Irish Jam

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'??

Excellent movie, AWESOME music.............as long as you can stand 1 obnoxious character then you will love this movie. I may be biased as I am Celtic and thus am partial to anything Irish/Scottish. The setting, characters and music really show the Irish traditions and make you fall in love with the country and music all over again. This movie has humor, romance, loyalty, depicts the "fighting Irish", has an old world feel alongside with today's American life...........it really has a bit of everything and really has some pretty quirky twists. Goes to show, you can't judge a movie by it's cover......it's almost like watching two movies in one or having two worlds collide. Watch this movie with an open mind and enjoy!!!!

Saw this lurking in a corner of the DVD store and borrowed it on a whim. It was much better than I expected. Eddie Griffin was funny as usual, the beautiful Ann Fridel was great.

Quick outline - village pub in Ireland is about to be sold to greedy land developer. To prevent this, the villagers decide to have an international poetry contest and give the pub to the winner. Ghetto hustler Jimmy Tha Jam(Eddie Griffin), on the run from various creditors and ex girlfriends, somehow wins the contest. Much culture-clash humour then ensues, but Jimmy eventually gets the villagers on his side. Much better than I'm making it sound here. Not too many clichés around, which is nice.

Not to take anything away from Ediie, but I think if Will Smith had done this movie, it would have been huge!

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.

How can anyone in their right minds think this kind of crap is either funny or entertaining? If it was made about any other country except "cute Ireland" there would be a lawsuit to end all lawsuits. Does anyone really think people in Ireland are this thick and uncouth? Why a fine actress like Anna Friel got involved is beyond me. Yes, I'm Irish and I notice other posts from Irish people, who feel the same way. There's a reason for that. We would like our country to be portrayed as a forward thinking financially successful European nation, with a buoyant economy, a well educated and industrious work force. We are not fools, living in mud huts who never shower and spend our nights drinking ourselves into stupors, as films like this portray us. Had to get that off my chest!