Jack Brown Genius

A thousand years ago, in England, the crazy monk Elmer (Stuart Devenie) wears a pair of wings and tries to fly from a high tower. He dies, and his soul is doomed to the eternity in hell for committing suicide. In the present days, in New Zeland, Elmer has the last chance to prove that men can fly and save his soul: his spirit enters in the brain of a very intelligent inventor, Jack Brown (Timothy Balme), and forces him to try to fly. Jack uses his last creation, an amplifier in a tape record, to succeed in the journey, but his invention is strongly desired by his former boss and his lover, who want to sell it to a Chinese investor. Jack's girlfriend helps him to accomplish his intent. "Jack Brown Genius" is a crazy and silly, but also funny comedy. It has the rhythm and elements of a cartoon, with the hero, his girlfriend and the villains. The major attractions are the names of now famous Peter Jackson, and Timothy Balme, from "Braindead". This film is a good unpretentious entertainment and has some potential of cult movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Um Gênio Chamado Jack Brown" ("A Genius Called Jack Brown")

This movie reunites Peter Jackson (not as director, but as co scriptwriter, and also credited as 2nd unit director) with Lionel from `Braindead' (Timothy Balme in the title role here), and has Jackson's special effects company Weta providing the effects here. Can't be bad, huh?

Well, not so fast..

One critic actually suggested that this might be the worst New Zealand movie ever made. In doing so, he exposed his lack of familiarity with many early '80s NZ movies, in the era when if a NZ movie was too good, it risked making a profit, thus destroying the tax losses its investors hoped to gain. But this is not a movie for film critics. In fact, critical faculties of any kind are best checked at the door when approaching it.

The story involves the spirit of a 10th century monk named Elmer who died in a failed attempt to fly, and who now stands to be damned eternally for suicide unless he can prove within 1000 years that unpowered manned flight is possible (his is a God who believes in results rather than intentions). He inhabits the `brain-pan' of the title character, who has invented a `power amplifier' that amplifies any force input to it. They realise that this might allow a man to fly.

But can Jack accomplish this and save Elmer's soul before his invention is taken from him by his employer who sees only the financial gain of a quick sale of the device, or by the campy villainess, who also quite likes finance?

It is certainly possible to enjoy this movie. But you do have to be in the right mood, and to work with it, rather than sitting back and waiting for it to entertain you.

I'm not sure of the nature of Peter Jackson's involvement with this movie. I don't know whether Jackson and partner Frances Walsh essentially wrote it intending Jackson to direct it, but passed it on to friend Tony Hiles to direct when Jackson became too involved in other projects. Or whether Jackson just lent his friend a helping hand on a film that was always largely Hiles's own. The film does have something of the humour and amateur enthusiasm of the early Peter Jackson movies (but -one scene excepted - without the gore). It would have been interesting to see what Jackson might have made of it if he had directed.

