Review Detail
9.2 69 10
(Updated: September 12, 2012)
Enjoyment
10.0
October 15, 2009
Wow. This is a first for me. Normally I go after Fanedits of films I thought came close to greatness (or sometimes goodness) that could benefit from a little extra work. This morning I watched Terminator 3 The Coming Storm and gave my first 10/10 for the vast improvements it made over the original. But even that left a film that wasn’t great, just much better than the original.
Jaws was never a film that needed reworking. It is not a film that needs any sort of recommendation. Despite those two very important factors this is the only Fanedit I would actually give to somebody and say “Watch this. You have to watch this”! A radically different film despite the fact that on the whole it consists of the same footage and plot and doesn’t drastically alter the story.
Spielberg makes great films because he understands the language of cinema. He is a master of the B-movie and gets to make them with ridiculous budgets (so it’s a shame he hasn’t made one in a while).
The Man Behind The Mask also understands the language of cinema and has taken Spielberg’s highly polished B-movie and made it look like it probably would have without the studio budget, cobbling together material from other sources to bolster the film in a way that is totally consistent with the feel of the film (the list of sources boggles my mind). The lame shark effects actually work better in this version because of what TMBTM was aiming for. Sod showing a copy of this to Spielberg because he’s already made a masterful shark movie. Someone should show it to Quentin Tarantino so that he’ll know what Grindhouse should have been and why Death Proof was such a lame turd (loved Planet Terror though, which shares many similarities with this cut).
Two minor gripes – first, the scratching effect is overused IMHO. I loved the graininess of the footage and the blur that crept in from time to time, but the artificial artefacts and scratches were so crisp that they just looked false and forced. Kinda brought me out of the film a little. The other gripe is the use of the “missing reel” gimmick. The flow of the film suggests there’s only one scene missing, which isn’t much for a single reel (not too big a problem though).
Without wanting to give anything away I feel that the alternative “surfer girl” scene on the bonus material is the better of the two and will hopefully be included in a future release.
As it stands, I will be wasting no time in burning this to disk and handing it about to all my mates (who already own a copy of the original, of course) so that they can experience the sheer delight of this new cut of the film. I honestly can’t wait for the next Fanedit (or Faneditor) to try something so bold.
Wow. This is a first for me. Normally I go after Fanedits of films I thought came close to greatness (or sometimes goodness) that could benefit from a little extra work. This morning I watched Terminator 3 The Coming Storm and gave my first 10/10 for the vast improvements it made over the original. But even that left a film that wasn’t great, just much better than the original.
Jaws was never a film that needed reworking. It is not a film that needs any sort of recommendation. Despite those two very important factors this is the only Fanedit I would actually give to somebody and say “Watch this. You have to watch this”! A radically different film despite the fact that on the whole it consists of the same footage and plot and doesn’t drastically alter the story.
Spielberg makes great films because he understands the language of cinema. He is a master of the B-movie and gets to make them with ridiculous budgets (so it’s a shame he hasn’t made one in a while).
The Man Behind The Mask also understands the language of cinema and has taken Spielberg’s highly polished B-movie and made it look like it probably would have without the studio budget, cobbling together material from other sources to bolster the film in a way that is totally consistent with the feel of the film (the list of sources boggles my mind). The lame shark effects actually work better in this version because of what TMBTM was aiming for. Sod showing a copy of this to Spielberg because he’s already made a masterful shark movie. Someone should show it to Quentin Tarantino so that he’ll know what Grindhouse should have been and why Death Proof was such a lame turd (loved Planet Terror though, which shares many similarities with this cut).
Two minor gripes – first, the scratching effect is overused IMHO. I loved the graininess of the footage and the blur that crept in from time to time, but the artificial artefacts and scratches were so crisp that they just looked false and forced. Kinda brought me out of the film a little. The other gripe is the use of the “missing reel” gimmick. The flow of the film suggests there’s only one scene missing, which isn’t much for a single reel (not too big a problem though).
Without wanting to give anything away I feel that the alternative “surfer girl” scene on the bonus material is the better of the two and will hopefully be included in a future release.
As it stands, I will be wasting no time in burning this to disk and handing it about to all my mates (who already own a copy of the original, of course) so that they can experience the sheer delight of this new cut of the film. I honestly can’t wait for the next Fanedit (or Faneditor) to try something so bold.
L