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Jake Speed

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:28 am
by domino harvey
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When her sister is taken by a gang of white slavers, Margaret (Karen Kopins, Troop Beverly Hills) knows she needs a hero with a difference to bring her home. Enter Jake Speed (Wayne Crawford, Barracuda), leaping from the pages of pulp thriller novels and into the real world. With Margaret in tow and his trusty sidekick Desmond Floyd (Dennis Christopher, Chariots of Fire) in tow, Jake arrives hot on the heels of the kidnappers in a southern African country gripped by civil war. But it soon turns out Jake got more than he bargained for when he discovers that the ringleader of the slavers is none other than his own arch-nemesis: the wicked, criminally insane Sid (John Hurt, Alien, The Osterman Weekend)...

A ripe slice of 80s action cheese in the tradition of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Romancing the Stone, Jake Speed has it all: romance, death-defying stunts, spellbinding scenery shot on location in Zimbabwe... and best of all, a wickedly off-the-wall performance by the late John Hurt, proving the old adage that a hero is nothing without a worthy foe.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original lossless 2.0 stereo audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Paperback Wishes, Cinematic Dreams, a new interview with co-writer/producer/director Andrew Lane
The Hard Way Reads Better, a new interview with producer William Fay
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector s booklet featuring new writing by Mark Cunliffe

Re: Jack Speed

Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:42 am
by domino harvey
Who could ever forget the "action cheese" of Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Re: Jake Speed

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 6:38 pm
by zedz
Oh my god was this an awful film. There's actually the germ of an interesting idea in here: an action hero that everybody assumes is fictional because he features in pulp novels, and whose priority is "making a good story" for the next published installment rather than actually solving problems. But the self-reflexivity of the film stalls at the most braindead and obvious level, and the story is uninflected cliche parachuted into a wasteland of unfunny gags (or vice versa, I don't care). The 'star' is one of the co-writers / co-producers, John Hurt plays his character with an incongruous Strine accent, and the filmmakers would have gladly shot in South Africa if they'd outbid Zimbabwe. Avoid!

Re: Jake Speed

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 6:46 pm
by domino harvey
zedz, it feels like you need someone to tell you this: it’s okay to sell or give-away these Arrow discs unseen when there’s a reasonable expectation that you wouldn’t enjoy them; and if you don’t enjoy them, you definitely don’t have to go through the extras to add more pain! Though there is of course a perverse part of me that is enjoying you watching so much garbage and posting your thoughts, but I feel a bit guilty wanting you to keep going at such great tolls to your own well-being!

Re: Jake Speed

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 6:53 pm
by swo17
Counterpoint: I agree with zedz on Edge of the Axe, and how would one ever surmise that that would have been worth watching?

Re: Jake Speed

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 7:29 pm
by Grand Wazoo
I'm living a very similar experience to zedz where I'm receiving all of the Arrow releases and working my way through the occasionally punishing backlog during quarantine. I watched Jake Speed a few weeks ago and to my shock it ranks with Microwave Massacre as the worst I've seen from them. This one is actively irritating while also being painfully lazy, and yet I still could not believe that the lead being dull and astonishingly off-putting was not an actual joke of the film. I genuinely do not understand who the target audience of this release would be, and yet my copy sold within 12 hours of going on ebay. I dunno, man...
domino harvey wrote:
Sun May 17, 2020 6:46 pm
zedz, it feels like you need someone to tell you this: it’s okay to sell or give-away these Arrow discs unseen when there’s a reasonable expectation that you wouldn’t enjoy them;
zedz please follow Domino's advice for your own sanity. Through the past 5 years of releases, I've watched almost everything but learned I can sell off most of their 80's/early 90's doofy slashers, the Sho Kosugi films, and anything from Nico Mastorakis sight unseen. I almost did this with Jake Speed but I thought, perhaps, it may be fun? Alas
swo17 wrote:
Sun May 17, 2020 6:53 pm
Counterpoint: I agree with zedz on Edge of the Axe, and how would one ever surmise that that would have been worth watching?
And yet I'm agreeing with the counterpoint because I too really enjoyed Edge of the Axe

Re: Jake Speed

Posted: Sun May 17, 2020 8:36 pm
by zedz
I appreciate the intervention, but I'm nearing the bottom of the barrel and don't want to give up now, and it's a rare film - even from Arrow - that's as bad as Jake Speed.