{"id":6773,"date":"2024-10-25T11:02:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=6773"},"modified":"2024-10-25T11:02:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-25T15:02:13","slug":"lightning-jack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/10\/25\/lightning-jack\/","title":{"rendered":"Lightning Jack"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Lightning Jack <\/strong>(1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Savoy\/Comedy-Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sexual content, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Simon Wincer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Hogan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Bruce Rowland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Eggby\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 11, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Hogan, Cuba Gooding Jr., Beverly D\u2019Angelo, Kamala Dawson, Pat Hingle, L.Q. Jones, Richard Riehle, Frank McRae, Roger Daltrey, Max Cullen, Sandy Ward.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $16.8M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0Or you could just call it Crocodile Dundee Goes West. That\u2019s what Lightning Jack<\/strong> felt like to me. Although it has the trappings of a traditional western, it\u2019s really little more than Paul Hogan taking his act on the road again. He\u2019s a likable guy, but it\u2019s not enough to save this limp oater from drowning in a quagmire of mediocrity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Hogan plays the title character, a wannabe outlaw on his own after the rest of his gang (the Younger Gang) is killed in an attempted bank robbery in Junction City. To make matters worse, the papers downplay his role in the gang. Offended by the lack of recognition for his criminal efforts, Jack decides to pull a solo job only to mess it up royally. With guns pointed at him, Jack takes a hostage, a mute young black man named Ben (Gooding, Boyz n the Hood). Like Jack, Ben doesn\u2019t get any respect. The townspeople treat him in a condescending manner due to his disability. He decides he wants to join Jack on his journey to criminal infamy. Obviously, neither one of them are competent criminals. Ben shoots himself in the foot during their first botched robbery.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The guys, who become good friends along the dusty trail, make their way to a saloon where his sort-of girlfriend, showgirl Lana (D\u2019Angelo, National Lampoon\u2019s Vacation), has been waiting a long time for his return. He\u2019s been promising to take her to New York for ten years. He intends to keep that promise after he successfully pulls off one last big job. While there, he takes it on himself to see that Ben loses his virginity and becomes a man. Lana sets him up with Pilar (Dawson, Born in East L.A.) who inquires \u201cIs there any other part of you that doesn\u2019t work properly?\u201d after learning he\u2019s mute. It\u2019s one of the few chuckles to be found in Lightning Jack<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I really hate coming down on Lightning Jack<\/strong> like this because I really do like Hogan and his easy-going personality. Unfortunately, that\u2019s a big part of the problem here. Westerns aren\u2019t supposed to be affable not even when they\u2019re comedies. Do you think Blazing Saddles would have been as popular without its stinging humor? HELL, NO! Lightning Jack may be an outlaw, but he\u2019s no desperado. He\u2019s as harmless as criminals come. He\u2019s not in the crime biz for the thrill of the kill; he just wants the publicity that comes with it. He wants to be somebody, somebody with a huge bounty on his head. It\u2019s possible this could have been mined for laughs, but Hogan\u2019s pleasant demeanor elicits only chuckles and even those are seldom.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Gooding fares a wee bit better as the mute who\u2019s smarter than everybody gives him credit for. In a town filled with illiterates, he\u2019s one of the few who can read or write. As such, telling off some arrogant, patronizing jerk in a note is as pointless a gesture as shaking your fist at the tornado that just blew your trailer into the next state. To his credit, Gooding avoids turning his character into a Stepin Fetchit stereotype. This could easily happen under the guidance of a filmmaker going for cheap laughs. Thankfully, Simon Wincer (Free Willy) isn\u2019t going for anything like that which leads me to ask exactly what he was going for with this weak comedy. D\u2019Angelo is okay as the saloon girl with a heart of gold, but I\u2019m wondering why Hogan\u2019s then-wife Linda Kozlowski didn\u2019t play the role. She co-starred in all his other movies up to that point. What happened here? Did she realize something her hubby didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The best thing about Lightning Jack<\/strong> is the parade of familiar faces that show up throughout. The list includes Pat Hingle (Hang \u2018Em High), L.Q. Jones (The Wild Bunch), Richard Riehle (Fried Green Tomatoes), Frank McRae (48 Hrs.) and The Who\u2019s Roger Daltrey. The rest of it is strictly so-so. What\u2019s really a shame is that it\u2019s completely self-funded through stock Hogan sold to interested investors. Maybe he should have paid a little more attention to the lame script.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Because it has a few half-hearted chuckles, Lightning Jack<\/strong> can\u2019t be dismissed as unfunny. At least that would be something. What we\u2019re dealing with here is a comedy that\u2019s afraid to be anything but nice lest somebody should be offended. It just meanders for 98 minutes and ends without leaving so much as a faint impression on the screen or the audience\u2019s collective memory. It rides off into the sunset before the dust has a chance to settle.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lightning Jack (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Savoy\/Comedy-Western\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (sexual content, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Simon Wincer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Paul Hogan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Bruce Rowland\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: David Eggby\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 11, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Paul Hogan, Cuba Gooding Jr., Beverly D\u2019Angelo, Kamala Dawson, Pat Hingle, L.Q. Jones, Richard Riehle, Frank McRae, Roger Daltrey, Max Cullen, Sandy Ward.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-westerns"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Lightning-Jack-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7169,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6773\/revisions\/7169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}