Jumpin' Jack Flash Film Review

Spy movies are a very popular genre of film they always have been and they always will be as there are endless ways that you can take a spy movie. With one of them being to make a spy comedy which is what they did with the film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today as it's film that oddly enough has alot of comedy pedigree infront of the camera and so then join me as I review the film that started a feud with it's lead star and the husband of it's director with the film in question being called simply just "Jumpin' Jack Flash" enjoy.

The plot of this film when a computer operator finds herself caught up in the world of spies and has to everything that she can to survive. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad however tho this films plot wasn't all that good as it's very generic spy comedy plot where you know where it's going from the second that the film starts and while the joy of the film might be seeing in how the characters get to those plot points that there all going to hit it doesn't change the fact that this films plot feels like a very by the numbers plot with there not really being anything new or interesting added to it to make it standout and feel new again but this is what you get when your film was written by FOUR different people which is never a good sign and nine times out of ten results in a plot that is really bad and while this films plot isn't bad per say it's also a plot that could have been done alot more better then what it already was it feels like a very undercooked plot at best with there not really being anything in this film from a plot point of view that makes it worth watching as everything that's in this films plot that could have been good has been done better in other movies as here those elements not only aren't focused on all that much when they are given some focus they feel like there really undercooked as well with the plot of this film being as basic as it can get for a spy comedy film with this films plot not really being really rather entertaining and nor is it really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Starring in this film is Whoopi Goldberg as Teresa "Terry" Doolittle and Stephen Collins as Marty Phillips. Also starring in this film is John Wood as Jeremy Talbot , Carol Kane as Cynthia , Annie Potts as Liz Carlson , Peter Michael Goetz as Mr. Page , Roscoe Lee Browne as Archer Lincoln , Sara Botsford as Lady Sarah Billings , Jeroen Krabbé as Mark Van Meter , Vyto Ruginis as Carl , Teagan Clive as The Russian Exercise Woman and Jonathan Pryce as Jumping Jack Flash.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. However much like this films plot this films acting isn't all that good either as while Whoopi Goldberg can be a funny actor she needs funny things to say and do and sadly this film doesn't give her any of those things and as such her performance isn't as over the top and as out there as a film like this demands this is despite the fact that she is watchable in this film and is quite clearly trying to turn in a good performance with the rest of this films actors also turning in some really solid performances as well which given who is starring in this film is something that's to be expected as alot of this films actors are a bunch of really good actors in their own right with the best actor in the whole entire film being Jonathan Pryce as Jumping Jack Flash as he makes what could have been as being a really boring voice over role sound more like a James bond-esque type of character which is something that really does fit that character really well with it seeming like that he's the only one that's actually trying to turn in a good performance as the rest of the films actors including Whoopi Goldberg herself feel like that there phoning their performances and really aren't trying all that hard to turn in a good performance as a result of that with the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does effect the overall quality of the acting that's in this vert film.

This film really doesn't do it's characters any kind if justice as the only thing that we get to find out about the main character Terry is that she has a poster of Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman hanging up in her apartment and that's really it. Which even the film does nothing with her clear love movies as it just brushes it aside and really doesn't make it apart of her characters personality as the makers of this film could have had her look to movies for inspiration on how to help her through the events of the film which is something that would have made seem like a really cool thing to include with the film doing alot of that with all of it's characters as all of it's characters are just very flat one dimensional characters that whilst there not forgettable characters by any stretch of the imagination there also not memorable either with the only thing that's memorable about the Cynthia character is the fact that she has a very thick New York accent and is played by a very young Carol Kane and that's really it with her oddly enough being the best character in the movie as you never really know what your going to be getting next with her character but that doesn't make her or any of the films characters good as sadly there not now this could have been because of the fact that the film had four writers working on it and therefor something got lost in the script or could have been that the makers of this film just didn't know how to make good characters but either way this is something that really should have been fixed as there's nothing about any of this films characters as there all just that badly done with this being something that could have been fixed by doing a re-write of the films script but for whatever reason the makers of this film thought that the version of the script that had the badly characters was the best that it was ever going to get.

Even tho this film is listed as being a romantic spy comedy the films trailer doesn't actually highlight the actual romance aspect of the film. Which is odd as a trailer is meant to sell you on all of the aspects of a film and not outright lie to you about what a film is in the first place as judging by the trailer you'd be forgiven for thinking that this film is an action comedy and nothing more then that which it isn't and while that ight have been a marketing ploy to get more men to watch the film what also would have gotten more men to watch the film was if the film was actually good and had more laugh out loud moments in it instead of outright hiding one aspect of the film which isn't that big of a lose in the first place as it was hard to even see the romance in this film as it's that badly done in the first place with it seeming like both Terry and Jack falling in love happens out of nowhere when that is something that should have been built up all throughout the film with this not really being helped by the fact that we don't even get to see the two of them together until the final few minuets of the film so we the audience don't get the chance to judge if there good couple or not and while there are storyline reasons for them not being shown together until the final few moments of the film if your going to have the two of them falling in love then you shouldn't have them be apart from the vast majority of the film as the audience needs to feel there romantic chemistry in order to buy into them as a couple and having them be apart for a vast majority of the film ultimately does more harm to the film then good which is most likely why it wasn't included in the trailer as it's something that just wasn't that well handled in the final cut of the film.

