JAWS: THE REVENGE (1987)

The movie that killed the series (so far).  Is JAWS: THE REVENGE as bad as you've heard? Probably. It's pretty goddamn shitty.

The film opens with Sheriff Brody's youngest son getting eaten by a gigantic Great White shark in the waters off Amity Island. Soon afterwards, Ellen Brody says fuck this place and moves to The Bahamas to be with her eldest son Michael who is now a marine biologist. During all of this, Ellen has a strange sense of apprehension that the shark (who exactly is this particular shark by anyway?!) is going to follow her all the way to The Bahamas and eat her and her family.  What the hell?  On top of that, throughout the film she has some kind of psychic link to the shark.  Wow! Somebody got paid to write this? Anyway, it ends up that she's correct and the shark soon shows up and starts terrorizing her family.  He even knocks down an airplane!

Stretch that paper thin story into 89 minutes and you have the recipe for a truly bad movie. And how Michael Caine, just one year after his superb performance in HANNAH AND HER SISTERS got involved with this stinker would be a story better than the movie itself. He is quoted on Wikipedia as saying "I have never seen it [the film], but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!", so I guess that explains that.

Should you watch JAWS 4? That really depends on how bored you are and how fine-tuned your sense of humor is, because this is not a good movie at all...but it is hilarious. I say go for it! But don't say I didn't warn you.

According to what I've read about the JAWS: THE REVENGE novelization tie-in the reason the shark was so intent on killing members of the Brody clan is because it was under the control of a witch doctor who was pissed at the Brody's. Makes sense.

Part 1 - Jaws (1975)
Part 2 - Jaws 2 (1978)
Part 3 - Jaws 3 (1983)

That background looks fake as fook.

JAWS 3 (1983)

Sheriff Brody's eldest son is now a big wig at the Sea World in Florida.  While his younger brother is in town for a visit, a gigantic Great White shark sneaks into the facility and starts eating people, I'm guessing (in light of the personal vendetta nature of Part 4) in an attempt to eat the two boys.

The idea of Jaws stealthily eating people in a water park is so fucking ridiculous that I can't believe they made a big budget Hollywood movie about it, but they did and it's way dumber than you can even imagine.  Not only did they play the entire thing seriously, but it's shot in a hokey 3D fashion which results in nonstop things pointing towards the camera. It gets old quick. JAWS 3 is a cheesy, entertaining train wreck that's a lot of fun to laugh at. I'm not sure if that's what the filmmakers were going for, but JAWS 3 is a great comedy.

If you are looking for a serious JAWS movie, this isn't it. It's not a horrible film, but I doubt anybody has ever taken it seriously.  Although, I do remember seeing this movie as a kid and that hand in the mouth scene freaked me out.

Part 1 - Jaws (1975)
Part 2 - Jaws 2 (1978)
Part 4 - Jaws: The Revenge (1987)