Jaws
Blu-ray
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release Date: August 14, 2012

One night during a party on the beaches of Amity Island, a New England community primarily known as a summertime destination, a young woman (Susan Backlinie) goes for a nude, moonlit swim in the ocean and is attacked and killed by an unseen force beneath the surface. The next morning her remains wash up on shore and are discovered by Amity police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider). Determining the woman’s death to be a shark attack the chief attempts to close the beaches in order to prevent further casualties, but is stonewalled by the town’s mayor Vaughan (Murray Hamilton), cautious to protect Amity’s reputation with the Fourth of July coming up. Some time later a little boy is eaten by the shark while playing in the water. His distraught mother offers up a sizable bounty to anyone who can kill the shark, bringing carloads of fishermen and hunters to Amity ready to claim the reward.

Marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) also arrives on Amity to assist Brody and based on the bite marks left on the remains of the first victim he believes the shark is a great white, unheard of in the waters off Amity. The beaches remain open despite failed attempts to kill the shark and when the tourists descend on Amity for Independence Day the attacks intensify. With the lives of Amity’s citizens, including Brody’s own family, and the town’s future hanging in the balance, Brody and Hopper team up with local fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) and head out to sea to confront and destroy the great white. It’s only after they’ve encountered the beast that they realize their enemy has been grossly underestimated. One thing’s for sure: they’re gonna need a bigger boat.

Steven Spielberg‘s epic adventure Jaws was released this week for the first time on Blu-ray and I have to say, it’s awesome. If the over four hours of bonus features, including new documentaries and previously released extras (listed here below), on this Blu-ray release don’t grab you, then the frame by frame digital restoration restoration of the film definitely will, as it’s stunning. You can see the before-and-after restoration comparison stills here below.

Below are a few clips from the Blu-ray Edition of scenes from the film, and even watching them on the small screen will show you how amazing the restoration looks. There’s also a behind-the-scenes video of composer John Williams and director Steven Spielberg talking about the film’s memorable theme music, a clip from the Blu-ray documentary feature The Shark is Still Working: The Impact & Legacy of JAWS.

Lastly, if you’d like to crush it like Quint, Narragansett Beer has released a limited edition 1975 retro can, so visit www.narragansettbeer.com for more information on that.

To celebrate the Blu-ray release of the original three Indiana Jones films, Paramount Studios is releasing Raiders of the Lost Ark in IMAX theaters.

Now to make the film’s massive theatrical conversion official, we are getting a trailer for the IMAX release, as well as a nifty hand-drawn poster to celebrate the IMAX release. Check both of them out here below.

Carlo Rambaldi, the three-time Academy Award-winning Italian-born visual effects artist responsible for creating the alien E.T. in Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, died today in Lamezia Terme, Italy after a long illness, according to the Washington Post. He was 86 years old.

Born on September 15, 1925 in Vigarano Mainarda, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Rambaldi got his start in the Italian film industry providing visual effects for films such as Bloody Pit of Horror and Mario Bava’s highly influential sci-fi chiller Planet of the Vampires. He would later reunite with Bava to execute the gory murder sequences for one of the acclaimed filmmaker’s finest films, Twitch of the Death Nerve (a.k.a. A Bay of Blood). In 1971, Rambaldi’s mutilated dog effects for Lucio Fulci’s psychedelic giallo Lizard in a Woman’s Skin were deemed so realistic that the director was prosecuted in Italian court on charges of animal cruelty. Only after Rambaldi presented the fake dog effects in court was Fulci exonerated.

Up until now, we’ve seen nothing but leaked photos of Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln on (or off) the set of Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln.

The biopic would not encompass the entire life of America’s 16th president; instead it would follow the last four months of his life. Now we’ve got our first official photo of the actor as the president, minus the jeans and him eating lunch.

Check it out below.