DanTheMan2150AD

Playing like a series of disconnected comic panels from different books crunched together, James Gunn's Superman is hands down the most-hyped cinematic reboot in the history of reboots and for the life of me... I don't understand why. Rather than the stand-alone Superman film I wish this had been, instead we get yet another franchise starter. One that goes for the complete opposite end of the spectrum, bordering on overly cartoonish as opposed to the over-grimness of the last outings. It feels like James Gunn has raided the same visually repulsive and overly jokey tone present in his other DC film, one that feels tonally wrong for a film like this, accompanied by a bloated and inconsistent script, which lessens the story's emotional resonance. This film is so much about Superman's earnestness, but it deeply frustrates me that it still undermines moments of drama and emotion with horrifically timed comedy. There's no delicate balancing act, as with Donner's films, where the comedic timing was dialled into perfection; it's like James Gunn tossed all his previous films into a blender, along with several decades worth of Superman comics, cartoons, movies and TV shows. The outcome is a disorganised, overstuffed mess, but one with some fairly wonderful strengths. Corenswet looks the part, but the film around him is too distracted to tell Clark's story. I think it says a lot when Cannon Films made a better Superman film than James Gunn, because while he may have put his stamp on it, a few standout parts are greater than the sum of a film that fails to truly soar.

Redolent of budgetary overkill and artistic vanity, in many ways, I feel I can trace my love for quote-on-quote bad films back to Jaws: The Revenge. Admittedly, the film does an effective job of kicking the proceedings off with some promise before segueing into an exceedingly deliberate, and often hopelessly silly, midsection that boasts few compelling or interesting attributes. The rather sombre atmosphere, which is compounded by a premise that doesn't even make sense, ensures that the film's 89-minute running time generally feels much, much longer than it is, bearing all the marks of its rushed production, from the seemingly first-draft screenplay to its sloppy execution. Granted, the film benefits from having Joseph Sargent in the director's chair, who manages to deliver plenty of engaging interludes and some occasionally nice photography. In terms of performances, they range from the stiff to the entertaining, with every time you see and hear the nasally Lorraine Gary on screen, you want the shark to eat her. While Lance Guest and Mario Van Peebles are indeed somewhat entertaining in their roles, it's Michael Caine who is very much here to save the day. His complete lack of interest in anything but his pay-check is legendary, and the footage does not lie; we see him enjoying the sunshine, walking on beaches, dancing, enjoying meals and having a booze up; it feels like they grabbed 20 minutes of Caine on vacation and then created the rest of the film around that footage. At least Caine is having fun; not many actors can deliver a speech about what sharks do and do not do while dancing in a Samba parade, and it's to Caine's credit and talent as an actor that he makes Hoagie an unforgettable character. There's also the added benefit of a very good and mystical score by Michael Small, although nothing up to the standard of Williams' efforts on the first two, but still rather fabulous. Wholly unnecessary and pulling the shark into the weirdly supernatural, slasher-movie territory, Jaws: The Revenge is an unforgettable film, one that left its franchise finally dead in the water but a true masterpiece of the so-bad-it's-good genre, one that offers more laughs than most comedies and the true catalyst for my love for bad movies.

Weirdly, the filmmakers promised three whole dimensions of terror when, in reality, they could barely manage two. A slow-moving and mostly tepid sequel, Jaws 3-D is a predominantly weak film, but it has the redeeming quality of presenting such an outrageous concept that you cannot help but watch it unfold. Although for much of its running time, it feels hopelessly and irredeemably padded out, its artistic and technical merits are quite enjoyably flawed. It's a film I've always particularly found to be rather dull, but I've seen so many bad films now that I feel I've become desensitised to its inherent shortcomings because there are genuinely worse films out there. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the idea; it at least adds many new elements to the Jaws formula, but where it all goes wrong is in the execution. Joe Alves's direction is largely mundane, although sometimes punctuated by a pretty sunset, it doesn't do much and feels exceptionally clunky when coupled with the editing. Credit where credit is due, however, he has admittedly sprinkled the proceedings with a few tense set-pieces, but it all feels wasted when you are dealing with visual effects this poor, the lingering 3D photography being downright laughable in a 2D format. If there's any praise to be given here, it's definitely to the performers; they do their best with inane dialogue, especially that of Simon MacCorkindale, Louis Gossett Jr. And a completely coked-out-of-his-mind Dennis Quaid. The only other major point of praise is Alan Parker's score, nothing spectacular by any means, but certainly serviceable, definitely the weakest score of the series, though nothing awful. Where Jaws 2 may have been redundant, Jaws 3-D borders on the ridiculous. One that certainly has a few merits, but would have certainly been a better film had the plans for a parody it had originally intended to be fully panned out.