Jake Speed

This film is harmless escapist fun. Something the recent Tomb Raider film lacked. I can't wait to get the DVD. How can people give this a low score and still go and see Titanic without a guilty conscience I do not know. Anything with Karen Kopins in her underwear has got to rate an extra point or two!

"Jake Speed" was NEVER meant to evoke "Indiana Jones" in any way shape or form. This film is both a satire and an homage to the great pulp-fiction adventures of the cheap paperback literature series....ala` "Doc Savage",and the more contemporary exponents such as "The Destroyer" and other similar adventure series. In that light, the movie succeeds admirably,and should not be dismissed by those who came looking for Harrison Ford and did not find him......

Unlike most reviewers I feel Wayne Crawford was amazing. Karen was amazing Christopher filled the partner role awesomely .44's blazing!!! The cast was perfect for the story. But quite possibly the most overlooked role of all time was John Hurt who played a great bad guy in V for vendetta and for how great he was there (in my opinion) plays the greatest bad guy off all time.

The lines were written so perfectly and he delivered them in a way that should have won every best bad guy ever award. Pure evil

This movie never gets the respect it deserves. Why? Because people don't take the movie for what it is. A FUN action flick with ultimate good vs. Evil.

Great one liners. Great vehicles and chases. And the greatest shotgun of any movie ( even the Expendibels shotgun pales)

How many movies 20 years later try to show the horrors of civil war in Africa ( like 3 ?) There is more going on in this story than people see.

I really wish this movie, the cast, the acting, the plight of Africa and the helpless citizens.

Remember my words an amazing hero and the greatest bad guy ever portrayed on screen

Is this a movie worthy of Oscar buzz? No, but it is a fun little film.

Unlike other people's comments, I do not think that this film intended to pretend that it was Indiana Jones; it was meant to entertain in the genre of fictional hero with human frailties, and in that respect Jake Speed succeeds. No one wants to believe he exists, and he has an over-the-top archenemy, played to the hilt by John Hurt. Karen Kopins does fine as the "heroine" who just wants to get her sister back from white slavers and finds herself caught up in the strange world of a hero whose books are based upon his real-life adventures. And Dennis Christopher tries to hold the adventure together while dealing with Jake's ego and Karen's disbelief.

For escapist fun without the need to invest mentally or emotionally, Jake Speed fits the bill.

"Jake Speed" is a fine movie with a wonderful message. It has its flaws of course. At times it's a little slow. It introduces its villain too far into the story. It's action is paced at the rate of a snail's heartbeat. It has a Z-grade cast (Although I've always admired the work of Karen Kopins, who has the straight-laced good looks of Sandra Bullock).

But with all this going against it, "Jake Speed" really is inspiring, thanks to a charming script by Wayne Crawford(who plays the title role) and Andrew Lane.

Why do I find it so inspiring? Because it says to me "Hey, why not try to be a good person."

The story is essentially a "stranger in a strange land" premise, that is good-and-heroic Jake Speed is placed in the real world where bad things happen to good people. Jake is more than a Boy Scout. He's more than a knight in shining armor. Jake Speed is the patron saint of optimism in a dirty, mean and evil world.

It's because of this that "Jake Speed" really needed to be a hit. It has a great message that should have gotten out to Hollywood and then to the rest of the world.

Imagine a movie industry that really pushed itself to portray good and decent people. I'm not saying that we should be watching the Waltons in every theater at the cineplex, but that it would be nice if more movies such as "Jake Speed" would get a chance. ("Due South," a TV show about a Canadian Mountie, is a good comparison of what can be done to brighten up American entertainment.)

Sure, "Jake Speed" has violence, blood and guns, but the overall message is that if you try hard enough to be a good person, you'll beat the forces of evil every time. 10/14/99