Jake Speed

This week we lost the terrific actor John Hurt. This amazing performer had an incredible body of work, The Elephant Man, Alien, Midnight Express, and 1984, just to name a few. There were some great performances from him that didn't get the attention they deserved as well. Over the next few blogs, I thought I would take a look back at some of those. Today I wrap it up with the 1986 action comedy Jake Speed.

When a young woman's, Karen Kopins, sister is kidnapped by an evil white slave trader, Hurt, she sets out to rescue her. Her grandfather suggests that she should enlist the help of Jake Speed, Wayne Crawford. One problem, Speed is actually the hero from a set of pulp novels from the 40's. It turns out however that he is real, and he and his sidekick, Dennis Christopher, are more than happy to help Kopins so they can pen a new novel based off this adventure.

Even though this is basically a Romancing The Stone knockoff, it is still quite entertaining. Crawford, who also cowrote the script, and Kopins make for likable leads, but it's the supporting cast that really shine. Hurt seems to be having a blast in a scenery chewing, over the top performance. He is so good that it makes me wonder why wasn't he ever cast as a James Bond heavy? Christopher is great as always as the real brains behind Speed's operation.

It's a shame that this wasn't a bigger hit. It would have been fun to see this develop into a franchise.

Sadly the film is now out of print.