Jack the Giant Killer (2013) Poster

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2/10
A deceitful sham
beef-638-12143621 March 2013
This movie was made with one purpose: to trick people into buying the DVD/blue-ray of "Jack the giant killer", only to be disappointed it isn't the blockbuster movie "Jack the giant slayer" they thought it was. There cannot have been any other reason or intention for making it because this movie is the very worst of utter crap. It really is just the stolen movie title filled with garbage. However, there is a story in there. It has actors, it has special effects, though extremely bad, appalling, awful. The movie has inconsistency written all over it. Nothing makes any sense, at all. The script, the acting, props, action scenes, - nothing measures up to any standard other than making a buck from stealing the title from a blockbuster by just throwing something together badly without much of a budget. The dinosaur cgi was half decent though. I cannot blame the actors for bad acting, when probably everything was shot in one take. There simply may have been no time or budget to re-do anything. Perhaps the actors were also lured into this sham, ignorant of it's true nature. There should be laws against this shameless deceit. On the other hand, some bad movies - because they were done badly, either for the lack of skill or on purpose - gain a cult status. This one will not.

Just to describe some major issues: Jack, an ordinary kid, is building/finishing some sort of battle robot as in "Avatar". The feet of the thing are shown several times walking on grass, in the opening scene. Clearly, it is just a couple of cardboard boxes with some spray paint. And he's building this thing for what reason? And with what means? No matter, he's got it working right in the nick of time, to kill the giant dinosaur in the end scene. Another delight is the flying castle. The "engine room" is nothing but an old smith's forge with forging tools hanging on the wall. The beans don't add up. Jack receives two beans. Which he throws away into a field (and grow into a beanstalk). Later, his stepsister finds another bean in Jack's jacket, and plants that one. At the very end of the movie, Jack manages to find another one of those beans in his pocket. Even if he threw away only one bean and inconsistently put the other in his pocket, still one extra bean has magically appeared somehow.

As mentioned in the other reviews, the time setting is inconsistent - old cameras and modern helicopters. Well the list is really endless. My conclusion is, that if you have ocd and enjoy counting goof-ups, you might like this movie a lot. Also it might be fun, to try to explain all the apparent inconsistencies.
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2/10
Did someone buy a job lot of mismatched costumes and props?
aelthric15 March 2013
While "The Ass-ylum" has become synonymous with poor quality film making and "Mockbusters" they really have plumbed the depths of crassness with this latest offering, their take on the "Jack and the beanstalk" story...

If you consider turning bad movies into drinking games please leave this one alone, you will be blind drunk before you get half way through this shambolic garbage...

What time period is this set in? You have modern helicopters and yet the police where Georgian uniforms, the army wear Dad's Army uniform cast offs and the absolute mismatch of props (Old Browning Camera Antiques et al) looks like they bought any old TAT from car boot sales in order to get props for this carbuncular waste of celluloid...

These people cannot even blame budget as an excuse, plenty of film makers have made much better and more entertaining movies with barely anything and as for the uniform gaffs fancy dress shops will hire out more convincing police uniforms...

As for the acting quality the amateur dramatic society known as "The Ass-ylum" somehow managed to cajole Ben Cross (Who in his time has done some real stinkers) into taking part in this debacle, I can only think that the negatives will be in the post Ben because I can only imagine that blackmail forced you into taking part in this monumentally bad garbage (I am sure your work on Banshee pays the bills)...

The rest of the cast are so cartoon like in their acting (Not that the cajoled Ben Cross is any better) that I have trouble wondering how the hell they got their "Equity Cards" to perform this steaming pile, maybe they are now handing out equity cards in cereal packets now?
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1/10
So bad it's good ?
neildowdall2 April 2013
Nope, it is not that good either.

The worst acting, SFX, story and overall film I have ever seen.

As others have said there is no actual time frame that it sits in, I was thinking 1950's but the uniforms and cars are wrong.

I don't know how much it cost to make but sometimes giving to charity is the right thing to do.

