Blu-ray Review Jaws Blu-ray Review - Very Highly Recommended (1 Viewer)

[Paul_Scott]

I doubt they will issue Blus of the other Jaws movies at this point, but I could be wrong.  Their perfect window to do this was with the first movie - to make a box like the Back to the Future or Jurassic Park movies.   And the early list that got leaked showed a 3D Blu-ray of Jaws 3, but that didn't come to pass. 

2013 will see the 35th anniversary of Jaws 2 and the 30th of Jaws 3. I think both are certainly a possibility.
While I don't care a whit about 3 or 4, J2 has been a favorite of mine since it's original release. I don't debate the superiority of the original which I also love, but I still appreciate many things about the first sequel and really can't wait for it to get a BD release.

 

[NY2LA]

Me neither.  I can see a standalone Jaws 2, since it's a pretty good movie, and then double feature of 3 and 4.  If this Jaws release wasn't part of the Universal anniversary celebration, I think the box would have been the way to go.  But there's no way Universal wants to associate Jaws with the "lesser" 2, "laughable" 3 and "terrible" 4.

I wonder if maybe SS had some directions about not associating his original with (or attaching to) the sequels.

 

[Jason_V]

/t/322958/jaws-blu-ray-review-very-highly-recommended/360#post_3972274
I wonder if maybe SS had some directions about not associating his original with (or attaching to) the sequels.

If he did, good job. At least he had a hand in all the Jurassic Park movies and Zemeckis directed all three Back to the Future movies. Sure, putting them in one package is a way to make sure 3 and 4 sell, but that would also REALLY highlight the flaws in both movies.

 

[David Deeb]

.... but Jaws The Revenge is just so damn stupid that I can't imagine anything saving it.

Never seen Jaws the Revenge. Is it one of those, "so bad it's good" films? Your comment cracked me up and almost makes me want to see it.

 

[TravisR]

Never seen Jaws the Revenge. Is it one of those, "so bad it's good" films?

I'm sure some people find it funny but it's no Plan 9. They couldn't even make a movie that was funny-bad (parts of Jaws 3 fall into that category), it's just bad-bad.

 

[Jason_V]

It's not funny-bad. It's headsmacking-bad. There may be a drinking game to create in the movie, too. I'm not entirely sure.

Siskel and Ebert have it right:

 

[Bryan Tuck]

I always thought The Revenge was pretty funny bad. From the roaring shark to the ludicrous idea of it chasing Ellen down to the Bahamas to Michael Caine's self-drying shirt, its awfulness almost seems intentional. If it was cheap, I might actually consider getting it on Blu-ray (especially if they seamlessly branched the two different endings).

 

[Todd Erwin]

Joe Alves was on a panel I covered in 2010 on 3D, and had this to say about making Jaws 3-D:


Quote:

Joe Alves spoke a bit about the resurgence of 3-D in the 1980s and how it related to making Jaws 3-D. “I didn't make Jaws 3-D to make it 3-D.... When it came to (film number) 3, the studio and Zanuck/Brown washed their hands and didn't want anything to do with it.... They sold it to a guy that did That's Incredible and he wanted to do live sharks and mechanical people... I went scouting with the writer, Richard Matheson, and we went to a (underwater) theme park and there was this incredible underwater 3-D film showing, and I thought it was wonderful and I loved the depth...” He also spoke about not hiring a certain young filmmaker. “When I was doing Jaws 3-D, Jim Cameron called me said 'Can I shoot the underwater sequence?' And I said 'Gee, I would love to have you do it, but Landsburg got somebody else.' So, I didn't hire him.” Lenny Lipton reminded Alves, “You didn't hire me....You probably don't remember me.... I showed you (a couple of reels). Do you remember what you said? You said, 'The 3-D is really good, but we can't show this to the guys upstairs because the movies are shit.' So I didn't get the job.”

 

[NY2LA]

I always thought The Revenge was pretty funny bad. From the roaring shark to the ludicrous idea of it chasing Ellen down to the Bahamas to Michael Caine's self-drying shirt, its awfulness almost seems intentional. If it was cheap, I might actually consider getting it on Blu-ray (especially if they seamlessly branched the two different endings).

What's the difference in the endings? Is it who survived? (still scratching my head over that one.) Maybe eating a couple of leading characters was the shark's dream sequence?

 

[Malcolm R]

What's the difference in the endings? Is it who survived? (still scratching my head over that one.) Maybe eating a couple of leading characters was the shark's dream sequence?

Haven't watched it in awhile, but as I recall:

Spoiler: Warning: Spoiler!

I believe in one ending, the boat and shark explode when they make contact. In the other, the shark was simply impaled when rammed by the boat, and blood gushes out of its mouth. Jake also survives in one ending.

Hard to believe, but adjusted for inflation, Jaws: the Revenge made the equivalent of over $100 million worldwide ($52 million actual worldwide). Not bad for 1987, and I'm rather surprised there was not another sequel. It was rumored at the time; I remember reading in a magazine (possibly Fangoria?) where they mentioned Jaws 5 was in development, but it was never filmed.

