Jaws The Sharksploitation Edit

I could have sworn I wrote a review for this years ago. Maybe it got lost in the switch to IFDb. Maybe I never posted it. It's entirely possible that it's sitting in a word document on my old computer. Maybe some day I'll find it and post it here. Maybe, but for now, you get this review!

It's strange. Jaws is one of my all time favorite movies. It's a truly great film that I love dearly. So it's strange, in a way, that I love this edit, even though its goal is to make the film much, much worse. Of course, that is the charm of it all, and I really appreciate what TMBTM has done here. the music, the usage of other films, it all works wonders to accomplish the goal of the edit.

If I have one complaint it is that the edit is too long. The pacing is not quite there. This really needed to be a nonstop great white thriller, but it's a little slower than that.

All in all, though, great work here. Also, this features the greatest ending to any fan-made-anything ever.

I rewatched the movie because I'm on the grindhouse bandwagon thanks to Gieferg.

The edit shows how sharp the line is between masterpiece & pulp. Directed by someone else and without Spielberg's amazing direction, the original film could have ended quite differently.

Great stuff - but some cuts (or missing reels) could have helped the narrative. It sometimes goes on too long and the pace is a bit slow. But everything else is just flawless - great editing, image manipulation and overall a great idea giving this masterpiece a grindhouse treatment.

*I like the original Jaws, I'm new to grindhouse*. This was a fun watch. The narrative was changed enough to be interesting and the audio editing was seamless to my ears.
For the video quality, it felt a bit odd. I think it was pointed out already but my feelings are similar. The image degradation felt a bit too tacked on. Scratches on top of good quality footage was uncanny at first, but I got used to it... Maybe my reasoning is flawed but I feel like I have to take points down here.
Visual editing was good but I didn't understand the skipping and repeating that occured at times. Again, Im new to grindhouse but it felt odd to me.
Narrative was good and the changes made kept me engaged.
Enjoyment = achieved but not better than the original.
Overall, I appreciate the work that's been put into finding and matching all the new footage. It serve the new narrative well imo. And I think this what makes this edit so interesting.
Recommended for fans of grindhouse and big fish!

August 4, 2010

Watched it! Loved it!

I thought I would hate this Edit when I first heard of it, as Jaws is one of my favourite films, but I absolutely loved it. A great way to merge the deleted scenes without drawing too much attention to their lower quality. I always liked the deleted scenes and it’s good to finally see them in the film.
I also loved the music choices and how they were used, all except one. As much as I love Unforgiven III, I didn’t think it fit. Maybe after seeing it a couple more times I’ll change my mind on that.

Overall this was great. An excellent take on a classic film. Thanks The Man Behind the Mask.

June 27, 2010

Behind the times as usual, but my goodness was this worth the wait. For this review, bear in mind that I watched WotS first. I do know this one was released first but…what can you do?

As with War of the Stars, a lot of the cuts here worked fine. The only scene I remember missing was the whole “You yell barracuda…but you yell shark” scene, but everything else flowed fine. The opening credits to the first attack was very effective. The end, which I won’t spoil (since it wasn’t his sled) floored me…I disctintly remember being ready to fall asleep (not because the edit was boring…it was quite late when I watched this) and the end had me cheering. I really wasn’t sure how you were going to end it, but it was brilliant. I’d also like to applaud you for the placement of the missing reel…that was really the only scene I didn’t like in Jaws, and now it’s gone. Cheers!

Two additions I didn’t really care for: the scene with Quint harassing the kid in the music store and the alternate version of Hooper’s arrival with the guy babbling all over the dock. The first didn’t really add to the story, and the second was just annoying. The version that was used in the film was better in my opinion.

Overall, an excellent effort. The presentation was great, video and audio were suitably crappy (in a good way). As with War of the Stars, if the original Jaws had been released in a similar form to this, it still would have been a decent film. Maybe not the summer blockbuster it had become, but still a damn fine effort. Speaking of which, a damn fine effort from TMBTM once again,

9/10