I just don't get it at all, there are no giants in it or did I miss them, there are dinosaurs though that people ride. When I say ride, the main villain if she can be called that was apparently riding a dinosaur at certain points (I say apparently because we only see her riding "Something", she looked like she enjoyed it anyway no matter what it was, which is nice).
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4/10
Utter Garbage From Start To Finish
parodyreviews18 March 2013
What a sad state of affairs when Asylum (the makers of this sad little tale) throws out garbage like this with a cast of people who aren't even trained in the art of acting. Wow, they must have taken the directors wife and kid hostage to make him do it. One consolation, this film of inferior quality should only have taken a couple of weeks to throw together so no real harm done.

The story starts of with some Real Steal rip off material as Jack is fixing his robot (I know, lol...I don't remember Aliens style robots in any other version of Jack...Beanstalk before!) while struggling to say his lines and use his hands at the same time. lol yes, I remembered a classic bit of acting when we first see the ridiculous beanstalk in a field. There is a cop standing there with a very small crowd of people and he's right in front of them saying "nothing to see here, move along", I was like WTF! Nothing to see? Also the way he was holding this crowd of 4 people back was stupid. They are in a field and can stand anywhere but chose to all squeeze in front of the only cop there. Another thing is, when Jack gets nabbed by the tree branch thing and gets taken up in front of everyone. Not one person seems to notice it happening!! Garbage, garbage, garbage.

I don't do the "this is the worst film ever" speech because it's cliché and rarely true. I have to say though, it's damn close. The acting is atrocious, the editing looks like it was done by a crack addict badly needing a fix and the music, the mf'king music! Where in the hell did they dig it up from? It sounded a bit like those,(I'm not too sure of the name) Stylaphone? Is that the thing Rolf Harris used to advertise? Well, it sounded like that.

Not a film to be watched, even if your bored, drunk, high, low...in fact...just don't watch it. I did and I'm still queasy.
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1/10
I love cheesy movies, but this was downright awful!
mbell-592-88264027 April 2013
Where do I start? Some movies ARE so bad they're good. I love cheesy movies and was in stitches for most of such classics as 'Killer Clowns from Outer Space', Megashark vs Giant Octopus', and 'Robot Jox'. This I did not love. It was annoying. I'm just not entirely sure why this was simply bad and not cheesy.

Awful acting, Awful plot (in fact, practically none), poor casting, poor direction, bad special effects. Actually, they weren't ALL bad - maybe the production was taken over seriously. Nope, that can't be it as it's already been pointed out the costumes and props were from entirely different time periods (CCTV cameras on walls anyone?)

I think it was simply a lack of care about any single part of the filmmaking process. It's like someone just stood in the street, shouted 'Who wants to make a film that's very loosely based on Jack and the Beanstalk', and the least interested people within earshot all inexplicably volunteered.

Don't watch this film (unless you're imminently dying and have nothing better to do when I guess it might actually make your remaining time feel longer)
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one of the worst movies since movie was invented
rightwingisevil17 May 2013
this movie would turn every atheist like me to rediscover religion. why? because when i watched it, i couldn't help repeatedly murmuring (actually cursing?) with lot of religious words that only the die-hard church goers would recite faithfully before and in front of every sentence: OMG....oh my god, Jesus...., oh, my lord....oh, lord of mercy...." these words i usually warned myself not to blur out under any circumstance, just wanted to enforce my disbelief of god or gods in plural form. what the bible, the preachers, the reverends or any religion pitching con artist failed to turn me around, this movie succeeded without any difficulty. omg (here's another one repeated helplessly), i rarely saw anything worse than this movie, jack the giant killer was not a giant killer but a metal junkyard welder. he welded a primitive horrible awkward manual robot in the barn and that crappy giant welded together junk could use its hand gun to burst hell fire. this film somehow also might get an Oscar for its naivety, its shallow original script and the worst and most terrible actors, the awkwardness simply surpasses any movie now playing on the screen. i rest my case.
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2/10
The Asylum does it again...
paul_haakonsen4 May 2013
Well, this movie was nothing at all what I had expected it to be. I had expected somewhat of a new interpretation of the classic tale of Jack and the bean stalk, but alas, that was not to be.

This is a story that borrows heavily from that story yes, but it does so in a very nonchalant way. It does however, pardon my French, manage to butcher up the entire story and try to put a weird, modern twist to it. But it just failed in every aspect.

The story ends up being a very broken apart set of fragments that doesn't really add up to a greater picture or unity. You just sit there wondering how this could come to be.

