Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang

A friend and I were surfing the digital cable the other night and ran into this obscure little film at about 3 a.m. on HBO. Intrigued by the premise, and the title, we decided to watch a bit of it, and were sucked in. Jacob Two-Two is absolute fun--it has cuteness but with enough darkness to keep it from simply being fluff.

The first thing that caught us was the song that accompanied the opening credits (!), a slow, gravelly song about Jacob--the narration in the film is also done by the singer of this song (not sure who, although the music was done by Tim Burns and Jono Grant), which gives it an off-kilter quality from the start. The actors are good and are used wisely, and constitute a surprising list of talent: Miranda Richardson, Maury Chaykin, Gary Busey (appropriately grotesque as the Hooded Fang), and Ice-T as a rapping judge. Oh, and Matt McKinney of Kids in the Hall fame. Many of these characters are real people that Jacob Two-two encounters in the real world, and become (a la Wizard of Oz) warped players in his hallucination/dream of a world where children are tried and convicted of minor crimes and sent to Slime Island, a place where there is no fun or laughter.

It's a bit creepy, a bit hokey, a bit funny, a bit sad--it's a lot of things, really, and is definitely a film that more people should see. And, last but not least, the young actor who plays Jacob, Max Morrow, is a real find--a better and more naturally sweet child actor than any other I've seen (Jonathan Lipnicki and the Lloyd kid from Episode One come to mind). He makes Jacob cute without being treacly, and this is a delicate thing which could have ruined the film for me. Get him in more good movies, please! And check this movie out--whether for adults or children (I'd say not under eight years old, though--it could be too scary), it works.

This is a story about a kid who is sent to a kid prison that is headed by the Hooded Fang (an evil professional wrestler played by Gary Busey). Jacob has to take on the Fang and liberate all the wrongfully locked up kids. Two things make this movie worth watching, Gary Busey and Ice T, both play their parts hilariously. Busey looks completely coked out the entire film and makes some of the funniest faces I've seen caught on film, Ice T plays a singing judge who is tough on crime and seems to send everyone to the kiddie joint. The songs in this movie are really ridiculous, and thus really funny. Definitely worth the watch but it is no Jingle all the way.

I actually did see the previous film version of the classic children's book as a child - in fact, it's one of the few Canadian films I have seen in a theater. I don't remember too much about the previous version, except that it stuck pretty close to the book. When the opportunity came to see this remake, I decided to give it a chance - especially since it was a chance to see it free, and I have been burned too many times from other government-funded Canadian films.

I didn't think this version worked for a number of reasons, mainly the following three:

(1) It's pretty cheap. Now, I will admit that the production values of this movie are superior to the no-budget original movie, but the movie still looks pretty shabby. Even the scenes that take place outdoors in the "real world" look undernourished.

(2) The child actor playing Jacob Two Two was very uncharismatic. I suppose some people will give him slack because he's just a child, but I have seen over the years a number of child actors his age who could easily beat him at the acting game.

(3) The decision to make this as a musical was a bad one. Now, it COULD have worked. But the songs in this movie are HORRIBLE. There is not one song that is memorable or catchy enough that you'll be humming afterwards There is a faint pulse of life with the scenes involving Gary Busey. But even then, he seems to be phoning in a lot of his dialogue. I suspect that he felt defeated by being in this low-budget foreign (to him) production, and decided to quickly get through his scenes without working at making his role REALLY memorable and campy. I suspect that even kids who watch this movie will notice this, and the movie's other problems.

Mordecai Richler is a Canadian legend who write many timeless books with the "Jacob Two Two" books being his best books for children. The first "Jacob" book got transitioned into the big screen in the late 1970s that nobody remembers. Twenty years later, a weirder, more disturbing version comes out with a memorable cast that includes Gary Busey as the Hooded Fang.

Jacob Is the youngest in a big family that is scared of everything and us always ignored. He is so used to repeating himself that it becomes habitual, hence the nickname Jacob Two Two.

One day, he sees a professional wrestler called "The Hooded Fang" on tv and his fears reach new heights. Wanting to show he's more grown up, he convinces his parents to let him buy two tomatoes from the local grocer. Jacob is polite, but the mean owner (Maury Chaykin) jokes around with him claiming the six-year-old is harassing him. Jacob makes a run for it but gets knocked out. The majority of the movie is Jacob having a dream of the people he recently encountered.

Jacob is found guilty (by a judge played by Ice T) for harassment and is sent to Slimers Island where all bad children go. Head of the prison is the Hooded Fang. Jacob must overcome his fears and get off the island once and for all. Full of cruelty and scary people, the movie is not a very nice watch. And Slimers Island looks like somewhere familiar to stoners.

You could say that this is a good story about courage and kindness and whatnot, but this 1999 film is not pleasurable. The grocer is mean for his prank, the Hooded Fang is mean, his sidekicks (Mark McKinney & Miranda Richardson) are mean, and all else is extremely bizarre. It is as if the director hates its characters that Richler made. His hatred rubs off into us.

I was 2+2+2 years old just like Two-Two when I first saw this. As a child that young, I liked what I saw. Fast forward, and I see that this is the opposite of good.

1.5/4

I just had to comment because I caught this late at night the other night on HBO, and I thought it was a pretty clever kids flick. I would have liked it when I was a kid, and it's certainly something I would show to my kids (age appropriate, of course... probably not under 5, and probably not over 10). No, it's not much on plot, and yes, it's totally silly... that's kinda the point. I've seen some of the other comments, and some are quite negative, but honestly, if you took the movie serious enough to react that badly to it, you missed the whole point.