Full disclosure: I saw this at the movies. Yes. Even at the time advance word was bad and everyone knew the series had declined in quality with every new movie but hey it was a Jaws movie... how bad could it be? The answer is pretty bad - starting with an amazing stupid plot. A shark has come to get revenge on the Brody family, first of all arranging things so the youngest Brody (who had a different job in Jaws 3-D I think but never mind) goes out in a boat at Christmas time then ambushes and kills him. Then it follows the mother as she goes to the Bahamas to join her son, and then tries to kill the son and her.
With a premise like that the movie was never going to be any good and the problem is compounded by putting the not-very-good Lorraine Gary in the lead, throwing in too many flashbacks to the first movie (which make you wish you'd gotten than out on video instead), having a confusing climax, and far too many scenes which make no sense (eg Lorraine going out on the boat at the end to take down the shark).
At the risk of sticking my neck out I would like to say the movie has some positives: pleasing Caribbean photography, Michael Caine popping up as someone who clearly works for drug cartels, Lance Guest is a handsome hero with a beard and has a nifty escape sequence using scuba air to flee the shark, Mario Van Peebles is likeable as a best friend, some shots of the shark leaping out of the water are spectacular.
And it is so silly it's enjoyably silly. This wasn't a potentially great film mismanaged, one that got away, it's just pure intelligence-insulting junk. I'm surprised it hasn't become more a of a cult classic.
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