Mind you, that this is a The Asylum production, so that is a clear warning sign right there. I wasn't aware of that prior to obtaining the movie, and had I known, I wouldn't have wasted time or money on it. This is by far one of the more questionable movies from The Asylum that I have seen so far.

The CGI effects in the movie were quite bad, especially the big dinosaur-like creatures. They were just laughable. I will say that the floating brick building was actually quite nicely made, so thumbs up for that at least.

As for the acting, well there was nothing exceptional or mentionable here, and not even Ben Cross could manage to lift up anything in this particular movie.

This movie was definitely not meant for me as the audience, and it was a very strained ordeal to get through it. I ended up picking up my phone and playing some game during it as well, as I sort of lost interest in the storyline, which wasn't particularly solid to begin with, but I did manage to finish the movie. However, what would appeal to anyone in this movie is hard for me to put my finger upon; perhaps if you are a die-hard fan of anyone in the movie, but other than that, I just don't see the appeal.
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1/10
Jack the Giant Killer but without any giants
TheLittleSongbird11 May 2013
While I hate most of the Asylum's movies with a passion, I keep watching because there is something somewhat entertaining about their awfulness and also there's a glimmer of hope that they'd do something halfway tolerable. The Asylum oddly enough have made a few tolerable movies though the best they get is only decent. Jack the Giant Killer is not the worst from them, but it is still really bad. It looks amateurish from a starting point. Watching the costumes, sets and props I didn't and still don't have a clue about what time period the movie was supposed to be set in, and the laughable special effects(especially with some of the worst dinosaur, seemingly poor and personality-less substitutes for giants, effects I've seen for any movie) and editing that looks that someone was having a drug hallucination are no better. The music sounds weird, is not memorable in the slightest and doesn't fit at all. The dialogue is stilted and often sounded like senseless babbling with the actors clearly struggling to get their words out, it also has a lot of cheese and this is when the murky sound is not drowning it out too much. The story, aside from it having a complete lack of originality and borrowing heavily from the likes of Jurassic Park and Aliens, is a structurally thin bore that doesn't make sense or have any charm, fun, wonder, thrills or heart. In my mind, the attempt to mix a Grimms fairytale-like atmosphere with a quasi-modern twist also didn't gel. The characters are annoying and never developed, they're just there for the sake of it. The acting is poor, Jamie Atkins badly under-performs to the point that his performance is lost amidst everything else. Ben Cross and Jane March(who actually gives the movie's best performance) fare better but are severely under-used so while they try hard their characters just don't register and they don't bring much particularly new to them either. To conclude, not The Asylum's worst but has nothing to recommend it apart from perhaps Jane March's beauty. 1/10 Bethany Cox
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2/10
Awful
zdzi1 June 2013
I knew it wasn't the Hollywood version. I saw it on Netflix and my daughter is in a 'giant' phase so thought to give it a try.

Dialogue is awful. Acting is awful. Army in charge guy is awful. Jack is awful. Costumes, props out of place. Cgi is awful. Decisions are illogical. Awful nonsense.

Basically, wannabe untalented actors starring in a film with no budget and a very poor script. Sure, why not and I hope they had fun but the end film is crap.

I've said all I needed to above and these extra lines are for padding to meet IMDBs review length requirement.
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1/10
Jack the Giant Rip off
Andrewatkins19812 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Holy Christ. Why? Why make this film. I don't mean why bother making such a bad idea, why bother ripping off a recent big movie? I mean why bother wasting my time with a dull pointless plot, characters and concept.

Dull as gray. I mean it takes some serious apathy to take the idea of a giant robot building kid climbing a tree to find a queen in a magic flying castle where his *SPOILER* Dad who's been trapped in an alternative time strain maintains the furnace of said flying castle. I mean I think that's what going on but you know what there's so much going on that I don't care about it was like watching that welsh soap opera that's on the that digital channel that you accidentally stop on when flicking through because you can't remember the number for E4 and you want to see if they're showing Big Bang theory during the afternoon but the phone goes so you stop flicking and the TV stops on the Welsh channel.... see I'm so bored of even thinking about this movie.

So there's some kid, some girl who we never discover who she is, though based on the set up she could be his sister, then we meet some parents who it turns out aren't his parents, but by this time I didn't care... and we were only 6 minutes in.

