Jaws 2 (1978) Review

Jaws 2 (1978) Review

Jaws is one of the best movies ever made, no question, but what about the sequels? I rarely think of Jaws as a franchise, because the sequels are leagues below the original in nearly every regard. To me, the sequels are an unofficial three-part narrative—the Jaws sequel trilogy, if you will—because all of them try to forge an ongoing storyline for a film that was too perfect to try following up in the first place. Jaws was a film that ended with such finality it left seemingly few options to further the story in a way that wasn’t lame. Each sequel tried to be bigger and better than the original, but it only proved more impossible to accomplish with every subsequent attempt. 

Jaws 2 is not actually that bad. In comparison to the original, it’s much less thrilling and much more of a typical B-movie, but I think it gets misremembered as being worse than it is because of how bad the third and fourth are. Chief Brody suspects another great white is terrorizing Amity Island, but no one believes him. The paranoia Chief Brody experiences is compelling, and Roy Schieder gives another great performance. A major highlight of the movie that happens pretty early on is when the shark eats a water skier, then attacks the boat she was skiing behind, resulting in the boat exploding in a great fire ball, which leaves the shark with a burnt face, looking comically monstrous. 

Many of the actors from the first Jaws returned, including some small parts like Bad Hat Harry. Another welcome return was John Williams doing the score. He won an Academy Award for his work on the original film, but delivered another great score that not only brings back the famous “Dun Dun…” but plenty of new tracks that are just as good as you would expect. And of course, because the shark was such a star in the first movie, we see even more of it here, though its screen time is still relatively limited. Another moment I love is when Brody discovers a dead killer whale on the beach: a victim of the new shark. In the first movie, the shark took down the Orca boat, and this time, it takes down an actual Orca. 

While I like the stuff with Brody, the rest of the plot follows his kids, now more grown up, and a bunch of other annoying teens, the worst of which is this chubby curly-haired kid. The second half of the movie mostly focuses on the kids getting stranded in their sailboats and needing rescue from the shark, and it feels like the conventional horror film Spielberg managed to avoid making with the first one. The finale tries to switch things up by having the shark die from biting into an underwater power line. It’s not nearly as satisfying as the original’s ending, but at least they tried, and that’s the most I can say about the whole movie, really. They were never going to top the original, but it was an honest effort.  

With the exception of the water skiing attack and the finale, there aren’t that many memorable scenes with the shark, and whereas Spielberg knew how often to invoke the shark’s presence, there are longer stretches without any shark sightings, which makes the movie drag, and when you do see it, it’s less impactful. Ultimately, though, Jaws 2 is one of those sequels that tries to copy the original, and as a result, is a lot like the first Jaws, only not as good.  

Son of Kong (1933) Review

Son of Kong (1933) Review

Many of the great movie monsters have had sequels with “Son of” in the title. Son of Godzilla, Son of Frankenstein, and this one, the offspring of the greatest American giant monster, King Kong. I’m always amazed how the follow-up to one of the most well-known and beloved classics of cinema is so unknown today. Even more amazing, it came out the same year as the original!

Taking place about a month after the tragic conclusion to King Kong, Carl Denham is a wanted man. He mopes around until embarking on a voyage with Captain Englehorn on the same ship that brought Kong to New York. While at a Dutch port, Denham meets the daughter of a showman, and a shady captain named Helstrom who gave Denham the original map to Skull Island. Helstrom says there’s a lost treasure on the island, so they go back there to look for it. After a mutiny takes place, Denham and company go ashore and encounter an albino, twelve-foot-tall ape—a “little Kong”—stuck in quicksand. He helps him out, and Little Kong repays the debt by helping them obtain the treasure and saving them from some of Skull Island’s dangerous creatures. 

Son of Kong retains some of what made the original great, but it’s quite a different film. It trades in the epic scope and harrowing drama for a more light-hearted, smaller scale adventure. Despite clocking in at only an hour and nine minutes, it takes much longer for the characters to get to Skull Island, and even longer for the creatures to appear on screen. There’s a random part when Denham and Englehorn are watching a show at the Dutch port where a bunch of dressed up monkeys are playing instruments. The filmmakers clearly weren’t taking the material as serious this time around. 

