Painkiller Jane

Nothing really imaginative, creative, or original about this movie, but well made and a very earnest effort to make you think as well as entertain you. Definitely avoided going for cheap scares or titillation. The earnestness of this effort is shown as much by what was not there as much as what was--there were no romantic/sexual scenes at all. Had this movie been the hackwork that 'ambrazos' would have you believe, we would have seen Jane tumble into bed with either Nick the thief or 'Dr. Knight' (maybe both). We didn't and that impressed me some.

While the cast generally did well enough (and it certainly was good to see Roundtree again), I was really impressed by Vaugier. A very impressive presence, without being sexual or showing much skin. As an action heroine, I think she stands comparison with Jennifer Garner, maybe even Angelina Jolie All in all, a movie worth recording and watching (mostly because of Vaugier).

While this is clearly not in the same league as the usual SciFi Saturday night godawful piece o'junk, with much better production values (not Bulgaria? sonofagun!) and decent acting, the story itself was a complete snore. Not an original concept in the whole thing and it just dragged on for two hours without anything really happening. Yeah, she's cute, yeah, she looks nice in leather, but Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Ooops, sorry, dozed off.

I spent two hours waiting for something, anything, to happen. Oooh, goodie, a shootout. Now there's an original concept, and certainly one worth waiting for. And, ooooh, the suspense is killing me. Is she really dead? If this was a pilot, I'm not too curious about the show. If it wasn't a pilot, there's no excuse for the utter lack of story.

This is an OK film as long as you aren't expecting much, definitely leave your brain at the door.

The plot is nothing new, no original thought here. The acting is actually quite good although it's sometimes hard to judge the acting when the dialogue is this bad.

The main problem is that all the "surprises" are obvious, you won't be surprised by anything in this film, the plot twists can be see long before they arrive and they have all been used elsewhere.

The plot is also a bit nonsensical with characters behaviour, the villains in particular, not being believable.

The directing is terrible with annoying visual effects thrown in for no real reason.

All that said this is watchable trash if you are looking to kill a bit of time.

This is a reasonable TV pilot. I would even watch the series if only the SciFi channel would hire a military consultant to sufficiently cultivate the illusion of realism.

Here are my military complaints: (1) The uniforms do not match the depicted branch of service. (2) The mixed-gender assault element in the beginning of the film is unbelievable. (3) The Aliens-style crab-walk-with-a-rifle does not pass even school-children's idea of tactical muster.

The protagonist is believable in other respects, not to mention physically attractive without crossing the 1950's Amazon Action Heroine threshold. The directing seemed inspired, the casting excellent, and the acting well above the level demanded by the mediocre script!

Ich_Yama's SciFi-meter:

(BBB: 1 primary character)

(BEM: None)

(World: Present/near-future)

(Preference: Conspiracy theorists)

QUICK REVIEW:

Okay, maybe a 10 is a bit high, but the rating is unbelievably low! Painkiller Jane delivers an unoriginal movie about someone that gets exposed to a biochemical weapon that lets her have self-healing powers. The military tries to get her so they can cure her, but also wants to get her back under their security. Not too bad a plot, am I correct? Yes, however, it is predictable and the story is unoriginal. But that doesn't mean this is a bad movie! You won't like it if you hate cheesy movies, however, if you like cheesy movies, go grab some popcorn and enjoy this film! It's more of a cheesy popcorn movie, and it is a bit too fast paced a lot through out the movie. If this movie was a bit slower, I'd rate it a 6.6/10. But, because it's really fast paced, I rate it 6.2/10.

Yep. That review sure was short. However, I'm a bit busy right now, so maybe I'll edit the review later.