Kids gets magic beans in the post (nice to tell a story people can relate to) he throws them all away but *SPOILER* they all re-appear at the end by the magic of continuity errors.

Beanstalk grows over night into a poor digital effect... *SIGH* kid climbs it for some reason, I forget why, but it's Jack and the Beanstalk so he has to, the reason is irrelevant.

Oh do you like pointless shots of a kid walking across hills? Well this film has 10 minutes of that, but they're boring so I don't recommend them.

They mess about in a flying castle which looks like a stately home on the inside. There's some tart in the bath who's sexy but bad but dull as well.

Everyone else stands around on earth looking up at the beanstalk doing nothing about it apart from telling the massive crowd of 3 to back away.

I must have fallen asleep for an hour or 2 minutes as then for some reason dinosaurs or something attack a church yard in Liverpool, trashing half the city causing dozens of pounds worth of damage. Though the people who show up to see Paul McCartney perform are disappointed that they got the wrong end of the stick when someone told them about an annoying Liverpudlian dinosaur.

The film them ends in a lot of poor green screen close up shots, emphasizing the style and theme of no budget.

The giant robot then arrives, yeah giant robot, in a scene that even the Power Rangers would be embarrassed to show....

The film gets better as it goes along, as each minute we're closer to the end credits.

You know what, Eff you, you go watch it, I did.
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2/10
unintentionally funny
martin-randle29 March 2016
Firstly look at that poster... see that scary monster on the front with those massive teeth? Yeah? Not in the movie!

There are monsters, some the size of dinosaurs and one more like Godzilla in proportions, but they are all the same species, a sort of short tailed 6 eyed bull like reptile. The big one is the same CGI model but scaled up.

The acting / dialogue is stilted and funny. It has a delightful amateur- dramatics quality to it. And the guy playing the general is hamming it up to Monty Python standards. Nothing about this is remotely believable but as another reviewer noted, the floaty castle is quite nice. Though powered by a fire that looked barely strong enough to toast marshmallows on. The CGI - is very bad, very 90s. Probably someone with a copy of some 3D software offered to do it for free. The worst is the whip effects of the beanstalk.

Anyway I highly recommend you don't waste money on this - if you can watch it for free and make a drinking game or something silly out of it then you may have a better evening than I did.
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10/10
Excellent Fantasy Adventure
dianerpessler-4616428 July 2015
Jack the Giant Killer is one of Mark Atkins' finest achievements as a director and offers veteran star Ben Cross one of his best roles in years. This is arguably the most superb performance he has given since Chariots of Fire and will certainly please those who have followed his stunning career. The film is also a special effects extravaganza and benefits greatly from an excellent screenplay by the director himself. Location filming in England and some quite atmospheric cinematography provides a fitting look to the film, almost surrealistic and very powerfully disturbing. An exciting adventure in fantasy that never disappoints at any point in the story.
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6/10
WANT TO TOUCH MY MAGIC BEANS?
nogodnomasters10 May 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This is the Asylum mock buster for "Jack the Giant Slayer" and like "The Three Musketeers" this mockbuster has nothing in common with the plot of the original film, they just hope you get confused and buy their DVD.

This movie takes place in a somewhat anachronistic setting, or maybe New Zealand. Jack (Jamie Atkins) plants magic beans, climbs and meets his long lost father (Harry Dyer). There is a "queen" (Jane March) who lives up there too, as well as creatures who look and act like Gumby had sex with a dinosaur. The production had a Jules Verne quality to it, but unfortunately they couldn't bring that home. The beginning of the feature opens by showing us a scene near the end, one where Jack, using stuff laying around the garage makes himself an Iron Man suit for no apparent reason.

Some of the language and visuals had enough camp value to it to make the film entertaining while other aspects simply fail. Modern helicopters, crank battery powered army field phones, bright yellow rotary phones, and what looked like 60's automobiles.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity. In one scene the queen stands up and faces Newald, the father. She is apparently nude from the look on his face, but we only see her from behind from about the knees down.
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1/10
Not the movie released in theaters
just-woot2 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I watched this recently on Netflix or Amazon Prime, I forget which. It was absolutely one of the worst movies I had ever seen. I was definitely duped into watching it because I thought it was the one out in theaters recently.

