Good actors in ridiculous B-movie
I saw it at the theatre in '83 to an audience thrilled by the prospect of seeing a Jaws movie in 3-D. As it progressed, the audience gradually took less and less of it seriously and by the climax it had turned into a laughfest. The obviousness of its 3-D was apparent throughout (objects being shoved into the camera, etc.), making it all the more ludicrous when viewed on 2-D. Dennis Quaid and especially Bess Armstrong are up there doing their best, as do also John Putch and Lea Thompson. Lou Gossett, Jr.--fresh from winning his Oscar for Officer and a Gentleman--is in a league all his own, and he's not afraid of doing some hammy overacting, which actually helps sustain interest when the rest of the film begins to self-destruct. But these capable actors are placed amidst the shoddy special effects and terrible set-pieces. As others have noted, the cinematography is atrocious, especially in the several darkly-lit underwater scenes in which we can discern little of what is actually going on. The laughs are plentiful, but Jaws:The Revenge still wins the laurel crown of victory for being the funniest of the franchise.
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