MovieChat Forums > Dante's Peak (1997) Discussion > It's Jaws, except the shark is a volcano...

It's Jaws, except the shark is a volcano...

posted 13 years ago by sbowesuk
9 replies | jump to latest

30 minutes in, and this movie feels like one massive Jaws rip-off.

- You've got the main duo consisting of a scientist and a popular/active member of the town, desperately trying to get to the bottom of things and save the day.

- You've got the town official who disregards every warning because it'll "inconvenience" the town.

- You've got a frolicking teen couple doing normal teen couple things, not realising they've placed themselves in mortal danger until it's too late.

- Then of course, you've got the killer entity of the movie, striking here and there, but plays out in such a way that the threat is not taken seriously by hapless humans until death is staring them in the face.

Did I miss anything?

[–] angela_bees 13 years ago

It's not rip off of Jaws. Loads of movies have these things in them. It's standard.

[–] Krustallos 12 years ago

It's standard because the standard was set by "Jaws".

A bit of a shame it's not 1/100th as good.

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

[–] Tales-from-the-Goondocks 12 years ago

There were many movies before Jaws that have these same characteristics, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56 for example. Everything the OP mentioned appeared in Invasion of the Body Snatchers before Jaws, except for the teens. So no, this particular standard was not set by Jaws. Get your facts straight.

[–] Krustallos 12 years ago

There were many movies before Jaws that have these same characteristics, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56 for example

Where is the economic aspect of town leaders choosing to ignore a peril because it will hurt tourism in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"?

Obviously Jaws wasn't the first monster movie and borrowed many aspects from elsewhere, equally obviously this here movie used Jaws as a template.

I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity.

[–] Tales-from-the-Goondocks 12 years ago

I meant main characters who were not believed by the town or its authorities. That's been seen many times before. If you want to get all technical I could argue that it wasn't exactly the town leader who didn't believe Brosnan's character, since Hamilton's character was THE MAYOR and she did believe him. The one who hurt Harry's credibility was his boss, because he thought he was being overly cautious.

[–] haruuj 12 years ago

Yes it is the same plot of JAWS but so what? I can enjoy the moveie.

[–] DanielCraig007 10 years ago

It also features a character named Dreyfuss, funnily enough.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] pkryder-1 9 years ago

Yeah, Paul is Quint.