The acting is complete garbage, and I am not going to spend even another minute on this piece of tripe. I will not "advertise" this for the owner/director, even with a One-Star rating that I give it. My wife and I could not even watch it to completion, it was THAT bad.

Many people will be confused by this title. Too bad we can't demand a refund of the rental cost.

You have been warned. I cannot express strongly enough what a POS this is.
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1/10
Honestly What Were They Thinking
lxmerrifield19 August 2013
I have to say what in the world where they thinking when they made this movie? i really don't know i mean i have never seen such awful garbage in my entire life, this movie is so pointless i just can't believe it it's like they had a budget of 10 dollars (yes I am exaggerating but I am sure if you've seen this you will agree.)well if you have seen this i feel bad for you and yes i feel bad for me the only reason i watched it was that I thought I was watching Jack The Giant Sayer which was loads better than this one so if you had some kind of misfortune and you ended up watching this then you should know just how awful it is and this wouldn't have made a difference even if i was drunk
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1/10
I want the last hour of my life back.
billypudoff3 June 2013
Like other reviewers, I made the terrible mistake of watching this disaster of a movie.

The only actor that can carry a remotely believable dialogue is Ben Cross (Chariots Of Fire). The rest of the actors look like they are reading off a teleprompter.

The CGI is just as bad, or worse than any made for TV SCI-FI movie, and leaves me wondering how are movies like this profitable?

Please don't make the same painful mistake, watching this movie thinking it was Jack The Giant Slayer.

(Ben Cross is the only reason it deserves a 1/10)
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1/10
If you're trying to watch every movie ever made, save this one for last, and if you're lucky, you'll die first.
skeddles14 February 2014
This is not the movie your are looking for. You meant to look up Jack the Giant Slayer, released the same year. I thought maybe this was just a localization, like Americans wouldn't know the word "Slayer" or something. Nope.

This is the ripoff version, with actors you've never heard of, low budget special effects, cliché characters, an army that's comprised of 10 people, plot holes the size of a giant beanstalk and much much more.

Now I haven't watched the other one yet, but I can guarantee you it is better.

I couldn't even comprehend this movie, it just made no sense. You will ask "What the heck just happened?" at least 15 times during the movie.

It's not even bad in a funny way, just disappointing. Like you feel bad for the actors and artists who put effort into this movie. And I'm pretty sure the movie poster was designed by someone who didn't even watch it.

If you're looking for a fantasy movie, go watch Jack the Giant Slayer. If you're looking for a bad movie to laugh at, go watch the room. If you're trying to watch every movie ever made, save this one for last, and if you're lucky, you'll die first.
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2/10
Everything's bad
Leofwine_draca14 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Everything is bad about JACK THE GIANT KILLER, a rubbishy Asylum cash-in on the Hollywood blockbuster JACK THE GIANT SLAYER. This one has a contemporary setting and a beanstalk but otherwise goes through the usual cliches of characters with magical powers, giant CGI creatures, and general samey predictability. This film was shot in Manchester, of all places, with a bunch of actors who display some of the most wooden acting I can remember seeing in a long time; their performances, if they can be described as such, are frankly an embarrassment. The only high point is in the presence of Jane March as the villain of the hour, ageing but still impossibly gorgeous after all these years.
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1/10
Crap the Movie Killer
Vincent_B4 April 2014
Why did I watch this again? I think it is out of the dark corner of my mind, that same need to see a house fire or why the police have a building surrounded. I honestly wish I knew why I watched this movie. It is not like anyone paid me.

No one in this movie is anything close to resembling an actor. Vicki Glover had little to say, but when she did, it looked as if she was about to vomit. Then she would mumble something you couldn't hear or comprehend. Harry Dyer spouted out his lines, he seemed to question himself, constantly with a look of puzzlement on his face. Maybe he was wondering if there was going to be a paycheck or not. Jamie Atkins obviously slept with the director to land this role. Jamie is still inside the paper bag. Then they tossed in Ben Cross and Jane March. Who? The most "talented" movie extras they could find. Good thing there was no nudity or I would have to remove the one point from the movie I am forced to give them.

I don't rate the CGI in a film. But really they should have gone with a model village and wrestlers in rubber suits and that would have been better. The props look unbelievable and the one scale model of a cannon on a freight car is so tiny that the focal blur gives it away.

