JAWS (1975)

"You're going to need a bigger boat."

The citizens of sleepy Amity Island don't think too much of it when a young visitor disappears after a beach party. These kind of things occasionally happen when you live so close to the ocean...drownings, boating accidents, etc., but things change when the body is found. The mutilated corpse shows clear signs of a shark attack. Police Chief Brody, in his first year on the job, is startled by the corpse and sets out to close the beaches before anybody else gets killed. The mayor gets wind of his intentions and stops him because "Amity is a summer town." that depends of the tourist's money. Bad call. Soon after a boy, a man and cute dog are killed by the rouge shark in clear view of everybody. Things happen and soon Chief Brody, a marine biologist and a local shark hunter set out to kill the shark. That is where the story really takes off.

Not only is JAWS one of the most influential films of the 1970's, it's probably one of the most influential films of all time.  And with great reason: it's a awesome movie.  Attention getting story with a pace that never lets up, great acting (Robert Shaw and Roy Scheider should have both been nominated for an Academy Award), beautiful scenery, great photography, legendary monster that scared the living fuck out of an entire generation and probably one of the most instantly identifiable musical scores of all time.  Highly, highly recommended. This is one of my favorite movies to watch over and over again.

A great story about a fan hunting for the fourth "Bruce"...here.

Part 2 - Jaws 2 (1978)
Part 3 - Jaws 3 (1983)
Part 4 - Jaws: The Revenge (1987)

"Coroner" misspelled twice.

 How nice of Bruce to give Quint a cushion to lay on.

 Crab flying from offscreen.

BLAST OF SILENCE (1961)

Mildly interesting low budget film noir that tells the tale of a 2nd-rate hit man from the time he's given his orders all the way to when he gets paid. Everything is included from him buying the gun to stalking his prey. Good idea for a movie and I did enjoy it a little bit, but the problem I had is it's too goddamn long. Yea, it's only 77 minutes long, but there's only enough action and drama for 50 minutes max.

If you like low-budget noirs then I guess it's worth a watch.

PIG HUNT (2008)

"From the director of Jason X"?! The DVD cover says that like it's a good thing! I see it more as a warning.

 

A group of racially balanced hunters (white, black, Asian, Indian, white stoner and two white inbred hillbillies) set off on a pig hunt. They talk a lot, then talk some more, then talk a little more, then cap it off with a little long conversation. Finally...around a hour into the movie, they get pissed off at each other.  The hillbillies get their clan together and start fighting the hunters. The fight spills over into a local hippie commune that is actually a cover for some weed farmers that sacrifice trespassers to a giant boar.  What the hell?  So now, finally, 88 minutes into the movie...the pig shows up!!!

I like the basic idea for PIG HUNT, it could easily be turned into an awesome action-packed and crazy story, but as it is, it cannot even be considered a horror movie, it's just a bunch of annoying dorks walking around the woods talking about nothing, then a pig shows up at the end.  Whoopee!  Skip it with a vengeance. 

 

NSFW screenshots.

 

THIEVES' HIGHWAY (1949)

[Update 4/12/2020: I'm not a fan of this review. I can do better. Will fix eventually.]

"There was only meanness and hardness lumping like grief in his chest..." that's one of my favorite lines from A. I. Bezzerides' underrated masterpiece "Thieves' Market", the novel which this movie is based. As much as I like this movie, the novel is even better. It's darker (pretty much pitch black), more violent, there's foul language, it's gritty, brutal, nasty and most importantly Bezzerides is an amazing writer. His naturalist style here is like a mixture of Zola's "Germinal" and Steinbeck's "In Dubious Battle"...two of my favorite novels.

The movie's no slouch though. The story is about Nick Garcos. He comes home from the military to find his father has two bum legs from an accident. Thing is he doesn't remember the wreck, all he remembers is trying to get the money owed him by a scumbag produce wholesaler in San Francisco by the name of Mike Figlia. Nick teams up with a truck driver Ed Kinney (Millard Mitchell) to take the season's very first load of apples down to Figlia and get their money, plus the money owed to Nick's father. That's the plan anyways.

The direction by Jules Dassin is masterful. If you look at his resume between 1947 and 1955 he just made one impressive movie after another all in a row: BRUTE FORCE, THE NAKED CITY, THIEVES' HIGHWAY, NIGHT AND THE CITY and RIFIFI.  All the performances are great, but the standout to me is Lee J. Cobb. This guy is a real slimeball! As soon as he says his first words, you just want to vomit and beat the shit out of him, then he talks some more and you want to murder the fucking prick just to make the world a better place. What an asshole!

If you like realistic, bleak noirs then I think you'll enjoy THIEVES' HIGHWAY, but do yourself a favor a read the novel also.