Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Jake Speed Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 23, 2019

One of the kind of funny subtexts of Romancing the Stone was that Kathleen Turner played a romance novelist named Joan Wilder, a mousy woman who has built a successful career out of creating gung ho, completely heroic men with whom her equally adventurous female characters understandably fall in love, while Joan herself finds herself spectacularly incapable of handling similar adventures (not to mention a gung ho, kinda sorta heroic man) when they more or less fall into her lap. The back cover of Jake Speed actually references Romancing the Stone, and it’s not hard to see a through line from that well remembered 1984 opus to what is arguably a much less well remembered effort from a couple of years later. There’s still a kind of quasi-literary “meta” aspect to this film as well, though, one which is perhaps weirdly reminiscent of the main conceit of a film which came out in the year between Romancing the Stone and Jake Speed, 1985’s The Purple Rose of Cairo. In this case there aren’t movie characters jumping out of the screen into “real life”, but instead two supposedly fictional characters from a series of pulpy books from a bygone age who suddenly show up to help a damsel in distress who, much like Joan in Romancing the Stone, is desperately attempting to rescue a kidnapped relative.

If there’s whatever the French version of the Chamber of Commerce is for the so-called City of Lights (i.e., Paris), they might want to consider a little public relations work on the Hollywood filmmaking front, since Jake Speed begins with a kidnapping sequence in that venerable location which kind of eerily presages a similar abduction in Taken. Evidently, pretty young American women are the object of villainous types in Paris, who in turn sell them into quasi-slavery, which is what sets the sometimes wobbly plot mechanics of Jake Speed into motion.

There's no Liam Neeson with a "particular set of skills" chasing after the abductors in this case, and instead the victim's sister (much as in Romancing the Stone), a woman named Margaret (Karen Kopins, who bears a rather remarkable resemblance to a young Stefanie Powers) decides to try to save her sibling Maureen (Becca C. Ashley). At a family get together, she's alternately lambasted and "schooled" by her curmudgeonly grandfather (the great Leon Ames), who tells her what she really needs is someone like Jake Speed, the hero of some pulpy novels from the mid-century. Of course Margaret thinks her grandpa has dementia, but when she receives a mysterious note supposedly from Jake Speed (Wayne Crawford, who also co-wrote and co-produced), all bets are off. (Trivia fans may be momentarily excited to see Monte Markham and Millie Perkins playing Margaret's parents.)

After a brief sojourn to Paris, Margaret and Jake’s buddy and acolyte Desmond Floyd (Dennis Christopher) meet in Africa and ultimately hook up with Jake himself there (Zimbabwe was chosen as a filming site because it offered some significant financial advantages, as documented in some of the supplements included on this release). It’s here where the film gets into more of a Romancing the Stone ambience, with Margaret repeatedly thrust into danger’s gaping maw due to Jake’s attempts to find out what happened to Margaret’s little sister.

The basic story here is fun and engaging, but the film never really exploits what should be its central conceit — is Jake Speed “real” or not? The film attempts to hint that the two guys who say they’re Jake and Desmond are “conmen”, but the fact that that hint comes from one of the villains in the piece immediately undercuts it. There’s also no real explanation offered as to how a character who was popular decades ago in dime store “novels” is apparently a youthful thirty something circa 1986.

Still, the film has a nice bantering aspect between Jake and Desmond, and to a certain extent between Jake and Margaret. The film ultimately wends its way toward an expected showdown with Jake’s longtime nemesis Sid (John Hurt), who is of course behind all the mayhem. It’s all kind of silly, and it may not provide the consistent level of thrills and laughs that Romancing the Stone did, but fans of stories involving mismatched pairs (and/or trios) marauding through a series of videogame-esque “levels” will probably get at least a passing kick out of Jake Speed.

Jake Speed Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Jake Speed is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the restoration:

Jake Speed was restored for this release by Arrow Films. The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono audio.

The original 35mm interpositive was scanned in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director Scanner at EFilm, Burbank. Picture grading and restoration was completed at Pinewood. The grading was completed on a DaVinci Resolve and picture restoration was performed using PFClean software. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches and other instances of film wear were repaired or removed through a combination of digital restoration tools and techniques. Some instances of wear remain, in keeping with the ocndition of the film materials. The audio was remastered from the original magnetic reels.

All materials were provided by Lakeshore Entertainment.

As perhaps alluded to in Arrow's verbiage, this is a somewhat variable looking presentation that is nonetheless largely organic looking with generally decent detail levels. The grain field can appear rather gritty and even splotchy at times, especially in darker sequences, and there are some passing issues with crush in the darkest moments that can deflate fine detail levels. The palette is generally decently suffused, but does show some signs of fading at times, with somewhat brown flesh tones. The bright outdoor material in Zimbabwe pops the best, with a rather nicely vivid palette and generally very good detail levels. There are a number of optical dissolves scattered throughout the picture where the imagery understandably muddies a bit. Again as alluded to above in Arrow's verbiage, there are still signs of age related wear and tear which have survived whatever restoration gauntlet the IP was put through.

Jake Speed Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Jake Speed features an agreeable sounding LPCM 2.0 track. The IMDb lists this as having been released in stereo, but I'm not hearing much if any separation here, and Arrow's verbiage (above) indicates a mono track, though they're not always completely accurate in their listings in that regard. One way or the other, fidelity here is fine, offering good reproduction of dialogue and what amount to a lot of ambient environmental effects once the story moves to Zimbabwe. Elements like explosions and fighting deliver sufficient force, and there are no problems with regard to a clear accounting of dialogue.

Jake Speed Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Paperback Wishes, Cinematic Dreams (1080p; 21:01) is an appealing interview with co-writer, co-producer and director Andrew Lane, who talks about what he and his partner ___ wanted to achieve in the film industry in general and this film in particular.


• The Hard Way Reads Better (1080p; 12:00) is another engaging interview, this time with producer William Fay, who reminisces about the project.

Jake Speed Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I think if Jake Speed had played up the "magical" element of Jake and Desmond appearing out of thin air (and/or a pulpy paperback), the film might have resonated with a more consistent whimsical ambience. There's still some enjoyable interplay here, and the performances are generally quite winning all around. Video encounters a few issues along the way, but audio is fine, and the two interviews included as supplements are very enjoyable, for those considering a purchase.