Man-eating Machine

Rating: 4/10 (21 April 2002)

This one has the distinction of being the first film to reach (and surpass) the $100 million mark during its initial theater run. If you haven't seen it, then you've probably heard something about it. Some of Jaws' best scenes of fright / suspense (1 voting point for each scene) occur when we merely imagine the great white shark (25 feet long!) may soon surface and bare several rows of jagged, triangular teeth. When we finally get a look at the man-eating fish, it turns out to be a machine with unconvincing--and unnatural--dewlaps that form around the corners of its mouth during rare moments when the shark is not shown chomping into tourists. I saw this one at a tender age. I was glued to my seat when, in the film, a beach full of terrified swimmers race over each other after somebody spots the all to familiar dorsal fin poking out of the water. During production, the machine-shark was dubbed "Bruce," after Spielberg's lawyer. All in all, this suspenser is worth a viewing... too bad computers in 1975 weren't sophisticated enough to erase those goofy, over-lapping hinges on 'Bruce's' mouth.