Mighty Jack

That was my thought-process during the entire movie.

It looked like some sort of spy movie... and there was a plane coming out of the ocean, I think... and a Japanese guy declaring his heart had always been German... oh, and a supergroup named Mighty Jack, led by a Japanese JFK lookalike.

But lordy, I never EVER understand WHAT was going on. The entire "movie", which was coddled from a Japanese TV series, had all the logic of a fever dream.

Even now, I couldn't tell you what I thought was happening, or even who was who, since the good guys and bad guys were indistinguishable.

God, what a bad film.

Well, maybe not, but my oh my, isn't Mighty Jack getting a bad press! The simple fact is, the "movie" (it's nothing of the sort) has been soooo hacked about from its TV origins it's all you can do but sit back and either turn it off or enjoy the ride. See above for the basic outline of "plot" proceedings but, yes, it's pure trash. But here's why I like this video: the Gerry Anderson style models and effects. Along with so many otherwise disposal Jap flicks, this one is festooned with tasty technology and nifty effects that the script (and acting) is frankly not worthy to be seen with. Like Anderson, this film fetishises the Skydiver-alike Mighty Jack with repeated, dare I say lingering shots of it's various functions and ticks. OK, this kind of stuff only suffices for a distraction but if you enjoyed Derek Meddings water/model effects in "UFO" or you're a model nut, this is worth a look. Just a quick one, mind.

I saw this 'movie' as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is actually another in a long line of Sandy Frank cocktails where he pieces together several television episodes and presents them as a movie. He did the same thing with another MST3K riffed movie, "Time of Apes". He did a bit better job in this one than that one as that one left so much out that by the end you really felt like you missed a lot of key plot points. This one seems to be made up of the first few episodes of the television show it was cut from and the last few and the episodes are so distinct that nothing is really brought up that makes it seem like you missed a whole heck of a lot of things that would have helped in understanding the film as a whole. I will say that the first portion of this one is not all that bad and is the highlight while the second portion of the film gets really crazy as it starts with one thing, then turns all spy movie and then finishes with a zany barrage! So, overall, not a really good mash up, but miles ahead of "Time of Apes" and the "Fugitive Alien" movies.

The story starts out with a man being kidnapped by the dastardly organization known as Q. Soon the super secret agent squad, Mighty Jack, is dispatched to rescue this man in their super big ship that can fly and submerge! During this section of the film, we learn that you apparently have to open your eyes to see the amazingly bright lights and go blind and keeping them shut is not an option and we learn that the super awesome ship does a lot of bank turns. The second portion of the film has Mighty Jack discovering Q has the ability to make ice that does not melt! There is a lot of double agents in this section of the film before the awesome climax of watching the Mighty Jack ship fight a big old glacier!

This made for a very funny episode of MST3K as most Sandy Frank movies do. Even if they are overall good films, his editing and dubbing can turn even sort of good films bad and this one just does not seem all that good. A strange show that seems to be part model attack show like Ultraman or that one Toho film featuring the ship that fought the serpent monster combined with a Bond film as the main villain was obviously copying Blofeld as he was even accentuated with a kitty cat. The jokes were funny and the one bump making fun of the whole barrel over the guy with blinding lights was great.

So this 'film' was better than a couple of other Sandy Frank mash up television shows that I have seen, but still not good. The cast is okay, but as with most dubbed films, you cannot really get a true feeling as to what their true ability is. The first portion of the film was the best part as the second portion of the film seemed almost rushed. This may have been the case as the show may have been told they had to end it so they could have ended it the best way the could. Not the first time I have seen this as the video game Xenosaga was to be a six part series of games, but got cut short and the third game seemed very rushed and sped you to a conclusion that seemed rush.

If you are "tempted" to see this because you enjoy bad movies, or you have the MST version DO NOT SUCCUMB TO TEMPTATION. The MST version has nothing going for it, even. It is merely a dull wasted 90 minutes of your life. DO NOT make the same mistake we did, and think it might be funny.

There is little more to say besides this. The plot? Does the plot really matter? A team of spies and agents who fly around in a submarine. That sounds funny, but I reiterate, it is not. They battle a force named Q that has come up with unmeltable ice. Again, not interesting. There is much dialog here, but it is all very difficult to listen too on account of being horribly dubbed.

I've owned a VHS copy of this film for more than 25 years and no matter how wasted I get i can never reach past 10 minutes in any single viewing. This film is utterly incoherent. Even accepting the cultural nuances of 1960's Japanese narrative when experienced with 'Westen' expectation, it evades any grip of comprehension. The tin-pot, Special effects are remarkable in their lack of charm and no acting performance warrants the payment of even a kind word. The IMDb rating of more than 1 out of 10 can only be due to cast and crew voting as even their families could not have summoned such generosity. This extraordinary collection of images and sounds is so unwatchable that it is always my trump-card to the question: "Worst Film Ever Made?"