  

There are less creatures, less locations, and less epic moments in comparison to King Kong, but still enough to make it worthwhile. A fight between Little Kong and a prehistoric bear is the highlight of the film. A few other dinosaurs—namely a Styracosaurus, Nothosaurus, and Elasmosaurus—make brief appearances, as well. The stop motion effects are good, but feel slightly less refined compared to before, and less ambitious. 

Little Kong is played for comedic effect, but still conveys emotion. At the end, a massive earthquake makes the island sink into the ocean, and Little Kong actually sacrifices his own life to save Carl Denham, holding him up above the waves while he goes down with the island, his foot stuck in a crevice. It’s actually a pretty sad end to Kong’s lineage, even if it’s a far cry from the iconic finale at the Empire State Building.    

Son of Kong has failed to attain the classic status like the original for valid reasons. It simply isn’t as impressive as King Kong, but doesn’t come across like it’s trying to be anything more than it is. It’s a fun little epilogue to the original, and for huge fans of the 1933 original King Kong, it’s a must-see. 

OCTOBER PROMO

To paraphrase something Stephen King once said, there is no other fan of one particular genre who is willing to wade through as much garbage as a horror fan. Fans of horror films will watch everything and anything, just hoping to come across an unknown gem, even though there is a large amount of crap out there. 

But sometimes, we just like crap. 

This may sound weird, but I often enjoy watching a bad horror movie as much as a good horror movie. This October, Clayton's Creepy Cinema is going to look at 31 horror movies that maybe aren't considered high-quality entertainment. It's a month of schlock, so of course, I had to call it...

Week one is a short week, so we'll look at five ocean-going horror films, then week two is all about slashers and experiments (both scientific and social), followed by a week of aliens and apocalyptic flicks, then a week of prehistoric horror films (not just dinosaurs), and finally we conclude with another short week that I'm not going to spoil just yet. 

Not every movie reviewed will be terrible. In fact, I'm throwing in some pretty great ones, and a number of lesser-known flicks that have plenty of merit, as well. It begins October 1st and runs through the month up to Halloween. Tune in to the sixth year of Clayton's Creepy Cinema, and learn the true meaning of schlock!

IT: Chapter 2 Review

 

IT: Chapter 2 Mini-Review/Reaction 

I’m going to keep this review short, because I don’t want to spoil too much, and I know anyone who saw Chapter 1 and enjoyed it is likely going to see Chapter 2 anyway. I almost wasn’t going to review it, but since I’ve reviewed the first one (and basically every other Stephen King movie ever made) I should give my two cents. 

While I enjoyed IT: Chapter 2 for the most part, I was rather disappointed. This thing clocks in at just under three hours, so it’s not too surprising that it has some pacing issues. One of my biggest complaints was the reliance on flashbacks using the kid actors from Chapter 1. While it was enjoyable to see them return, it felt distracting from the present-day story with the adult characters. I know it flashes back and forth in the books, but most of the kid scenes here were like padding, included merely because of the success of the first movie, and didn’t generate much forward momentum for the story, or any significant scares. 

A big change from before is a greater focus on comedy. In the case of the character Richie, I didn’t mind that he was always cracking jokes and making light of their situation, it’s the nature of his character. What I didn’t like was that basically every character has at least one “funny” moment, if not multiple ones, and even the editing at times is purposefully comedic. This broader comedy might work for some viewers, but I found it mostly annoying, especially when it clashed with the horror. 

My favourite part without a doubt was a surprise cameo that I won’t spoil, but other things I liked include the adult cast, some of the visuals, the music once again, and the craziness toward the end. Every actor chosen to play the grownup kids was perfect, and they mostly all give good performances. Pennywise is great again (though lacking in scenes), and there are some interesting creepy moments. Unfortunately, in comparison to Chapter 1, Chapter 2 is lacking in quality scares. There’s too much cgi, too many silly-looking monster designs, and one particular reference/homage to The Thing that is way too blatant. 

IT: Chapter 2 was an overall decent ending, but certainly not as good as it could have been. My expectations were a bit higher than with the first one, which may have had some effect. It just felt like they tried to do too much, when they should have honed in on the good stuff and tried to make a scarier movie than the first, which it certainly is not.