This movie was so bad, don't even jokingly give it above 2 stars. There is nothing to redeem this movie or the people who made it. Instead go watch a house fire down the block or stand out in the rain for two hours with a cardboard sign "This Space for Rent". Either one would be better than watching this movie.
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1/10
Complete Waste of Time
mariajonasfahlsing24 April 2014
This movie is yet another piece of cinematic garbage brought to you by none other than The Asylum, whose work is always lackluster, heavily dependent upon lame CGI special effects, and badly acted. Just imagine that the British TV series Primeval had a swingers party with Real Steel, Howl's Moving Castle, Benny Hill, and a WWII farce set in Britain. The plot is very loosely based on Jack and the Beanstalk and largely nonsensical.

The acting is atrocious despite there being two or three recognizable, moderately big-name British actors in the cast. I stopped actively watching the film about 10 minutes in and just listened to it until an action scene came along, then I watched until that scene was over. If you have other things to do, you won't really miss any plot points (ha, what plot?) by not paying full or even half attention to the movie.

Trust me, do not waste your time on this. You will not regret skipping it.
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5/10
Low-budget knockoff of "Jack the Giant Slayer" is original enough to stand on its own
Wuchakk28 December 2018
The Asylum's "Jack the Giant Killer" (2013) isn't a remake of the 1962 film, but rather a mockbuster for which the company is known. These kinds of movies are produced with the intention of exploiting the mass publicity machine of a blockbuster with a similar title or subject, in this case "Jack the Giant Slayer," which was released to theaters around the same time.

While both films feature a main character named Jack and massive beanstalks that lead up to an amazing realm above the clouds, they're otherwise totally different. This one doesn't even have giants, although they're mentioned. The "giants" here are prehistoric-like beasts that look like a cross between ankylosaurus, triceratops and an elephant, albeit the size of brontosaurs. Also, the story takes place in the present rather than some fantasy medieval period.

These Asylum flicks only cost between $1 million and $2 million, so I was surprised how well done some of the CGI is, like the flying castle and Serena's palace. Believe it or not, the "realm above the clouds" is actually superior to the one in the blockbuster "Jack the Giant Slayer" because this film uses actual locations rather than cartoonish CGI; and the locations are magnificent.

Both Jamie Atkins (Jack) and Harry Dyer (Newald) work well as the son/father protagonists. Ben Cross is also on hand. On the female front, Vicki Glover stands out as Lisa, but not enough is done with her. Jane March plays Serena (the evil queen or whatever) and she still looks good at almost 40 during shooting.

The first half of the movie is surprisingly good, but I was let down a bit by the conventional last act where the colossal beasts attack earth with too many reaction shots of the main characters. I would've preferred the script focusing on the people and the interesting dynamics thereof.

Yes, some Asylum movies suck, like "30,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Mega Piranha." But some don't, e.g. "The Land That Time Forgot" (2009), "6 Guns" and "Grimm's Snow White." This one may not make the latter list, but it could have if they spent a little more money to draw out the plot's potential. Nevertheless, it's not bad for fans of Grade B fantasy adventure flicks.

The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes and was shot in England (Lancashire & Merseyside) and Wales, UK.

GRADE: C+/B-
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9/10
This film is not bad IF YOU GET what they are trying to do here...
bahpofficer7 May 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Jack the Giant Killer is set in a fantasy world made up of elements of different times. Critics complain about this but the story itself is solid despite the dramatic license taken. True, there are no "giants" but perhaps this is made this way to show that there were no "real giants". However we do know that the prehistoric creatures did exist now, right?

The mixing of elements of different points of History are what makes the movie a timeless fantasy. One reviewer was correct about the story borrowing from elements of other stories such as "Jurassic Park", and "Aliens" but I have no clue where in the bloody hell he got the comparisons to "Roots" and "Brigadoon"...Really? Come now...I had more of a human-like "Dr. Who" comparison come to mind toward the end with that flying castle and such...

This movie is a race against time and evil. It also has other conflicts- -man vs. nature, man vs. man, man vs. evil, etc...When there are more two of the major types of conflict present, then it makes a movie worth watching.

