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Movie
sequels follow a certain formula. The sequel usually contains a
key element that made the original film memorable or successful.
In the case of Jaws 3 (1983) that would be the big shark.
Check. The sequel usually continues the story or themes from the
original film. In this case the sons of Martin Brody (the Roy Schieder
character from the original film) continue to be harassed by a pesky
man-eating fish. Check. The sequel must give the aforementioned
familiar characters and story a new twist. In this case the action
is moved from the costal town of Amity to a Florida water park.
Check. If
the producers had stopped there the movie might have been just fine,
but they decided to go a step further, a step into the third dimension
that is. Things start off with a bang, or rather a crunch, as the camera swims along the ocean floor with a shark POV shot. Suddenly there's a loud chomp and blood clouds the water as a (3-D Alert) disembodied fish head floats towards the screen. Once that bit of business is over it's on to the credits sequence where the opening titles (3-D Alert) are spelled in a font that thrusts forward. Apparently there is an unwritten law that all 3-D movies must have this kind of lettering.
First
we're introduced to Calvin Bouchard (played by Louis Gossett Jr.
with a goofy Creole accent) the man behind the million dollar improvements
made to Florida's Sea World. Mike Brody (Dennis Quaid) is a foreman
in charge of all the guys who've built the newest attractions at
the park. Bess Armstrong plays Kay, his marine biologist girlfriend.
Also on hand is Simon MacCorkindale as Philip FitzRoyce, a kind
of mercenary Jacques Cousteau. Our first human victim is Overman, a crewman who must fix the underwater gate that separates the ocean from the parks man-made lagoon. Into the water he goes and with a flash of teeth and another crunch the handyman is soon handless as his (3-D Alert) severed arm floats forward.
Later that night Mike takes his brother Sean to a bar where he meets Kelly (Lea Thompson). She's a spunky little thing who works at the park in the water ski show. Kelly wants to go skinny dipping in the lagoon and Sean is understandably hesitant given his past history with water and creatures of the deep. Using her feminine charms she is able to convince him to take a dip. Mike
spies their discarded clothes on the shore. "I can't believe
it; she got him in the water." "Never
underestimate the power." Armstrong quips. In
another part of the lagoon two bungling poachers break into the
park. What is it that they hope to take? Who can tell, the scene
is completely superfluous. As they launch their rubber raft they
encounter (3-D Alert) a turtle,
a hoping frog, and a few other ridiculous things. They become the
shark's next meal. Not only do they both get eaten but the great
white swallows their raft too! The
next day Kay is busy with the two dolphins, Cindy and Sandy, who
(3-D Alert) jump and splash
around the way dolphins do. Everyone starts to worry about the crewman
who has gone missing. Afraid that he may have had an accident, Mike
and Kay take the mini-sub to search the lagoon for his body. Since
the Undersea Kingdom attraction doesn't actually exist at Sea World
(where most of the movie was filmed), the following sequence features
some less than convincing model, matte, and effect shots. Soon they're
encountering a (3-D Alert) moray
eel and a prop skeleton that reaches right out at you! By this point
the 3-D effects are getting a little ridiculous, but it only gets
worse.
Mike
and Kay leave the sub and search the hull of the sunken Spanish
galleon. It's Cindy and Sandy to the rescue when they're suddenly
attacked by the shark. With the stock footage shark in hot pursuit,
Mike and Kay escape by hitching a ride on the backs of their dolphin
friends. FitzRoyce
wants to kill the toothy menace, but they decide to capture it instead.
So it's off on a shark hunt, which they do at night for some crazy
reason. Using a syringe to load a dart, (3-D
Alert) they squirt tranquilizer right at the screen.
An important plot point is unsubtly foreshadowed here as FitzRoyce
begins to load himself down with grenades, you know, just in case
of emergency. Kay, in full scuba gear, heads underwater to lure
the shark. She soon gets attacked and Mike saves the day by (3-D
Alert) firing the harpoon gun, capturing the fishy fiend. Opening
day arrives and we're treated to countless shots of (3-D
Alert) water skiers jumping, Shamu leaping, and surprises
in Jonah's Underwater Funhouse. The captured shark goes on display
but can't survive in captivity and soon goes belly-up. The
missing crewman finally shows up. Upon closer examination of his
half-eaten carcass Kay realizes that, "Our shark couldn't have
killed Overman. Its mother did." When
she warns Bouchard of the danger he can't quite grasp the enormity
of the situation. Kay, as if speaking to a child, very slowly explains.
