6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Another giant Great White Shark terrorizes beach goers in this sequel to Steven Spielberg's summer blockbuster.
Starring: Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo, Jeffrey KramerHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 29% |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS Mono
German: DTS Mono
Spanish: DTS Mono
Spanish: DTS Mono
Japanese: DTS Mono
Portuguese: DTS Mono
English SDH, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
There may have been fear about going back into the water after Steven Spielberg's Jaws scared the fun of the beach and the ocean's refreshing waves straight out of even the most levelheaded vacationers, but there had to be just as much trepidation about returning to the well for a sequel considering the fairly even distribution of pro's and con's that would come with such an endeavor. With Spielberg decided in the anti camp but the suits at Universal rightly knowing that, like any good scare, the Jaws audience would want more, production began on a sequel that would inevitably suffer through some delays, a change in director, and an unhappy lead actor. But by keeping up appearances, banking on the name, returning the legendary John Williams to score the film, and delivering a decent though certainly flawed film, Jaws 2 went on to be a massive hit for Universal and one of the most lucrative sequels in cinema history.
Oops.
Jaws 2 swims onto Blu-ray with a fairly nice-looking 1080p transfer. It's rather handsome and filmic, retaining a pleasant and critical grain structure that's balanced and unobtrusive. Detailing is fairly strong. Rusted boat components, the rubbery textures on wet suits, sandy beaches, and general attire and skin details are revealing, and to a relatively high degree of intimacy. The movie is certainly a bit more flat than are many modern pictures, whether shot on film or digitally, but the textural integrity of the source appears largely intact. Colors are attractive, with splashes of cheerful greens and yellows at the Holiday Inn opening, multicolored parachutes, swimsuits, an orange fireball, and some blood all contrasting well against the watery surface and earthy sandy beaches. Underwater shots are a bit murky with little variation to the teal-colored water, but brighter swatches of natural greenery stand apart nicely enough. Flesh tones appear fine, a bit on the well-sunned side but understandably so. Compression artifacts are minimal and print wear is largely unnoticeable beyond some debris that hovers during the opening titles.
Jaws 2 more nibbles on sound systems than it does bite a big chunk out of them. The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack, unsurprisingly, lacks much in the way of punch or vigor. Music can be a bit tight in the middle, a tad muffled and not particularly engaging, but Williams' trademark theme -- duh-dum, duh-dum, duh-dum -- is at least impressively detailed and fairly deep, even without the added benefit of an LFE channel. Band music and crowd applause at the opening ceremony struggle to find much clarity. Splashes, crashes, and gunshots aren't too terribly enthusiastic or home to much vitality. Dialogue finds a natural center positioning and presents clearly and with no struggles in prioritization. The movie would certainly benefit from a more wide-open 5.1 track -- even if it's just to better define ocean atmospherics out on the water or din on the beach -- but the 2.0 track handles the necessities well enough.
Jaws 2 contains a lengthy making-of, a few featurettes, deleted scenes, storyboards, and trailers.
Jaws 2 is hardly a bad sequel per se, but it's certainly not in the same ballpark as the original classic. Overly long and underperformed outweigh the pluses, namely a movie that doesn't stray from the basics, a few honest scares, and impressive up-close shark work. It makes for fair entertainment and a worthy entry into the man-eating shark genre, though not necessarily a worthy successor to one of cinema's all-time classics. Universal's Blu-ray is really quite good. Even if the 2.0 lossless audio is no great shakes, it more than suffices for the material at-hand. Video is borderline gorgeous and the supplements, while vintage, more than get the job done. Recommended.
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1978
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1978
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1978
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1988
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1972
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1978