Now let us get to the performances. First I will say that given the fact that this is a timeless fantasy, it cannot be set in a definite year. Not even the music indicates what time period it should be set in and I feel this is to keep the movie from being boxed into a period of time. When done deliberately it is not a flaw but great writing. The critics who said otherwise didn't get it. This viewer did. It is NOT boring to say the least.

There is comic relief from the military characters--especially the general (Steve McTigue). He's hilarious as the bumbling general!

Then there are Jane March (Serena) and Harry Dyer (Newald Kutchins). Evidently Newald is the only human she's had feelings for since her mother. She wants revenge for being kidnapped by giants (she says) but it's obvious that she wants more than that.

Then there is Jack (Jamie Atkins) and Lisa (Vicki Glover). While it is obvious that there are feelings there--strong ones, more interaction comes from the other characters. In fact it is the others characters that are driving the story aside from the Serena plot.

Even though it is called "Jack the Giant Killer", the support characters seem to drive the story to it's climax. For me this is a first. I would expect more interaction between Jack and others but the entire cast worked well together to bring this project home.

Now I will get to what people seem to be waiting for me to make a comment on. Ben Cross as "Agent Hinton". Very good performance. The man always delivers and Hollywood screwed up by not utilizing him more over the years. This is one actor who does NOT short change his fans--PERIOD. And if it makes the lot of you feel better, he says it's a "bad movie". Then again, I'm not an actor, I'm a viewer. An average viewer is going to find this film sort of campy and fun since it can be watched with the kiddies.

This actor got a huge break with the show "Banshee" last year, and if he doesn't finally get the attention he deserves for his work over the past 40 years, then Hollywood is seriously on an acid trip or something of that nature.

One thing I will say for both Ben Cross and Jane March is that their talents are vastly under-utilized. She is one of the first actresses that I have seen in a long time that will allow a character to breathe through her. HELLO Hollywood: Get her on your bloody radar.

As for the movie itself, you will find no sex, guts or gore so the whole family can watch it, which is probably the real reason why critics raised hell over it. Nobody needs to have that in a film to sell it. That is a myth. Despite this, I noticed that the performances were never complained about. They didn't complain about the use of CGI which was also well done.

All in all it is NOT a waste of money if you want a movie the family can watch. Just do not expect a certain time period for it because it really is not meant to have a certain time period. This way the kids can enjoy it and then the grand kids. This is not the first story I've encountered of this nature, either. Get the DVD, grab some popcorn and enjoy it...Movie theater tickets are priced through the roof in a lot of places anyway!
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10/10
Jack destroys those whom oppose family values
All of asylum movies are perfect works of genius. This, Jack The Giant Killer, no exception. It is brilliant. I'm fortunate enough to watch if free on YouTube (not youporn not porntube-- YouTube!) and the computer I've currently borrowed (I'm broke...dog)...well its old and so there's a little image delay sound often too low to hear so I listen to BS cds in place of movie sound.... when I watch movies and videos online...anyway back to my review... Jack The Giant Killer is awesome. Deep psychology here. Surreal ideas. Great actress acting and actors too. DIALOG, dang hot if you ask moi. YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS! AND THEN WATCH Titanic 2. Its that good. Heavy. Far Out. My kinda deal. and yes i'm sober don't drink booze nor smoke pot nor take speed coke heroin nor psychadelics etc.-- that's why MY REVIEW is objective unlike others that diss this movie. (u should be ashamed)
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9/10
One of the Greatest film master werks I have Ever seen . Oscar BUZZZ .
mikevonbach30 April 2016
Move over Ben Hur ,get out of the way Star Wars , this movie will not can not be stopped .If you have read any Negative critique of this fan based fantastic movie throw them out of your mind. Call the kids call grandma and gather around the flat screen you just bought from wal mart's .cook up two not one bag of popcorn because you're going to want more of everything .Not even the game of thrones can hold a flicker of a candle to this GOD SEND of a movie bravo,bravo,bravo . Cheers to the writer,cheers to the editor,cheers for costume design, Hell even craft service should get a ring for the super bowl champ effort of the film . When I was just a ladd back in Ireland I would spend my days picking seashells by the seashore for Suzy Sutherman ... And dreaming of the day that i would have the good fortune to experience a film like this .. what a joy to watch i have seen it 12 times at this point . But i promise all the gods of ODEN that i will watch it once a week until the day that I I'm called to the big movie house in the sky .
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