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It’s the 4^th film in the Jaws Series, in number 1 it was the discovery of a killer shark, Jaws, in #2 it was Jaws v's Dad's obsession with The Great White, in number 3 it was Jaws vs the Kids, so what does leave for #4…. Jaws vs Mum!

We’re back on Amity Island and Sean (Mitchell Anderson replacing John Putch) is the new chief of police (just like his dad was). Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary replacing Lorraine Gary) also still iveds in Amity and is now a widower after Martin died of a heart attack (Ellen swears it was the shark that killed him).

It’s Christmas Eve and Sean is called out to un tanlge a log from one of the fishing buoys. Next thing you know he’s eatten by another Great White Shark, Michael(Lance Guest replacing Dennis Quaid) , and his wife Carla (Karen Young) come back to the town and take Ellen back to the Bahamas with them so as she doesn’t go insane.

Having just lost her youngest son to the shark and the fact she believed Martin was killed by a shark, she’s convinced her whole family is the target of the Great White Sharks and fears that Michael will be next…..and yep! The Brody killing shark has made it’s way to the bahamas and is after her other son!

What’s a mother to do?

Here’s an interesting tid bit about #4. A Friend of mine saw Jaws 4 durings it’s theatrical run, (for some reason that simply baffles me) THEN happened to fly over to Los Angeles several weeks later and saw the film AGAIN!!! (there is actually a reason for this). After some nasty feedback about the film, the film’s (apparently) low-key ending was reshot to be the version we see today.
(the films original ending is mentioned over at the IMBD if your at all intersted)

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VIDEO
Well Jaws 4 certainly is the newest of the films, but did this Anamorphic Widescreen transfer really have to look THIS good???

Running a rather scant 86 minutes (too long) this movie has most curiously been spread over 2 layers of an RSDL DVD!!!!  (the well placed layer change takes place at 55:36 on a naturally quite scene...nice)

It’s not a perfect transfer but it still looks great, and is easily the best looking of the entire series.

Colours are strong and show no signs of bleeding, black level is pretty good, ands sharpness has resulted in a very natural looking image, which shows even more dimentionality than the one actually shot in 3D! (pity the writer couldn't add some dimensionality to the characters).
On the minus side, there seems to be a slight drop to the contrast so whites are a little more on the grey side (the screen grabs show this quite well), and there is an ever so slight sign of noise reduction being applied (faces smear juuust a tiny bit, but this isn't evident all the time)

All in all, the problems that are present are very minor and are the sort of faults you only really find when seriously looking for them..(given the shocker of a movie on show, you might find yourself fault finding them after you've picked pieces out of the story/bad acting and shark effects :)

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AUDIO
Coming to you with a Dolby 2.0 encoded mix, what’s on offer is the cleanest and brightest sounding track of all 4, but offers nothing too exciting in Dolby Pro-Logic Mode. Dialogue is pretty much clean and clear throughout, with only Mario Van Peebles Jamaican accent gett’n in da way of consistent intellegability.

John William's infamous score is used a few times amongst Michael Small's less impressive effort, but still acceptable Harry Manfreini Friday the 13th sounding score (you can’t beat the king though)

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EXTRAS
Theatrical Trailers – Jaws 2, 3 and 4

It may be a tie between Jaws 3 and 4 for the Jaws series Raspberry awards, but #4 certainly has my vote for best picture and sound of the two. I’m just disapointed the "alternate" ending wasn’t included on the DVD.
BTW Be sure to keep on watching after the death of the shark (oh like THAT's a spoiler :)   Can anyone say "that's a rather large Universal Backlot swimming pool they're using for the ocean of what's meant to be the bahamas" ..i mean you can even see the water splashing up against that wall in the background. HAHA  :)))

Review Equipment
TV: Pioneer SD-T50W1 (16:9 RPTV)
DVD: Pioneer DV717  (using RGB outputs)
Receiver : Denon AVC-A1SE THX Ultra (Dolby Surround EX, DTS-ES Discrete)
Speakers:-
     Mains: Quadral Amun
     Centre: B&W CDMC-SE
     Surrounds Left/Right: M&K SS500 (Dipole)
     Surrounds Back : Polk RT/fx (Diplole)
     Subby: M&K V125 

- Review Posted 30th October 2001

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