While this film does have alot of negative aspects about it it does also have some pretty positive ones as well. Like the at that the film is just so of it's time that it does make it fun to watch like he fact that all of the computers in this film are those big ones that we used to have in the eighties to the two thousands and the fact that the main character Terry finds the titular song by listening to it on tape both of which are things that are now sadly a thing of the past as is the fact that the computer screens these days are alot more advanced and different then the ones that we got in this film which while those might be small things do make the film alot more fun to watch as does the fact that some of the characters as one dimensional as they are do come across as being pretty likable with all of the characters that your meant to like being ones that you genuinely do like and the characters that your meant to hate being pretty hateable even if you don't know why your meant to be hating them in the first place while the characters being likeable is indeed something that does work well enough in this films favor as it does show that the makers of this film are at least somewhat competent and know how to make some likable characters it would have helped the characters out quite alot if they all had personalities that helped them to stand out from one another as there's nothing memorable about this films characters be it from there personality or what they actually do in the film with this being something that much like the characters themselves really could have been fixed with a rewrite of the films script as it's really an easy fix to make and yet the makers of this film didn't even bother to do just that.

Every good spy movie needs at the very least one thing and that's a good villains plot which is sadly one of the many things that this film is very sadly missing. As the main villains of this film basically have no plan outside of them wanting to stop terry from helping Jack get to New York for whatever reason seems like something that they could have done themselves but for whatever reason they need to stop this one person from doing it for them an even then they always struggle to do exactly that and very enough villains in spy comedy movies are never that deep or interesting as they have to give way to the jokes which is fair enough but those villains are nearly all always capable of beating the hero thus adding an element of threat and danger to the film there they don't even do that as Terry always ends up beating them at the end of every single encounter that she has with them which makes them really ineffective villains and while they do get the drop on her all the time it's never something that lasts for long and because of the fact that we've seen her escape from these villains unharmed we know that she's going to be OK and there for we the audience aren't worried for Terry when she does come up against them with it seeming more like that the makers of this film wanted to make Whoopi Goldberg a true star that it came at the expense of telling a genuinely good story with villains that you want to hate when no star no matter there name should be more important then the plot of the film and heck due to what happened behind the scenes Whoopi herself seems like the true villain of the piece as they originally had another actor in mind for jack that being someone that the director was dating at the time with that being comedian Sam Kinison but Whoopi herself nixed the idea despite the fact that she's not a producer on the movie which makes her seem like a bigger villain then what this films actual villains were in the first place.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty five minuets and seventeen seconds. Which to be fair to this film is a perfectly solid running time to have but at the same time tho this film does feel a bit long in the tooth for a comedy as comedies back then typically lasted around one hour and thirty minuets with very few of them going nearer the two hour mark with this film really having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time but in saying that this film also doesn't use it's running time all that well as the plot of the film as mentioned before is really undercooked due to it not being that well developed with it at times feeling like that the characters are just doing these random things not for the sake of the films plot but rather for the sake of padding out the films running time something which they needn't bother doing as all the makers of the film had to do to reach this running time is just develop of the film and it's characters and that's really it as this films character get absolutely no development whatsoever with them all ending up in the exact same place that they were in when the film first started which does make it feel like that the makers of this film don't know how to write good characters with interesting characters arcs as while yes there are germs of good characters in this film they are let down by the fact that the film does nothing interesting or even remotely funny with them alot of the time with them just being for the sake of being there and not because they add anything to this films plot but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very was in all honesty not that bad. With this films comedy not really being all that good either as while there was alot of painfully unfunny moments in this film when this film really did want to tell a good joke and have a funny scene then it is something that is really funny which does make you wonder why the makers of this film didn't bother to give Whoopi Goldberg or even Carol Kane alot more funny things to say or do as when they do get something that's actually funny with the best joke in the whole entire being the sequence where Terry makes a phone call in a phone booth which then unbeknownst to her gets hooked up a truck with her only noticing it just before it starts to get pulled with her then being forced to get dragged along inside it as the person who hooked it up in the first place works for the main villains of the film with the thing that makes the joke work being Whoopi's facial expressions as she does have alot of really funny facial expressions all throughout that sequence with her just trying to get anyone to help her but with them all being New Yorkers they all ignore her which is something that makes the sequence even more funnier then what it already is with that one joke proving that the makers of this film really did know how to make a good joke as none of the films other jokes were as good as that one was in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

Overall it's not that hard to see why this film has a thirty three percent on Rotten Tomatoes as it really is just that average of a film with it being painfully obvious right from the get go that this film is going to be nothing more then an average film that could have been better but for one reason just wasn't in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.