"Overman was killed inside the park. The baby was caught
inside the park. Its mother is inside the park." As
if on cue big mama makes her appearance by terrorizing the girls
in the water ski show and attacking some swimmers. One of the casualties
is Kelly, who was enjoying a romantic ride on the bumper boats with
Sean.
During
an attack by the shark, a portion of the Undersea Kingdom is damaged
and a group of tourists are trapped. FitzRoyce plans to lure the
shark into the lagoon's large filtration pipe making it safe to
weld a patch over the tunnel leak and rescue the park guests. Everything
goes according to plan until a safety line breaks and FitzRoyce
becomes shark bait. Unaware of their colleague's demise, Mike and
Kay begin the underwater repairs to the damaged viewing tunnel.
(3-D Alert) Mike ignites the
welding torch right at the camera. With
the shark successfully trapped in the pipe, Bouchard orders that
the pumps be shut down. The shark will suffocate without circulating
water. Using its tail, the shark busts open the gate that penned
it in, wriggles out of the pipe, and heads back into the lagoon
searching for more victims. Mike
and Kay fix the tunnel and free the tourists just as the shark attacks,
but it's the super dolphins to the rescue yet again. They distract
the great white while our human heroes make it back to the underwater
control room. Our
characters think they're safe inside the control room, but they're
not. Just outside the giant viewing window, the shark is heading
right for them. With eyes wide and mouths agape they scream in slow
motion terror. Up
until this point in the story there have been too many factual errors
and implausible plot points to mention. Just go with the crazy logic
of the movie and enjoy the ride. But the grand finale is so breathtakingly
silly that everything that has come before it pales in comparison.
The ending of Jaws 3-D also features what could possibly
be the worst special effects shots in a Hollywood studio picture
ever (or at the very least the top 5).
Menacingly
the shark swims closer and closer. It doesn't actually swim though;
the motionless model that looks like it was purchased at the Sea
World gift shop for a $1.98 just sort of floats towards the camera.
(Mother of all 3-D Alerts part
1) Suddenly, in a completely unconvincing process shot, the shark/squeaky
toy bursts through the window. The fake glass shatters inward and
floods the control room. The great white is too big to fit into the room, so we're treated to the extra special sight of a puppet wiggling it sharky tail, trying to force its way through the opening.
Making
a meal of a control room techie, the mechanical shark bites down
on a stuntman. The camera cuts away to a shot of Mike and Kay who
have survived the flooding because they still have their scuba gear
on. The camera then cuts back to the shark that is chomping away
on the technician who has now been replaced with a dummy that could
never, ever, under any circumstances be mistaken for an actual person. Still
hungry, the shark keeps on a comin'. It opens its oversized jaws
and guess who's stuck in his teeth? Why it's FitzRoyce! And in his
outstretched hand is one of those convenient grenades that were
foreshadowed earlier. Fashioning a hook out of a piece of scrap
metal, Mike pulls the pin on the explosive as the shark thrashes
back and forth. Mike and Kay take cover behind a piece of equipment
as the grenade detonates and (Mother of all 3-D
Alerts part 2) the shark's guts burst outward in a bloody
explosion.
Mike
and Kay swim to the surface of the lagoon where they're joined by
everybody's favorite dolphins, Cindy and Sandy. The dolphins jump
(3-D Alert) one last time as
the music swells. This triumphant moment, which is caught in freeze
frame, is awkward at best thanks once again to some completely unconvincing
effects work. When
this sequel was in the early pre-production stage the producers
had an entirely different approach in mind. The original title for
the project was Jaws 3, People 0, a spoof along the lines
of the successful Airplane! (1980). But executives at Universal
nixed the idea. Little did they know that the film they did green
light would in fact end up a comedy. The DVD for Jaws 3 is a no frills affair. The anamorphic widescreen picture is decent and the disk includes a fun teaser trailer that features the movies goofy tagline in booming voice-over "The third dimension is terror." Indeed.
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