[The News Bot]

Reviewed by Gerard Magnier, 5th October 2009
‘Jack Said’, released in 2009, is a prequel to 2008’s ‘Jack Says’ and is directed by relative newcomer, Lee Basannavar (‘Briefing’). The story is an adaptation from Paul Tanter’s series of popular and highly stylised graphic novels. The movie charts the story of an undercover cop, who is slowly drawn deeper into London’s criminal underworld. Sound familiar? Borrowing heavily from other highly successful releases, such as ‘Sin City’ and ‘The Departed’, this release is not even in the same league as the aforementioned blockbusters. The acting is woeful; even the inclusion of the usually enjoyable Danny Dyer cannot bring the thespian attributes of the rest of the hammy cast up to scratch. I have to admire director Lee Basannavar’s attempt to inject some style and verve into the production. Unfortunately, this is simply not enough to make this movie work, with the entire piece feeling like an extended version of ‘The Bill’, rather than a gritty, film noir production.

The video is somewhat of a mixed bag. At times it can appear close to some of the best BD releases in terms of quality but the decision to employ various filtering and other techniques can result in a somewhat soft and washed out palette. The audio presentation is dominated by the pleasing score, which adds to the entire feel of the piece. There is not a whole lot of ambient surround activity but the vocals are always clear. The extras package is somewhat lacking, with a making-of feature standing as the only worthwhile additional supplement. So we’ve got, in my opinion, a very weak and amateurish production, in conjunction with an above average video/audio presentation and a sparse extras package. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone but I’m sure that it has got its own comic-book based fan base, who will undoubtedly snap up this BD release.

“Talk is Cheap”


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