A NEW TWIST ON AN OLD TALE : "JACK THE GIANT SLAYER"

I really could potentially not have seen this film at all. The fact that it is here at all is a complete and utter fluke. I am a bit of a regular at a certain pub in south London that offers free film screenings of a Monday night. It’s quite a good deal really – combined with 2 for 1 cocktails during happy hour and various other tempting tit-bits, me and my friends have become semi-regulars there. The thing is though – much like this blog – we are rather dependent on the pub-owner’s whim and selection at the time. Not that I’m complaining, I have watched many recent productions here, some of which have made it onto this blog. But this of course means that things are apt to change quite unexpectedly. When my friend and I arrived at the pub that Monday everyone fully expected to watch a rather artsy black and white number, and it was probably going to prove a bit of a challenge to watch. It attracted a crowd that was up to the challenge. Imagine everyone’s surprise when a staff member offhandedly announced that the film had changed – they hadn’t been able to rent the DVD. The contrast between the films could not be greater - there was a mild stampede to the door. My friend and I stayed. We had just ordered food and there had already been quite a bit of gin involved. And although Jack the Giantslayer  is not the challenging artsy number some may have been hoping for, we loved it.

It is, as you may have guessed, basically the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. This is of course waay back in ancient times, when magic was still a part of the human world. There is not one giant but in fact a whole army of invading giants simply waiting to shimmy down the beanstalk and eat us all. There is a beautiful princess to be saved from mortal danger and an evil villain to be outmanoeuvred – for he fully intends to use the army of giants to take over the world (the popularity of that life goal has always amused me. I specifically remember an episode of the Ninja Turtles where our heroes travelled to an alternative universe where Shredder had succeeded in taking over the world. He hated it – he was buried alive in paperwork. And before you start shaking your heads, LOOK IT UP. I imagined a lot of bizarre things as a child, but this was not one of them). But anyway. I digress.

Now, if you look Jack the Giantslayer up, you will find that reviews on it are incredibly lukewarm.   There is a reason for this. The film is up to its eyebrows in INCREDIBLY British humour. And I mean, I see how this happened. The film is playing on a rather overdone storyline : “the real” story behind a fairy tale. It started a good few years ago with a rather lovely adaptation of Cinderalla (I’m thinking of Ever After but also another, older one whose name I can’t remember that took the step sister’s side on the matter, very cleverly). In fact, what with films like The BrothersGrimm, one could argue that Jack arrived a tad bit late. Of course fantasy landscapes and CGI are a must but still – it is a must of the genre. You might as well pack up and go home if you’re not going to come up with terrifying giants. No, when you are literally last in line you have to do something to make yourself stand out. For his sins – and ours – director Bryan Singer has decided to steep the entire film in British humour. And I mean the cast just plays into his hand. There’s Ewan McGregor (a wonderful army officer with the most “pip pip old bean” accent I have heard in a while), Ian McShane as the king (Lovejoy as king! Of all people!) and as Jack we have Nicolas Hoult. Confused? You recognise him from somewhere, right? He’s the little kid from About a Boy. Yes he HAS grown quite a bit =) . I mean, we found it HILARIOUS. But then again. I do see that it may not be the case for the rest of the world. Because apart from the rather spectacular humour, the film doesn’t stand out much at all. In fact the ending… Well it’s downright forced. It actually gives the impression they ran out of film and noticed at the last moment – and were forced to make something up rather quickly. But I mean it’s an adventure. If you like British humour it’s downright hilarious. And it goes down very, very well on a Monday night with a mate and a drop of gin.