Irish Jam

I cringed a little when I picked up the DVD of Irish Jam, it had all the hallmarks of a 'lets send Eddie Griffin to a wee old Irish village and have the leprechauns steal his lucky charms' type movie. However I was sort of pleasantly surprised after viewing it. Irish Jam is a nice story. Basically, a small Irish village is in trouble of being bought out by an aristocratic Englishman, Lord Hailstock (Kevin McNally), who wants to turn it into a theme park called Leprechaunland. The only place in the village not owned by him, and therefore the final piece in his puzzle, is the local pub. The owners of the pub can't afford to keep it and to avoid having to sell it to him decide to hold a worldwide poetry contest which will raise the necessary funds to keep the pub, and present it as a prize to the winner, keeping it out of Hailstock's hands. Meanwhile in America, Jimmy McDevitt (Griffin), a down and out amateur conman, comes across an ad for the poetry contest in a newspaper. What follows is a nice story of friendship amongst clashing cultures in which Griffin is both funny and sweet.

The fact that this movie is filmed in England and not Ireland doesn't really make much difference, as the Cornwall setting could just as easily be mistaken for rural Ireland. My main, and big, gripe with this movie is its casting. More or less ALL of the Irish villagers are played by English people. Not so bad if they could all do good Irish accents, but they can't. Some sound like they have been practicing with re-runs of Ballykissangel, others like they have been forced to watch the Commitments over and over. It ends up like a mismatch of Dublin, Belfast and Kerry accents and wannabe Irish accents. How hard would it have been just to get ACTUAL Irish actors? To put it in perspective, its like having a movie set in a tiny Essex village where the 'locals' have Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Glasgow accents. Or having a movie set on a ranch in Texas where the 'locals' sound like they're from the Bronx, Chicago or even Toronto. Maybe viewers who don't know any better won't notice. But any Irish viewers, or probably anybody who's ever been to Ireland will cop on immediately.

All this aside, Irish Jam will more than anything probably leave you with a good feeling in your heart and a song in your head. Albeit song you might want to jig and breakdance to all at once.

You've seen it before and if you have, I certainly have seen too much of it. What will they think up next, I wonder, considering they haven't thought up anything since they were born?

Let me summarize it: lovely ethnic community in trouble; evil (or rather obnoxious) guy trying to steal their livelihoods; differently ethnic street punk, accidentally finding himself in the posture of the hero; normal cliché loud smart-mouth, always saying something sounding funny, but which isn't; lovely ethnic girl who is at first repulsed and then attracted by our hero; hero seeming to fail miserably, then succeeding, mostly due to luck.

And no, I did not spoil anything, since you've seen it all before. That was my point!

Having re-watched this 2021... WOW!

It was funny, and the ending by the boat almost made me cry.

This kind of love story... you won't find it on "Netflix original" movies.

It was kind of predictable, but the journey to that prediction... it wasn't boring.

The sole purpose of the movie was comedy with a tinge of romance and it delivered that. It didn't add any unnecessary ingredients just for the sake of it.

To think that a movie from 2006 outshines 99% of movies made the last decade... it's sad. What's even more sad is that this is the kind of movie from back then where they weren't even taking themselves serious...

I think that Irish Jam is by far the funniest, romantic, and heart-touching movie that I've watched. I might be only seventeen years of age, but i have seen a whole lot of movies, and so far this is the only one that I could watch ten times straight. Jimmy was hilarious with all his wangsta ways, and Maureen is a beautiful lady. The part that got me was the ending, Kathleen and Maureen just took my heart to tears with their acts. By the way where can I get the Irish music that Maureen sang in the show? Who's the original artist? I would really like to get her music! So please send me the name of the Irish music singer.

This is a cute movie...it's not meant to be an Oscar-winning masterpiece, it is what it is...and it's cute.

The village may be depicted as a bit of an "European Cliché," but it makes the movie all the more charming.

If Irish people really are insulted by it...I honestly don't know why. Why would anyone be insulted as being portrayed as a hard-working, religious, honest people?

I am from the mountains of North Carolina, and often my people are portrayed as "hillbillies." Does that offend me? NO, because some of them are...and even if I don't consider myself a "hillbilly," I am PROUD of where I come from...and proud of my ancestry - ALL of it...the "hillbillies," the "rednecks," and the "educated, Southern don't-want-to-be-associated-with-North Carolina's-past" people...all of them...so, why aren't the Irish proud of this...even if it relies somewhat on cliché'??