BLUE THUNDER (1983)

1983 Los Angeles, California.  The police get a brand new attack helicopter, Blue Thunder, that's equipped with all kinds of badass stuff (like a thermal infrared scanner, a rotary cannon and a VCR), so with a plot device like that it's understandable that audiences would expect the story to be something simple and awesome like there's an out of control turf war raging in the hood; a 10,000-strong biker gang of blood-drinking Satanists have taken over San Pedro / Terminal Island or maybe thousands of sexy flesh-eating Speedo-wearing bodybuilder zombies have invaded Venice Beach...and now the overwhelmed police gotta send in Blue Thunder to shoot "4,000 rounds per minute" of justice into these scumbags!  Arrggh!!!

Nope, instead we get a clusterfuck story about an emotionally unstable helicopter pilot (Roy Scheider) who's selected to test out a new attack helicopter alongside an old military buddy (Malcolm McDowell) who literally hates him.  As in murder hate.  Anyway, these two go round and round talking shit until finally, at the end of the movie, they both get into helicopters and shoot the crap out of each other while Scheider's girlfriend digs in a drive-in movie theater dumpster.  It's barely exciting and hard to believe that the same person, Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the masterpieces ALIEN and THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD also wrote this stinker.

In the early 1980's there was a flood of powerful machine movies / TV shows and a number of them featured vehicles that ended up becoming iconic: K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider, Optimus Prime from the Transformers, Airwolf from some show I forgot the name of and so on, but I doubt there's as many people who are fans of Blue Thunder.  Hell, I was a kid when this snoozer came out and the only chatter about it on the schoolyard was the naked lady stretching in her living room while the sex offender perverts, I mean, police illegally spied on her.

Long story, short: great idea and a talented cast, but poor execution.  Also, the Blue Thunder helicopter itself wasn't anything special.  Airwolf would whip the shit out of it in twenty seconds.  Hell, the Screaming Mimi from goddamn Riptide would probably just bellyflop on it and knock it out of the sky.

Worth a viewing for the curious, but it's dated and forgettable.

JAWS 2 (1978)

A few years after the original shark attacks, the seaside resort of Amity Island is finally getting back to normal and the future (with the help of new developer money) is looking bright...that is until some water skiers die in an "accident" and two divers disappear. Police Chief Brody, who got up close and personal with a great white shark in the original film, immediately thinks a shark is to blame, but the town council, fearing another mass exodus of tourist dollars, slams the iron fist down on him and fires him. He's bummed out and boozing hard, but when he discovers that his children are out on a group sailing trip, he throws his shit into high gear and goes out to kick some shark ass...or maybe just get himself eaten.

Successfully following up a smash hit is a hard job, but following up a smash hit that's also a very well-made film is damn near impossible. It's been done (ALIENS), but usually sequels end up just being watered down versions of the original. JAWS 2 is just a watered down version of the original, but it's still worth watching mainly due to the nice pace, a straight-forward story, likable teenagers, good kills and Roy Scheider reprising his role as Chief Brody.

One very interesting thing I did read on Wikipedia is that Steven Spielberg wrote a screenplay for JAWS 2 "based on Quint's Indianapolis speech" from the original film! Could that possibly be true and if so has that script ever seen the light of day? I would love to read it!

Anyway, JAWS 2 is definitely worth checking out.  Just make sure not to bump your head on that boom mic hanging down in Brody's kitchen.

Part 1 - Jaws (1975)
Part 3 - Jaws 3 (1983)
Part 4 - Jaws: The Revenge (1987)