Jackhammer

Jack Magnus (Aaron Gaffey) is a successful businessman who periodically does drugs with his best friend Mike (Kyle Yaskin). When Mike takes some bad stuff, Jack panics and leaves him to die. His guilt eventually causes him to become a full fledged, utterly pathetic junkie. After being force fed a particularly nasty brew by a vindictive supplier, Jack seems to only grow stronger, surviving the ordeal and living on to become a crazed jackhammer killer. He's now utterly paranoid, believing that everybody is out to get him, with his paranoia manifested in visions of his dead friend.

This viewer won't deny that this mostly routine little movie is crap, but it's crap of a very amusing variety. Co-writer / director / special makeup effects creator Joe Castro knows he's making just about the furthest thing from high art, and is clearly having a ball creating sordid characters and grisly scenarios. Some horror fans may feel that the movie isn't quite gory *enough*, but it does deliver a respectable dose of tacky in-your-face splatter. The story works best when it comes to the visions of Mike, getting positively trippy and insane.

The acting may not be much good, but it serves its purpose in a tale of this variety. The exception is Gaffey as Jack. This guy really is pretty good. Once he's descended into 100% junkie mode, he's always completely dishevelled and constantly drooling. He looks like an absolute wreck, and his insanity is damn entertaining. It also doesn't hurt any that the ladies in the cast, such as Nadia Angelini as Sam and Trudy Kofahl as Tori, are easy on the eyes.

Fun stuff for very undemanding viewers.

Six out of 10.

When the credits of a movie contain listings like "naked junkie girl" you know this is going to be about as far removed from art as you can get. Okay, maybe I am being a little too hard on this movie. On second thought . . . no I'm not. This starts out as a straightforward drama about a yuppie who tosses his career into the dumper because of his addiction to drugs. Actually this all happens rather fast and I was hoping for a little more character development but heck, the director was in a hurry to get to the gore and that's what the people who went to see this movie were waiting for.

So then . . . Jack, our anti-hero, has a job as night watchman for a warehouse and he is usually too stoned to even do that. His supplier is after him for money, his boss fires him, his only pal dies in his arms of an overdose; what's left of his world is crashing down and what's a drug addled loser to do? He goes nuts of course and grabs the nearest power tool he can get . . . in this case a jackhammer.

Now then here's the stuff you were waiting for. Anyone who ventures into that warehouse for the rest of the movie is fodder for Jack's hammer. There is ample gore but you have to wonder when one of the potential victims is going to figure out the obvious; just run far enough that Jack runs out of extension cord! Does that ever happen? Maybe I should tell you and save you from having to suffer through this movie like I did. Hmmmmmm . . . no! Ain't I mean?

The acting is okay, the effects are pretty good, the plot is cabbage. This is the sort of things that would have played in grindhouses back in the heyday of 42nd St and the Combat Zone. Now you can rent it on DVD and turn your own living room into a grindhouse. Hey, it's much safer that way.

the movie is kinda weird with crappy acting and the basically the fist half hour is jack and some junkies shootin up or smoking. Then it gets interesting. Jack is a paranoid junkie who kills on drugs hes almost powered by drugs. He also uses his jack hammer to kill his victims. Some of his victims r friends and family. jack is basically trippin the whole movie, making up some crazy paranoid story and killing anyone in his way.

The Gore effects are pretty good ,some of the killings look great. Some other things to notice in the movie that catch out r, a scene where jack cleans out his shoot- up arm with poor equipment, a lesbo couple, Jacks dead Friend that talks to him and only Jack can see.

so if u like to see a movie about a tripped out homicidal confused junkie who kills people with a jackhammer, then its worth seeing.Overall i thought it was pretty good and original story. RATING: 6/10

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the theatre, there's Jack Hammer.

A movie about a Jack, whose drug addiction leads to homelessness, weakness, and murder.

He lives as a security guard in a abandoned machine shop after losing his cushy day job to drugs, when his best friend OD's and dies on the street in a bad part of town.

He had it all, nice car, a yellow Viper, I wouldn't have gone with yellow, but okay - the great job, but he lacked self esteem, his ego being a little too big for his britches syndrome if you will. He had no real direction. So far it seems a pretty realistic approach, but soon the movie flails like a fish out of water - to become a cliché, and unredeemable display of stupidity so profound, I am ashamed for the actor who had to play Jack.

I'm just gonna get real nitpicky here a second and say - JackHammer was one of the worse movies I have ever seen in my entire life.

The Jackhammer Massacre (aka Jackhammer) follows the exploits of Jack the Junkie. Always high and looking to score Jack takes a leap off the deep end when a friend OD's. The first thirty minutes are basically him conning to get a score, boring. Back and forth he sways with the ethereal wind until one of his suppliers comes calling g for his cash. Oddly enough even as a full-time junkie Jack can find a job as a security guard at a warehouse with construction weapons, err tools. It seems Jack's paranoia really kicks in with a little help from his OD'd friend's ghost. Well hey this is where that jackhammer of the title rears its head and Jack goes to town thinking everyone's DEA.

The first 30 are slow and boring, who wants to see someone continuously shooting up. I don't at least. An interesting arm infection is a highlight of the first reel, not even bare chests and breasts can help that. But when the slaughter begins you can at least start cracking the power cord jokes (a la MST3K) and giggle and snicker at the bad dialogue and horrible delivery.