Jack Adleth (Simon Philips) is an undercover cop trying to work his way into the organisation of mysterious mobster The Guv'Nor. When Nathan (Danny Dyer), his link to the mob. has to hurriedly disappear after a double-cross goes wrong, Jack finds himself in the unfortunate position of being caught in the middle. On the one hand there's Nathan's pretty sister Erin (Rita Ramani), on the other there's The Guv'Nor's psychotic daughter Natalie (Ashlie Walker) and looming over both is the fact of him being a copper with a job to do, surrounded by violent people who really don't like The Bill.
There's two small points I'd like to bring up prior to actually talking about this film.
1. Before getting to the film I had to sit through not one, not two, but three trailers for films about soccer hooligans. This seemed a little excessive.
2. Danny Dyer is the main feature of the DVD cover by large margin but while he's the biggest star and Nathan is a pivotal character he's not in the film that much. I wouldn't blame Simon Phillips and Ashlie Walker for being a bit peeved. Poor Rita Ramani doesn't even show up in the background.
So, the film....
It's not that great.
"Jack Said" doesn't have a lot going for it. The hero is difficult to root for and for all the laboured dialogue about Jack going into the darkness and not being able to find his way back, he doesn't come across as especially tortured.More like a grumpy drunk complaining.
Meanwhile the story is trying to be clever but isn't. At one point it seems to hinge quite heavily on somebody not finding something in his jacket pocket for at least two days. Then there's the McGuffin everybody seems to be after but which is never explained.
Telling the story in flashback isn't a crime, but flashing forward to the present didn't work as well as everybody thought it would - that just breaks up the flow.
I also thought it mildly amusing that a critical shootout comes down to heavily armed villains pinning the heroes down behind a stack of pallets. If one of the shooters had thought to stroll four feet to one side, the whole damn film would have been over.
The biggest problem is that "Jack Said" is just dull. Watching this film was hard work and not in a good way. The occasional outbreak of violence doesn't make up for the lumbering pace and the weak dialogue that isn't as clever as it wants to be.
On the plus side, if you like watching Danny Dyer doing his patented Cocker-nee Geeza routine he is as watchable as ever and the main cast acquit themselves well. (Some of the others...not so much.)
And that's about it. I honestly have nothing else.
How much did I pay for this DVD: 50p
Was it worth it? No. Not even close.
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