Jack the Giant Killer

[Darth Geek]

Thoughts on the movie itself.

I was pretty impressed. They clearly put a lot of effort into this one. Pretty good special effects, and plenty of them. The witch designs, while cheaply executed, were very creative. Some of them even evoked Lovecraftian style.

As for Jack himself, hmmm. At the beginning giant fight, yes he was brave and capable, but lets face it, the guy got lucky. And I still have no idea what he was supposed to be standing on when he was "harvesting chest hairs". The entire middle of the movie the guy didn't do anything! The Leprechaun did it all! But at the end, he totally owned that dragon! Damn, he was badass for that end fight, so I guess it was worth it.

Also, did Sven (while in human form) literally do ANYTHING?! I don't think so. At least the kid got in on the big ship brawl.

[Trekker4747]

Yeah, all things considered it was a "good" movie and a capable kids movie with decent effects, story and such for it's time.   Obviously filled with flaws in both its own time and more so in ours but the movie itself wasn't bad.

I also found it odd that Jack was supposed to be our "hero" and the only thing he really did was manage to kill the first giant through some Rube Goldbergian MacGyverian luck and ingenuity.  The other "battles" he fought he either failed (when the "witches" attacked the ship) or had help from a magical creature telling him what to do (everything with the "leprechaun".)  Then at the end his other ball finally drops and he takes care of the dragon thing.  Why did this movie give him the "giant killer" name when he killed ONE giant?

I will also say the Princess girl was quite lovely.

[Darth Geek]

I will also say the Princess girl was quite lovely.

Very true!

[mlaramore]

The movie itself wasn't absolutely terrible in the vein of Manos, or Plan 9, but I don't know if I would go so far as to call it "good". 

From the point where the Princess sneaks out of the castle on through the rest of the movie, it got pretty silly.  Jack's fight with the Dragon Men would have been hilarious, even without the riffing, it was just that bad.  The Princess/witch can't seem to remember that she was the one who dropped the Leprechaun bottle on the boat, and the movie itself forgets to show us how Jack, Peter and the Viking were captured.  Then the second time Jack escapes from the castle with the no-longer-a-witch Princess, the two make it all the way across the island in the time it takes Pendragon to walk to a window, at which point he sees them about 20 feet away, running across the beach.

I was also impressed by Pendragon's amazing ability to disguise himself by donning a purple and green cape, which gets him an audience with the King as "the Stranger".

[Trekker4747]

Well, like I said the movie had its flaws.  The witch/princess forgetting what happened to the bottle coupled with the movie not showing us how Jack and crew got captured was odd as well.  I wonder if that was a "Rifftrax" edit?  There were more than a few times during MST3K where they pointed out similar flaws or pointed out flaws in the movie that were simply problems of either that certain cut of the movie (the "teleportation" scene in Girl in Gold Boots comes to mind) or a problem of them editing the movie down to fit MST's timeslot. 

The fight with the "dragon men" was beyond hilarious. I cracked up everytime a new one was summoned and the guys would go "Be right there!" and the go into the men greeting one another.  I'm laughing just even thinking about it.   The similarity to Simon's Quest/Castlevania was also great.

I think there were a handful of jokes that were a bit narrow in their appeal. There were some that I "got" and laughed at that many in my audience did not because the joke was so esoteric.

[Darth Geek]

Is the "be right there!" joke a reference to something specific?

[SJP]

Not that I'm aware of, but the leprechaun making a stop in Mobile, AL was one only a handful in our theater got.  (Video is a news broadcast and work safe, but your mileage may vary.)

I did admire the stop motion work.  That kind of animation is damn hard to make even look halfway convincing, and as silly as the monsters looked, that they moved even as they did was actually very impressive.  It may have been a ridiculous production, but it certainly wasn't a cheap one.

As far as the odd cut, I think that was probably intentional on the filmmaker's.  The reveal of Jack and the others captured should've been the other way around to make more sense, but I don't think anything was missing.

I think the one gag I laughed at hardest that nobody else seemed to was on the pirate ship when they shouted out, "Raise the jargon!"  I don't know, it struck me as funny.

[BDiamond]

What the hell? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1351685/

[Bob]

What the hell? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1351685/

No way...... You made that up.

No way!

[Trekker4747]

I don't know, the last we see of Jack he is inconscious in the ship and Haggar and the boy are I dunno, coming aboard or something? When the princess gets away and the next thing we see is Jack tied up inside the dungeon and Haggar and the boy being brought in in chains. Seems like something is missed there as either part of the way it may have been edited by RT or just a flaw in the movie's story telling.

[SwordKing]

When this goes on DVD, I'd like them to include a gallery of all those movie "facts" they were showing on the screen before the main feature. Those were hilarious.

[k1]

They finally started adding them with the HOHH DVD.

[stansimpson]

What the hell? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1351685/

So, I'd like one of the mods to correct me on this if I have any of this wrong, but this is what I recall:  Bryan Singer's "Jack the Giant Killer" was scheduled to come out this year as a big, tent-pole film.  Our heroes at RiffTrax figured they would at least try to be timely with their riffing of the original, but due to production problems, the movie had to be pushed back till 2012.  IIRC, they even wanted to use this for the first live online riffed movie last December but changed it to Santa & the Ice Cream Bunny (which was subsequently abandoned for VOD).  Ok, mods, my memory can't be that accurate, so a little help please?

Not that I'm aware of, but the leprechaun making a stop in Mobile, AL was one only a handful in our theater got.

Really?  That was a huge laugh for ours.  In fact, my friend who was with me yelled (well, maybe said loudly) "Everyone who seen a leprechaun, say 'YEEEAH!'" right afterwards.   

[MrTorso]

Not that I'm aware of, but the leprechaun making a stop in Mobile, AL was one only a handful in our theater got. 

/approves

[Bob]

Several people in my my theater were laughing at that point, but I cannot tell if it was the actual joke or the HORRIBLE annimation of his skipping on the rainbow.