Last summer, for about a three week period on New York's south shore beaches, ocean swimmers were on shark alert. Six victims were bitten during that time period in rather shallow water, on the white sands of Long Island. This year, New York's Governor Kathy Hochul says that the state parks are ready to take on the monsters of the deep.
As any movie fan worth their salt will undoubtedly recall, Back to the Future Part II imagined a timeline in which we had hoverboards, automatic lace-up sneakers, futuristic Pepsi (more on that here), and…Jaws 19. Robert Zemeckis’ time-traveling sequel was almost eerily prescient in its imagining of the future of blockbuster franchises, and now there’s an official trailer for Jaws 19 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of the best film franchises in history.
On June 20, 1975 a movie about an angry fish opened in about 500 theaters around the country. It was called Jaws, it was directed a guy named Steven Spielberg, it was scary as hell, and it changed the world forever. Its unique release strategy (wide instead of limited), intense television marketing campaign, and record-breaking box office essentially created the summer movie season (and made Spielberg a household name). 40 years later, regardless of its impact, Jaws remains a masterpiece, and a much better and more interesting movie than the vast majority of so-called summer blockbusters that it birthed.