Many of the films that Peter Jackson produced up until the start of his second phase turned out to be quite good. With Heavenly Creatures, he made a promising fresh start, and it seemed very likely that his next films would be new masterpieces. Even so, that wouldn't prevent him from stumbling at least once in his career, and that may have happened with this film. Jack Brown Genius is the only Peter Jackson film that has been largely forgotten and hasn't experienced a resurgence like Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles. Aside from the documentaries Peter Jackson made years later, Jack Brown Genius is the only cinematic work that they apparently chose to set aside. It's strange, considering that Peter Jackson's earlier films are well-regarded by fans. There are two things that set this film apart from the director's other works. First, Peter Jackson only produced the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Fran Walsh and Tony Hiles. The latter was in charge of directing, and it's clear that he's a complete unknown. Tony Hiles only made short films, but he worked with Jackson on Bad Taste. He was part of the technical crew, played one of the aliens, and filmed the movie's behind-the-scenes footage. It's clear they were friends even back then; Peter Jackson thot it would be a good idea to have Tony direct this film to launch him to fame. A pretty good gesture, but one that would ultimately prove to be a mistake. Jack Brown Genius was the only feature film Tony Hiles ever directed, and he never made another movie after it. It's not surprising, given the direction and screenplay, which lead to the second point that sets this film apart from Jackson's other works. What can be seen is that the film revisits the idea of comedy that was part of Jackson's early period, but without relying much on dark humor. With Heavenly Creatures, Jackson decided to tone down his humor, and the same is true of Jack Brown Genius. This film is a somewhat lighter comedy that leans more toward commercial comedy. It's even a comedy that's more geared toward a slightly more family-oriented audience. Peter Jackson's humorous style is present in the film, but this time it feels like something akin to Monty Python's humor. The flight scenes seem to have drawn heavily from the movie Brazil (1985). Speaking of the film's plot, the truth is it doesn't seem like something Peter Jackson could have come up with, even tho in his early days he was capable of inventing any kind of bizarre stuff. But the story of this movie is quite original and has potential. Although the movie is quite funny and makes you laugh at several points, it makes the mistake of overusing absurdity and turning several situations into utter silliness. Jackson's previous films also had absurd moments, but they were used with grace. Here, Tony's direction made the absurdity feel a bit out of place. It features two quite interesting characters played by two members of the Braindead cast. Tim Balme had made his debut in Braindead and instantly gained popularity thanks to that film. Here he brings the character Jack Brown to life and proves to be a good actor in both comedic and serious moments. It's a shame that in this movie he wasn't directed as well as he was in Braindead. Once again, he's joined by Stuart Devenie, who is fondly remembered for bringing Father McGruder to life in Braindead. The characters Jack and Elmer have potential that the film didn't fully tap into. Elmer is a deceased monk who wants to use Jack to prove that man can fly and thus ascend to heaven. Although the idea itself is ridiculous, the film uses Jack to its advantage, since he is a talented inventor. Jack uses his ingenuity to fulfilll Elmer's whims and get rid of him. Moreover, Jack discovers that it's no coincidence Elmer chose him, as it turns out everything is part of something Jack was destined for. The plot has all the pieces to make a fairly functional absurdist comedy. Jack and Elmer could have started a relationship that would have evolved into a friendship. That way, they both would have agreed, and Elmer would have become a guide for Jack to create a revolutionary invention for flight. The bad thing is that the movie doesn't develop the relationship between these characters, and the story ends up feeling forced. The only logical thing the script does is that Jack's acquaintances don't believe him when he talks about Elmer, but it's odd that his best friend Dennis doesn't even bother to support him. Eileen develops a romance with Jack that's too rushed because she's not supposed to like him at first. The idea is that she starts to feel sorry for him, and although they have pleasant moments together, it doesn't make much sense that they suddenly fell in love. The scene where Jack tells Eileen he's adopted is too vague and contrived a trigger. The main antagonists are decent. It was a good move to introduce Boss as Jack's patron, only to later reveal that he and Sylvia want to seize Jack's invention. While Boss is only looking to do business with a Chinese corporation, Sylvia has another plan that proves she's the true villain of the story. Of course, these characters could have been used to better effect. Because the film prioritizes absurd situations over plot, there end up being plot holes. Things happen out of nowhere that don't make much sense, like the encounter with the monks. One error that can't be overlooked is when, in one scene, Eileen spits out the device's key and it lands on Sylvia; then, when it falls, Sylvia goes to look for it elsewhere, even tho the key is in plain sight. But Sylvia steps on the key as if she hadn't seen it. It's pretty dumb that this lethal woman didn't notice she had the key right in plain sight. Situations like these make the movie lose its sense, and the truth is it could have been another great film with all the good elements it has. One of the best things about the movie is Richard Taylor's special effects. The effects aren't very impressive, but they look good and feature some very interesting sequences. The soundtrack is also good, and interestingly, this was the third and final time Michelle Scullion collaborated on a Peter Jackson project. The last thing that can be said about Jack Brown Genius is that it's not a film on par with Jackson's other productions and is the least memorable of this filmmaker's work. But because of how ridiculous and funny it is, it's at least a pretty entertaining comedy, and it could have been so much more if Peter Jackson had directed it. My final rating for this movie is 7/10.