Combustible Celluloid


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Redbelt **1/2
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Son of Rambow **1/2
Speed Racer [review coming soon]
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A Collection of 2007 Academy Award Nominated Short Films
The Hottie and the Nottie
I'm Not There
Over Her Dead Body
Paddle to the Sea
The Red Balloon
Silent Ozu: Three Family Comedies (Criterion Eclipse #10)
Teeth
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Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
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Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
Guide to Essential Movies, by Joe Leydon
Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, by Robert S. Birchard
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A Third Face, by Samuel Fuller
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Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks
Negative Space, by Manny Farber
5001 Nights at the Movies, by Pauline Kael
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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

 
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© 1997-2008 Combustible Celluloid



Jaws (1975)

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 4)

Jumping the Shark

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Jaws on DVD.

I was too little (and too scared) to see Jaws on its original release, and it was a long time before I finally saw it on video. Nowadays, it doesn't really scare me anymore, but I love watching it for the way it moves, and for the young, 28 year-old Steven Spielberg's potent, full-of-beans talent. None of his subsequent films seems so confident or commanding.

Roy Scheider stars as a big city cop who moves to the small beach town of Amity, but finds an even bigger adventure there when a giant, killer great white shark turns up. Richard Dreyfuss plays a shark expert who helps in the hunt, and Robert Shaw steals the show as the salty captain who takes our heroes to sea.

Based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel, the screenplay by Carl Gottlieb and Benchley intelligently captures the way adults talk and does not pander to younger crowds, though when the three men get out to sea and away from civilization their behavior naturally regresses to childish playground antics and the famous scar-comparing contest.

Spielberg manipulates the audience as joyously and effectively as Hitchcock, notably in his use of John Williams' famous theme music ("da-DUM, da-DUM"). He spends the first two-thirds of the film building up the shark's suspenseful approach, accompanied by the rising music. But later, the shark suddenly attacks with no musical prelude, and it's a terrifying jump-shock. Moreover, we know that for the rest of the film the gloves are off and we will have no more warning.

Jaws was a true phenomenon, created less by studio hype than by audience demand and enthusiasm. It quickly catapulted to the number one, all-time box office slot and remained there for two years until Star Wars came along.

DVD Details: For the film's 30th anniversary, Universal has released a brand new Jaws DVD, replacing their 25th anniversary edition from 2000. This new one comes with a "collectible" booklet full of pictures and quotes, as well as outtakes and deleted scenes, an interview with Spielberg (but no commentary track), a two-hour making of documentary and other archival materials.

Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gray, Murray Hamilton
Written by: Carl Gottlieb, Peter Benchley, based on the novel by Peter Benchley
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
MPAA Rating: PG
Running Time: 124 minutes
Date: June 20, 2005

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