Jaws 3 (1983)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Action	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Jaws 3, Jaws: The Revenge
Rating
Year Of Production	1983
Running Time	94:16
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joe Alves
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Dennis Quaid Bess Armstrong Simon MacCorkindale Louis Gossett, Jr.
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Alan Parker

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Swedish Norwegian Danish Dutch Finnish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In a documentary present on the Jaws 2 DVD, mention was made of a third movie possibly being a "spoof" on the original, although the studio were wary of it and did not want to cheapen their very successful cash cow (cash shark? - sorry). Let me offer the suggestion that they should have taken the producers up on the offer, because what has resulted is a movie so out-of-whack with its predecessors that it hardly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath. Yes, there is a shark involved - and that's where the similarity starts and ends. Gone are the high production values, decent acting and a real script to work with. What remains is an empty carcass whose only reason for being rests in the thrill of 3-D. On a personal note, on my 12th birthday I was taken to see this movie during its theatrical run, and the excitement that was generated as the tickets were bought quickly vanished as it became obvious that the theatre was not presenting it in 3-D as advertised. Suffice it to say, the quality of the movie in what seemed pedestrian 2-D was such that we all left after 10 minutes.

    The plot, such that it is, takes place in a marine amusement park which is built in a man-made lagoon, connected to the open ocean by a gated tunnel. A great white shark happens to enter through the tunnel one fine day, and terrorises the owners and paying tourists. Heading the cast is Dennis Quaid as the son of Martin Brody, perhaps the only real link to the previous movies. That pretty much is the story.

Video

    The transfer is standard, and does not use nor require 3-D glasses.

    The movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The look of the film is quite inconsistent. At best, the image is very sharp and quite excellent for a movie of this age. At worst, it is a laughable blurry mess consistent with a budget production. Grain was generally a big problem, and again was variable to the point of being extremely grainy from one scene to having none at all seconds later. I did not notice any problems with shadow detail, though in very dark scenes the grain did tend to mask the image somewhat.

    Given that the only possible redeeming feature of this movie is its 3-D presentation, it needs to be pointed out that we cannot truly view this movie in the way it was intended - which is almost like listening to a stereo recording from only one speaker. Having said that, thankfully there is a minimum of "in-your-face" gimmickry, though when it does happen it is quite obvious - for instance, the focus would tend to linger on a particular shot in order for the effect to be appreciated. The most unfortunate aspect of this whole sordid mess is that process effects are truly, truly appalling and rank as the worst I have seen from any movie. Any time an effect is in use, the image quality takes a nose dive - colours lose vibrancy, grain increases, the image softens and looks totally flat. If Universal needed a reason not to make any further 3-D productions, this would be it.

    Now, the way colours were rendered was very interesting. For the most part, the image was vibrant and strongly saturated with good skin tones, with yellows seeming particularly strong. For about 30% of the film, the right hand side of the image suffered from what seemed poor colour registration, akin to having the three colour channels not correctly aligned. This was worst at the extreme right of the screen, and strangely it came and went with no obvious reason. I can only attribute this to the 3-D production techniques since I have never seen this artefact before.

    There were no MPEG artefacts at all. Film artefacts were frequent, and during optical effects were rampant. There were no film-to-video artefacts.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is English Dolby Digital 2.0, and was surprisingly good.

    Dialogue was generally very clear, with frequent and obvious ADR offering minor lip-sync problems from time to time.

    The score was nicely rendered, with good use of the front soundstage and a nice frequency range, at times extending very low.

    The surround channels were used almost not at all, though now and then the score made its way there with some ambient cues.

    The subwoofer was used at times, though not always integrated terribly well.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Theatrical Trailer

Trailer

    It seems that R1 land has the good sense not to bother with this title, as I could not locate it at the major outlets.

    If you like truly B-grade movies, you might enjoy Jaws 3 - the effects are certainly very good for a laugh. The video is a mixed bag, though is watchable. The audio is perfectly serviceable. If you are a die-hard, I can only suggest renting first. For the rest, this title is best avoided.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall