Benutzerrezensionen

Okay it's not exactly the biggest stretch of casting to have Robin Williams playing a ten year old in the body of an adult. However, Jack is a pretty decent and funny movie. Jack Powell is born and he ages at four times the normal rate. For the first ten years of his life he is tutored at home and sheltered by his parents. Bill Cosby plays his tutor Mr. Woodruff. Diane Lane and Brian Kerwin play his parents who are reluctant to send Jack to public school because they fear the other children's reactions to him. When he does go to school, his teacher, played by Jennifer Lopez, welcomes him with open arms while, predictably the kids are both awed and afraid, and teasing soon follows. Jack gains acceptance when the boys realize that he is a natural for basketball, and he soon is running with a whole group of new friends.

The rest of the movie is basically about Jack and how his body is just naturally slowing down, leading to his withdrawal from school, his eventual return, and the epilogue at his high school graduation.

Jack was a pretty charming film and I liked the way that Robin Williams acted in his scenes with Diane Lane as the 10 year old with a strong bond with his mother, and her feelings of longing when he shows that he is pulling away when he gains friends his own physical age.

Many reviewers have compared this work to Tom Hanks's Big, wherein a young boy wishes he were "big," and the wish is granted. However, this work is the anti-thesis of that work, as an adult portrays a young child, physically, which thrusts Jack into the same venue as Martin Short's "Clifford," which was done some two years prior to this work.

That not withstanding, Clifford was a holy terror, while Jack is a mother's dream. While both works require a total suspension of belief in order to enjoy them, Jack is endearing, sweet, sentimental, and entertaining. There is nothing endearing, sweet, or sentimental about Clifford.

Jack is born with a genetic disorder which causes him to age 4 years for every 10, thereby causing him to appear as a 40 year old man at the age of 10.

Many have bludgeoned Coppola's involvement in such a scheme, citing his prior "masterpiece" works while bemoaning this one. The fans seem to forget that artistic people who do not spread their wings, and plant their feet on strange ground, never grow as individuals and artists.

Some found this work "insulting" due to the premise. It is called unintelligent. But not all films are based on intellect, and not all movie-goers care to have to think in order to enjoy a movie. And there is the added benefit of the heartwarming sentiment carried by this work.

It did well in the box office, nearly doubling its budget, worldwide, and is generally under-rated here at IMDb (if only mildly so), which says that word of mouth (that this film wasn't as bad as the critics said) carried this film further than the negative reviews would have liked.

It rates a 6.2/10 from...

the Fiend :.

I do not think Jack is as bad as it is made out to be, but it is one of my least favourite Francis Ford Coppola films. The film is overlong, has some weak spots in the script and drags a bit at times. However, it does look decent, with the cinematography and sceneries nicely done, the soundtrack is credible enough, Coppola directs admirably and I loved the concept(reminded me a bit of Big). Robin Williams also gives an exuberant turn in the lead, while Diane Lane and Brian Kerwin are subtle and Jennifer Lopez is surprisingly sweet and believable. Overall, Jack is a decent enough film. It is lacking a bit and one of the weaker films of a truly great director, but it is worth seeing for Williams and the concept. 6/10 Bethany Cox

The Good: This movie is an excellent comedy/drama. Robin Williams does a heart warming performance as Jack, a boy who grows 4 times as fast as a regular boy. There were many funny parts, and many sad parts with a good mix of both. The acting is very good; Robin Williams did a great job of playing a 10 year-old boy.

The Bad: There were a few missing ends to this movie. Some things didn't fit together right. One thing was when he went to jail for getting in a fight at the bar. If he's only 10 years old, aren't the police going to figure it out?!

Overall: Overall, this is a touching movie that I encourage everyone to see. It may not be an Oscar nominee, but all in all it is a good show.

*** 1/2 out of *****

I was extremely surprised to find out that Francis Ford Coppola directed this film, not because it's below the standards I expect from him, but because it is really well directed. It's rare that a movie can be so well directed and so bad at the same time. It's hard to pinpoint the exact problem here, until you realize it's all in the writing: moreover, the story. Robin Williams does everything he can for this character, and the story does not reciprocate. The entire cast is a success, in fact. I generally loathe child actors, but these ones are almost believable; Jennifer Lopez nailed a lot of nuanced beats and really surprised me; Bill Cosby was incredibly endearing, despite all of his horrible crimes. The shots and storytelling behind the camera, save for a couple janky inserts, is effective. Yeah, the more I think about it, the clearer this case of bad writing becomes. Not a bad premise, but the execution is hit or miss at best and the ending is woefully dissatisfying. All I needed to know is what he wrote for that essay, but we didn't get it. What a shame.

The idea of a child in an adult body has been explored many times before: "Big," "Vice Versa," "Like Father Like Son," "Freaky Friday," and others. In all of those cases it was a hot swap due to some freak accident. In "Jack," Jack Powell (Robin Williams) has accelerated growth due to a fictitious disease that makes him age four times the rate of a normal human being. So when Jack was ten-years-old he had the body of a 40-year-old man and the mind of a ten-year-old boy. You can imagine the myriad complications that can cause.

If anyone could've pulled off the role of Jack it was Robin Williams. Whatever the list of actors for the character it had to have been a very short list. Robin Williams has that natural effervescence and childlike personality which made him perfect.

I liked the movie. It was funny, innocent, and heartwarming. Jack just wanted to be a normal kid like everybody else, but he was far from normal. His entry into elementary school was a rocky one. Inevitably, he was teased (as kids are wont to do), but he was eventually able to meld right into the boys club by just being himself--a ten-year-old.

It's no spoiler to say that he would eventually have to face the fact he was aging rapidly and just how would he handle that. It would be a tough matter for anyone and everyone who loves him. Robin Williams crushed this role and really made the movie good.

Pregnant Diane Lane goes into labor after only two months, delivering a healthy-seeming baby boy (when she pleads "it's too soon!" to her husband in the delivery room, it's rather an understatement). Doctors have never seen another child like this, yet quickly determine the boy has an internal clock which is ahead of itself by four times the average rate (meaning that when Jack is 10-years old, he'll look like a man of 40). Talk about your movie gimmicks! All that aside, what we really have here is Robin Williams back in grade school, and that provides for some good, if derivative, humor. The performances are all fine and, while the set-up may sound inexcusable, "Jack" isn't a silly movie (at least, not at its core). Williams manages to hold back a bit from his usual barrage of vocal effects and facial expressions, and a few of his scenes are peddled quite softly (as they were in "Awakenings"). There are some scenes that go over-the-top: Jack's gross-talking school-friends are a nuisance, and some viewers may get defensive when Coppola starts tugging at the heartstrings. Otherwise, this is a warm family comedy, one with a bigger heart than it knows what to do with. **1/2 from ****

I had looked forward to JACK when it first came out back in 1996. I remember renting it when it reached video and being severely disappointed. Williams, first of all, is good at channeling a child - we all know that already. The problem lies in the film's schmaltzy, good-natured, sugar-coated outer layer that is sickeningly fake and annoying.

Coppola hasn't really made a good movie I can think of (or, a good movie worth remembering at least) since THE GODFATHER PART III (and not many will even agree with me on that choice! Some might go as far back as APOCALYPSE NOW in '79). It's disappointing to see him resorting to the hack-job he does here - ANYONE could have directed this movie. I never, ever - in a million years - would have suspected it was the product of Francis Ford Coppola.

The movie's ending is "feel-good" - but not in a good way. Instead, when it's over, you feel as if you've just watched a 2-hour soap opera spliced with moments of awkward comedy. The plot would be great for a silly comedy; unfortunately, Coppola turns his movie into some sort of half-cocked drama/epic-wannabe. Simply put, it isn't.

Wtf is wrong with this world ... the ratings are just made by simple brain people who have such a pity existence.

Watching this movie is absolutely stunning. Not because it is a good movie, but because this immature, idiotic, brainless mess was directed by the same person who directed The Godfather! How does that happen? How can a man have such an incredible run in the 70's, making literally some of the greatest movies ever made, and then go on to make Jack? But I digress. Jack is the story about a boy who ages four times faster than a normal human being. He lives in his house with his two loving parents and his tutor, played by Bill Cosby. Why Cosby subjected himself to this schlock I don't know, but that's beside the point. After ten years of seclusion Jack realizes he wants to go to school, so his parents reluctantly enter him in public school. It seems the smarter thing to do would have been to put him in private school, but let's face it, there's nothing smart about this film. But anyways, Jack begins to make friends and meet all kinds of new people, his age and older. What is supposed to be a heartwarming tale of friendship and acceptance really just turns into a silly and jumbled mess with a boring story fueled by a poor script.

You know your film is set for disaster when it starts with a dumb premise. There's only so many places a premise like this can go, but the film doesn't even make the most out of what little it has to work with. Every situation is predictable, and nothing elicits a laugh, at least not from me. I could blame this on Jack being a kids film, but the problem is, Jack is not a kids film. It's rated PG-13 and has all sorts of innuendo and adult situations. Jack gets his friends adult magazines and they sit in their treehouse talking about erections and women. So I feel like the humor here is supposed to be adult, but I didn't enjoy it at all, but I hardly think a child would either. It's just too stupid and ridiculous to the point where instead of anything being funny, it is all just sort of awkward and forced.

By the end of this film it takes a turn towards the serious, but fails just as much here as it did when it was a comedy. This is probably due to the fact that I just had no interest in the characters or their story by this point in the film. Everything that had happened up to this point was just so pathetic and forgettable that it built a wall between me and the films emotion. Maybe under different circumstances in which the first half of the film had been engaging, the last half would have really pulled at me heart strings. But in this case it didn't at all and I could have cared less what happened to Jack and all his friends. Nothing about this film seems real. It all feels like actors delivering a mediocre script, all the while wondering what the hell they are doing on this set for such a bad movie. Then they remember, oh right! I'm getting to work with the genius behind The Godfather and Apocalypse Now. Only now he's lost his mind and is directing horrible dramadies.

Watching a film like this just makes you want to go back and watch the Coppola classics, just to remind yourself that this man is a genius. And that's the thing. With so many incredible films under his belt, Jack can be easily forgotten and we can all pretend like it never happened. Hell, Coppola could direct Smokey and the Bandit sequels for the rest of his life, but he would still go down in history as one of the greatest directors who ever lived. But even if you take Coppola out of the equation, Jack is still an awful movie with no motivation and no heart behind it. Spare yourself the two hours and avoid this film at all costs.

It seems like when "Jack" came out, many critics found it absurd if not insulting. I admit that the idea of someone aging at four times the normal rate is a little outlandish, but I still wish to assert that the movie is worth seeing. True, Robin Williams is more subdued than usual, but some of his antics are pretty funny, as he tries to find his place in a world younger than he looks. I really liked the part about "Zack problem".

Seeing Jennifer Lopez here, it's weird to think that she once starred in watchable movies. Also starring are Diane Lane, Brian Kerwin, Bill Cosby and Fran Drescher. Francis Ford Coppola pulled off another interesting one here.

90s kids films were amazing and yet again Robin Williams knocks it out of the park, not his best work but still loved it as a child. Admittedly I cannot remember mich about the film now but I loved it as a child.

How could Francis Ford Coppolla, a man who has brought a plethora of awesome movies (Godfather trilogy, Apocalypse, Dracula, Rainmaker even) stoop to this? Even when I first saw this movie years ago (before I saw Coppolla's good movies) something was off. Here, Coppolla brings Williams to the role of Jack Powell, a boy who at the age of 10 looks like he's 40 from an age disorder he had at birth. True, Williams isn't a bad choice for the movie, but the big mistake is the direction (and then some) the script takes. This movie might've been even more interesting if they showed Jack perhaps at 5 looking 20 or younger, or in-between. It is too sitcomish to have the character at exactly 10 and 40 since these are ages that are set ups in themselves. In all, Jack is not worth the watch, unless you want to see Bill Cosby blowing farts into a can.

JACK is directed by Francis Ford Coppola and stars Robin Williams in the title role of a boy who ages at four times the natural rate. While somewhat of an oddball choice for Coppola, known especially for the Godfather trilogy, this material is rather characteristic for Williams in this period of his career.

Basically, it's a sentimental dramedy that elicits laughter and tugs at the heartstrings. However, this is clearly one of Williams' lesser films. The situation felt contrived and silly, merely an excuse for Williams to engage in puerile antics. What was more astonishing is that this entire film was played straight by everyone. I did laugh some, particularly at a couple scenes involving the physical comedy of Robin Williams playing a 10-year-old in a 40-year-old man's body, but I didn't laugh as much as I would have liked. The moments where they go for poignancy also fell flat a lot of the time, again mostly because of the contrived situation.

However, the film is generally well-acted. Of course Robin Williams does a fine job, but Diane Lane and Bill Cosby in particular turn in good performances as well. Jennifer Lopez and Fran Drescher also show up, but more as eye candy for horny boys than anything. Looking at recent cases involving teachers sleeping with their students, the implications of the scenes involving Jack and those two characters might come off as irresponsible, the subject matter is handled as tastefully as possible (as opposed to something like THAT'S MY BOY, in which Adam Sandler plays a man-child of sorts). I did find one scene between Fran Drescher and Robin Williams as tender, but nothing more.

Given the circumstances surrounding Jack's life, you might think that the film goes for a tearjerker of an ending, but it doesn't. Still, I do feel like the closing speech, which sums up the message of the movie, was tacked on and unnecessary to a degree. It was a sentiment better expressed in Williams' earlier movies, such as DEAD POETS SOCIETY. Overall, while still funny and touching in mostly equal measure, the direction was flat and the story was about as inspiring as a Lifetime movie. For die-hard Robin Williams fans (or of Francis Ford Coppola) only. Everyone else would do well to skip it.

What happened? Coppola. The man made The Godfather One and Two (we'll just ignore Three), Apocalypse Now, and The Conversation. Now? The Rainmaker? The Outsiders? Jack? Jack? What in God's name could he been thinking? And Robin Williams? He had so much promise! Did you see The World Accoriding to Garp? He's brilliant and subtle and touching. Now there is Jack. It nearly depresses me too much to type. I don't know if I can actually do this. You read the synopsis. How could this bit be turned into something interesting? Don't show him at the innocent and dewey part of his life! Show him in his adolescent rage as a teenager while stuck in an elderly body! Show his adolescent hormone shift when he is a toddler! My God! The possibilities! The waste! The pity and pathos! It makes me want to cry! Instead they serve us saccharine dreck as if they are doing us a favor! The nerve! The gall!

Francis Ford Coppola achieves what many other directors didn't: he tamed Robin Williams! Mr. Coppola has restrained his star into giving a performance, that while exaggerated, at times, in comparison with other Robin Williams' vehicles is an exercise in economy.

This is a film for young children, but since we never saw it in its commercial run, we decided to take a look. It paid off because, as a comedy, Mr. Coppola, showed affection to the subject matter, the boy with a rare disease that seems much older than what his young years indicate. In fact, Jack, is a sort of freak to the school kids when they first meet him. After all, he is only ten, but seems to be about forty! Why, he even shaves. Jack will teach all his class mates a lesson in acceptance and an understanding to take people for what they are, not for the way they look like, which is something that most of us don't' seem to get.

Robin Williams can be a disarming actor, given the direction and a strong hand behind his appearances, as he tends to run amok with his own sense of fun, which can be too much to take, at times. That said, Mr. Williams does an amazing job in bringing Jack to life. This is perhaps one of his best screen appearances lately.

As the parents, Diane Lane and Brian Kerwin are fine. They try to protect their young son from the outside cruelty, but little do they know he will do it on his own, by being himself. Ms. Lane also gives a good performance. Bill Cosby is also seen as the tutor Mr. Woodruff and has some funny moments. Fran Drescher is good on her small role of Dolores. Adam Zolotin is a great Louis, the boy that befriends Jack is a charming little actor that does excellent work opposite Mr. Williams.

Mr. Coppola shows he is a good director, which is clearly demonstrated in this film.

I watched ten minutes of this and felt pretty sick.

There have been documentaries on this subject on television of real children that are actually interesting, sad and happy by turns in the real world. What got into people to make such a thing is beyond me. This is the worst kind of sentimental mawkishness and a thoroughly sick and bad idea irrespective of the intentions. I think if we can have a film about marching penguins, or more seriously the columbine massacres shown at the cinema its about time we were able to face an actual documentary about a child with this condition instead of this horrible, horrible proxy for one.

By the way... The central conceit that children with this syndrome look like Robin Williams is so very far off beam. In actuality they are the same height as normal children with an adult facial appearance and other attributes. (I know from a made for TV documentary that did this whole thing PROPERLY) This film is a total travesty. Only in America! If you are a buyer for a TV company: I am sure you can find the documentary I watched instead if you really try. Show that instead.

'Jack' is a great, heartwarming movie. Robin is so brilliant, I forgot I was watching a full grown adult! Such a talent.

I really love it when the writer(s) get that comedy/drama mix just right.

Whole range of emotions being tugged at here. See for yourselves :)

...but it's not for kids. There IS indeed a handful of sexual innuendo as well as some actual groping. The fact that the groper is Williams' ten-year-old character and that the gropee is his friend's MOTHER makes it border on the disgusting. Thank goodness the scene is over with quickly. The rest of the movie is delightful, albeit sappy. I like good sap. All of the characters are likeable - a huge plus in my book.

this Movie wasn't funny! It was Horrible! It was Tragic! It was Dark! one of it's main themes was mortality! There were a few laughs, but not enough to cover the fact that this kid is aging at warp speed and will die 4 times sooner then everyone else. This movie got ratings like "A barrel full of laughs" or "two thumbs up" I can't think of any movie that was more falsely advertised then this piece of c***. steer clear of this one.