Jaws

All things considered, during the first half of that, I was rooting for the shark.

Once things are on the boat with Brody, Hooper, and Quint the movie is fine, but the first half of the film is absolute torture to watch. Every citizen of Amityville is loudmouthed, stupid, and obnoxious. The opening scene with Brody in his office while everybody is yakking at him out the tops of their lungs is practically unwatchable. Bigger nails on the chalkboard scene for me than Quint's actual intro. And how dumb is this town? Vaughn is still mayor in Jaws 2. These "quirky" idiots could have sprung from the pen of David E Kelly on Picket Fences on his hackiest, worst day. How is it I'm the first person I've seen complaining about that? How often (and over and over again) do I insist that characters are the most important part of any piece of fiction in my reviews? And every character in Jaws besides the main three is absolutely worthless. How has nobody called the movie on that before?

Vaughn is Ron DeSantis. Or Donald Trump. Or Greg Abbott. Take your pick. A lot of Vaughn memes have been created recently over government incompetence bordering on malice due to political expediency and they are all freaking apt. The dude sucks. And still somehow got reelected after that.

I read the book back in the day and didn't care for it because of the affair between Hooper and Mrs. Brody. The movie is better than it simply because that thoroughly trashy element was dropped.

The stuff with Quint in the boat relaying his story is the most interesting part of the movie. I think the action, characterization, and pacing in the second half of the film is good and tight.

I can't believe I've never watched that before. And I can't believe that while that town is what it is this is considered a movie classic. Again, the second half is pretty good, bordering on great. It's exciting and makes you jump in the right places. But you attach it to that dreck and the movie's quality is actually a total wash. ***.