CRUEL JAWS 1995 aka JAWS 5
PLOT: See JAWS. Something about a Tiger Shark used by the Navy that escapes and begins eating tourists in a small oceanside town.
Wow! Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water after you had seen all the crazy Italian JAWS rip-offs, Mattei strikes back with this really bad, but sometimes fascinating Italo shark flick. And when I say fascinating, I mean in the literal smorgasborge of swiped footage from a menagerie of other US as well as Italian(!) shark movies utilized to tell the story here. The first half of the movie quite surprisingly, considering this is a Mattei movie, isn't very interesting at all. It does pick up steam during the second half however. The swiped footage from JAWS and JAWS 2 is very minor as it's used with fairly quick cuts and it's possible if you haven't seen those movies too much, you may not even notice.
I am often baffled as to why the Italians would make such films so close to the US originals knowing full well that they could never infiltrate the US market whether it be theatrically or on the home video market. They seemed content with continuously making these kinds of movies. Their KILLER CROCODILE movies are often lumped into the same category as their JAWS clones but this should not be as the creatures involved are totally different. In fact, the Alligator movies didn't begin with ALLIGATOR (1980) but with the Thai import from 1979 entitled CROCODILE. A really bad movie about a giant ocean dwelling crocodile that did feature similar scenes to JAWS such as a crew taking to the sea to do battle with the monstrous Godzilla-sized crocodile.
Back to Mattei's movie, there is quite a lot of footage ripped from Castellari's own (too close for comfort) JAWS clone, THE LAST SHARK. In fact, I'd be curious to know if there was any original footage here at all. However, it was nice to see the Castellari footage looking so crisp and new as it is from this Japanese transfer.
It's interesting that the actors refer to the shark as a Tiger Shark when all the scenes involving the animal have a Great White onscreen. The acting is really horrible and is probably why I had nearly lost interest in the first half and wasn't paying much attention when the shark wasn't onscreen. There was one character who reminded me so much of Hulk Hogan. The resemblance was uncanny save for the guy being around 2 feet too short. He had the hair and the look.
Another interesting note is the proliferation of the already mentioned swiped footage. Not only did the makers re-use whole scenes, but dialog as well and also changing some lines slightly such as "We're gonna need a bigger helicopter..." And scenes not lifted are completely re-shot such as the boat scene from JAWS 2 where the girl dumps gasoline over herself before the stock footage of the explosion from JAWS 2 takes over. The most oddest choice of cinematic abduction is the use of music from STAR WARS(!) They didn't completely use the entire piece but there is enough of it there to let you know it's from STAR WARS.
Also I had heard back when this was coming out that it was a TV movie of sorts and I think it is listed in an Italian horror book of mine as a TV production. Possibly when theatrical play was not an option (as this is in widescreen) it was sold to television. The gore is minimal and as bad as Mattei's movies tend to often be, there's always something strangely compelling about them (except for RATS...it's difficult for me to make it through that one...) and as slow and dull as the first half is, I'd rather give this one another spin than sit through one of Sci-Fi Channels Shark Shitters of the Week. Nowhere near as fun as Mattei's HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD (I can watch that one over and over again...love that movie...) or as well made as his WOMEN'S CAMP 119, but the latter half yields some fun and it's a shame Mattei couldn't have wrangled some better actors although the Hulk Hogan look-alike provides some chuckles.
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Topic: Cruel Jaws (Bruno Mattei, 1995) (Read 5744 times)