Jake Speed

Jake Speed is fun - a deliberately mindless adventure that keeps tongue firmly in cheek.

It has a lively start and finish, but the middle could use less talk and more action--which is not to say it couldn't do with a much lower body count as well. Indeed, were it not for a big dollop of gratuitous violence, it would be more diverting and better crafted than most of the stuff filling up the screen in anticipation of the rest of the summer blockbusters.

By the time John Hurt shows up, in the role of the villain, the fun's over. Crawford tries for sardonic and falls short, into lazy. Lane's pace is way off; his adventure seems to take forever to get under way, and the jokes aren't enough. Good pulp is better than this. [04 June 1986, p.D1]

Although the film fails at a number of levels, most acutely in never making us care much about any of the characters or their problems, it possesses a loopy charm that makes it a pleasure to watch.

Crawford plays Speed with his foot in his mouth rather than tongue-in-cheek, and instead of glorying in the experiences of the pulp novel dialogue, dissipates all the comic potential by his evident bewilderment.

Most of the possibilities for humor or tension, either sexual or dramatic, are badly botched by the flat performances of the other lead actors and the consistent bad timing of the director - everything misfires or misconnects, leaving too many long, dead moments that prove that even an adventure film with lots of running and shooting can be boring.

Jake Speed isn't a movie. It's just a financial deal.