by what you don't see than what you do see. John Williams impressive score with its recurring shark theme turns up the chills all the higher.

The second half of the movie does not quite live up to the promise of the first half, as the shark hunt gets underway, complete with the memorable line "You're going to need a bigger boat." But here two wonderful characters come to the forefront to join the police chief in the quest for the shark: the kooky shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw), and the eccentric shark expert Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) who is humorously and completely impersonal in his passion for sharks. The conclusion is rather more graphic than a PG rating would suggest, but is quite satisfying. (The PG rating is overly generous by today's standards, considering the incidences of blasphemy and graphic violence, particularly in the latter half).

It's not hard to see why this is a landmark movie continues to stand out more than 25 years after it was made. It's dated only in that it pictures people with 70s clothes and hair, and an artificial shark produced by 70s technology. But there is certainly nothing old-fashioned about the sense of terror and suspense it evokes. It is this spine-tingling atmosphere that has made the chilling story of "Jaws" an unforgettable classic that will continue to grab viewers by the teeth in years to come.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I'm talkin' about sharkin'
Review: Scared just about out of my lunch when I first saw this flick on a huge screen (the kind that few non-IMAX theatres have anymore) in 1975, I've counted "Jaws" as my favorite ever since. Certainly not the "best" movie I've ever seen, but nonetheless my favorite, for the simple reason that it was the first to get me into moviegoing in a big way.

Aside from its nostalgic appeal for a now-40ish moviegoer, "Jaws" holds up quite well as a piece of storytelling despite the fact that it's been eclipsed technically by the "Jurassic Park" series, among many others. Ah, but in "Jurassic Park" and its sequels it's the prehistoric creatures that look convincing where the people seem fake; in "Jaws" it's the other way around. (And to be fair, Bruce the Mechanical Shark appears realistic enough aside from his face-to-face meeting with Robert Shaw.) It's disheartening to realize that this popcorn flick paid more attention to character development than does many a modern-day "serious film."

A lot has already been written about how the mechanical sharks' technical malfunctions forced the young Steven Spielberg--who in 1974 wouldn't have had the option of CGI visuals--to rely on atmosphere and implied threat rather than on constant, closeup views of the razor-toothed fish in action. Call it a "blessing in disguise," and it's inadvertently in keeping with an old showbiz maxim: Always leave 'em wanting more.

On DVD the movie looks more vivid and detailed than it ever did on VHS. I'm referring to the letterboxed edition, and wouldn't even consider owning (or watching) the "full-screen" version; "Jaws" is practically a textbook illustration of how and why panning-and-scanning destroys widescreen cinematography. Considering that the movie's original mono sound mix earned an Oscar, it's too bad that DVD viewers don't have the option of hearing the movie in this format, as the original sound effects were often more helpful than what was substituted (apparently under Spielberg's supervision) for the 5.1 remix. (Example: The shark smashing through the cabin of the sinking boat, which made quite a racket in the original release, now sounds like a baseball cracking a plate-glass window, and the eerie whale cries that were originally heard after Quint finishes his monologue about the nightmarish sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis have been replaced on the DVD.)

The DVD's extras aren't all they could have been either; we get a few outtakes, a trivia quiz, and a whittled-down version of the "making of" documentary that was included with the 20th-anniversary laserdisc release. As one of the most problem-plagued productions in the history of Hollywood, "Jaws" has plenty of material for an extended behind-the-scenes story at least as gripping as the movie itself. You'd think one of the biggest box-office smashes of all time would warrant a more deluxe treatment on DVD.

Despite these complaints, I'm glad to have my favorite flick on DVD. Not quite a substitute for seeing it in a theatre with 1,000 people screaming at all the right moments, but I'm not 15 anymore and the old neighborhood movie house with the giant Cinerama screen is now a sixplex showing foreign films in tiny auditoriums, so nostalgia can only go so far.


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