Der weiße Hai 2 (1978)

Der weiße Hai 2: Directed by Jeannot Szwarc. With Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Joseph Mascolo. Police chief Brody must protect the citizens of Amity after a second monstrous shark begins terrorizing the waters.

“It has been years since the shark attack that terrorised the small island community of Amity and many wounds have healed as tourism has grown back to booming levels. However the disappearance of divers, a mysterious explosion of a speedboat and a body of a killer whale with chunks missing out of it has Chief Brody back on his high-horse again. Running around shouting u0026quot;sharku0026quot; without any real evidence does little to impress Mayor Vaughn, who as usual has his eyes on the fickle tourist dollar. However is Brody just reliving past experience or is he right? (Hint: the clue is in the title).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFollowing up what is considered Spielbergu0026#39;s classic lesson in fear was never going to be easy but doing it in the manner that this film did it meant that it was rather on a hiding to nothing from the start. The sequel is strongest when it repeats the build up and unseen fear of the original. Sadly this is the minority of the film as the majority is about a load of teens being terrorised by the shark in the way that other groups of teens have been terrorised by everything known (and unknown) to man in an attempt to get the u0026quot;youfu0026quot; market in the door. In fairness the first half of the film does have some interesting stuff in it but mostly it wastes these as part of the build up. The best example of this is Brody himself – he does appeared to be unreasonable and carrying a lot of pain and fear from the first time but this is never something we explore as the film instead just retreads the whole thing between him and the Mayor to little effect.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTalking of effects, the shark is as rubbery as before – no better no worse. However what is different is Szwarcu0026#39;s apparent desire to show the shark as a matter of course and does so to the detriment of building up gradual tension out of little touches. The cast are very mixed. Scheider returns as does the best he can but there is no help from director or writer here; so he does his same character the best he can but the viewer is never in any doubt that this is an inferior product. Gary and Hamilton also return but are given very little of interest to work with. The rest of the teen cast are annoying. It is not really their fault because they are told to be teens and scream lots, which is what they do without really achieving much.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall then a very so-so sequel that has some strong elements that it has lifted from the original film and then lots of lesser elements fill out the film. The u0026quot;teens in perilu0026quot; aspect is a bit tiresome and doesnu0026#39;t do much other than provide fodder for the shark. In its favour though, the film looks like Citizen Kane when viewed alongside the other Jaws sequels.”