A favorite of mine I first saw when I was in the 5th grade back in 1980. Its a familiar story of man versus beast, Ahab versus Moby Dick, Police Chief Martin Brody versus great white shark. ( )

I barely feel like I need to summarize the plot of this book: a monster great white shark terrorizes the small beach town of Amity on Long Island. Sheriff Martin Brody tries in vain to close the beaches after the head and shoulders of a young woman (victim #1) washes ashore. The town leaders fear that shark fears will drive away the necessary tourist business, especially with the big 4th of July weekend coming nearer. But when more people are quickly killed by the man-eater, the sheriff has no choice. In the end, he has to go after the shark himself.

I think everyone knows that much from the movie version of the book, the one that kept so many out of the water back in the 70s and still keeps a few away. The book includes the additional element of the sheriff's ailing marriage, complete with his wife's infidelity - no big loss in the movie version. And while the book is great with its suspense and attacks, the actual story-telling is sometimes over-the-top cheesy. I'm sure the author was trying to be clever with some of his 'insights' and phrases and language which reflect what I feel was the embarassing hedonism of the 1970s, but I couldn't help rolling my eyes and sometimes even laughing aloud. No, the strength of this story really is the suspense.

But I think they did a better job in the movie. ( )

Giant man-eating shark.

Suspenseful, and pretty scary as far as monster movies go. But what's surprising about it is that it's also got strong characters, good dialog, and good acting, expertly filmed. They managed to do without the usually-obligatory waiting around to get to the action part(s) that this sort of story typically has. Everything in the movie is engaging, regardless of whether the shark is around. And when it is around, it's pretty crazy fun what they do with it.

Concept: D
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: A
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: A

Enjoyment: A

GPA: 3.1/4 ( )

When an insatiable great white shark terrorizes the townspeople of Amity Island, the police chief, an oceanographer and a grizzled shark hunter seek to destroy the blood-thirsty beast.
(source: TMDB)

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