 

[NY2LA]

The only thing that would make this ending more ridiculous than what's on the DVD now would have been if Quint and Alex swam up to the boat.

 

[Ian Murray]

I bought thr blu ray today with ultra violet and digital copys.It tells you to go to www.UltraVioletUniversal.com/Jaws to download the Ultra and Digital copies but this web address taked you to walmart,any help here ?
cheers
Ian

 

[Jason_V]

Originally Posted by Ian Murray /t/322958/jaws-blu-ray-review-very-highly-recommended/360#post_3977334
I bought thr blu ray today with ultra violet and digital copys.It tells you to go to www.UltraVioletUniversal.com/Jaws to download the Ultra and Digital copies but this web address taked you to walmart,any help here ?
cheers
Ian

The insert on mine says to go to www.UniversalDigitalCopy.com/JawsBluRay . Using that link gets you to the Ultraviolet and Digital Copy page. At least that worked for me...

 

[Tino]

i just redeemed the code directly in itunes and BOTH the HD and SD versions downloaded,

 

[MattAlbie60]

That's been happening more and more. I believe CABIN IN THE WOODS was the same way. On the iTunes side, at least.

 

[Tino]

And The Hunger Games too.

 

[Spencer Draper]

I am now going to update my review and take the sound evaluation up to the full 5 stars.
Thanks to the gracious help of Ron, the owner of Laser Blazer in Los Angeles, I have been able to check the audio (and picture) on four laserdisc releases of Jaws, to confirm that the mono audio on the Blu-ray is in fact the original mono from 1975.
The four laserdiscs I checked are:
1.  The 1995 Signature Laserdisc
2.  The 1991 Letterbox MCA Laserdisc
3.  The 1987 Pan & Scan MCA Laserdisc
4.  The 1981 Pan & Scan Discovision Laserdisc
The 1995 Laser is the only one at CAV, with the movie spread across 5 sides.  The others are CLV, with the movie spread from 2-3 sides.
Listening to Chief Brody's line "Smile you son of a bitch!" on all the mixes, I can hear the "b" just a little bit more clearly on the 1991 & 1987 discs, which matches up with how I hear it on the "Making of Jaws" clip as well.  The 1995 and 1981 discs don't have the "b" that clear.  (And the Discovision disc is muddy in everything, including both picture and sound)  But everything else is identical, down to the subtle bass rumble of the shark closing on Brody just before the blast.  Which tells me they are all the same mix.   I'm certain my neighbors will be happy after more than 30 repetitions never to hear that surge of music and Chief Brody's shout emanating from my living room again...
I note that the 1991 and 1987 lasers have a disclaimer on them reading "Home Video Version.  Some Music Rescored."  Which brings to mind one of the big reasons why I didn't keep my lasers or old VHS tapes when I upgraded to DVDs with identical content.   One of the nice things with DVD was the relicensing of various songs and musical cues that had been replaced in early video editions.  I still remember my shock and delight on hearing Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" on the 1998 DVD for The Thing, where before I had only ever heard a faux disco track on cable or on the pre-Signature laser.   I'm not sure what music on Jaws would have been rescored and maybe somebody hear could fill in the blanks on that.  Is it the pop music heard on the radio at the beach?
I have to say that the PQ of these laserdiscs, viewed on a 65" screen is pretty bad in comparison to what we have today, not only from the Blu-ray but from the 30th Anniversary DVD.  The PQ on the Discovision disc is particularly horrible.  Of course, for it's day....  Also, the Discovision disc has a very cloudy physical appearance, which is either from the design of the laserdisc or more likely a sign of its 31 years of age.
Also, the Discovision chaptering is shall we say unique.  The whole first side is a single chapter, titled "Hooper arrives at Amity Island."  Side Three opens with "Quint shares his experiences aboard the Indiana."
I still have the lasers for now, if anyone has any questions about them. 

Odd that the mixing would be slightly better for the climactic line on the earlier discs. My first experience with the film as a child must have come from this master (VHS or something) because I did think the new DVD sounded different somehow at that particular moment. I just found a bargain bin copy of the 1991 version and tried a few spots to see what the "video version" disclaimer meant.

Yeah, I'm nearly positive that the song that you hear when Ellen says "Chief Brody, you are uptight" is the one that's different on VHS (and correct since the mid-1990's laserdisc). I'm not digging out my VHS copy to compare but that's really the only place where there are songs so it must be there.
EDIT: Looking at the IMDB, there's two pop songs http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/soundtrack
Assuming those are the correct songs, I think "I Honestly Love You" is the song that was replaced back in the 1980's and early 1990's.

This is the one I noticed, though I couldn't exactly remember what the track was supposed to be. Is this the only change made to this edition that anyone is aware of?

 

[Cinescott]

I watched this disc again last night and I have to say that the film and the transfer are damn near perfect.

 

[Venomn]

I bought this one myself,fantastic release.