Irish Jam
Irish Jam – ‘The Luck of The Irish, just ran out’ (O_o)
I keep spotting this in the crud section of the local video store and wondering if I could get Brian to watch it for a bet.
From the film’s Wikipedia entry:
Irish Jam is a 2006 comedy film starring Eddie Griffin. The plot centered around an African American who wins an Irish public house in a raffle, and has to save the village from the clutches of an evil landlord. Despite the bulk of the film being set in Ireland it was not filmed there, nor were the actors Irish.
The film was poorly received in the UK. In its review of the DVD release Empire called it a “worst possible Eddie Murphy knock-off” and questioned why they still had an evil aristocratic English landlord in 2006, noting it was filmed in Cornwall because “presumably, any attempts to mount stereotypes this broad in actual Ireland would lead to knee-cappings and punishment-beatings”. In spite of this the film has a small popular following, although this is largely ironic.
Pretty depressing eh, but wait the IMDB entry is more intriguing:
Upon discovering that their town is up for sale, crafty Irish villagers scheme to raise the money to prevent the buy-out. They hold a poetry contest with a tempting grand prize — the deed to their local pub. But what could happen when a duplicitous American rapper emerges as the best poet around?
And there’s more.
Jimmy The Jam McDevitt (Griffin) is a Los Angeles conman getting into all sorts of trouble. He is on the run from his ex-fiancé (MoNique) who he stood up at the altar and is dodging his landlord because he cant pay his rent. Jimmy enters a poetry contest sponsored by a town in Ireland with the hopes of escaping his troubles.
The small Irish town is controlled by a greedy mogul and the only thing he does not control is the local pub. The villagers are unable to make the payments to support the pub and decide to offer a poetry contest with a small entry fee to raise the money needed to keep the pub. Jimmy wins by plagiarizing a rap song and submitting it to the locals. As the winner of the contest Jimmy travels to Ireland to become a first time local pub owner. Maureen (Anna Friel), a beauty with the voice of an angel, entertains pub patrons with Irish songs and soon finds herself falling for Jimmy.
I don’t want to watch it, but it haunts the video store, appearing forlorn and lost amongst the latest sex comedies and occasionally being misfiled amongst the two shelves (two fucking shelves!) of Horror/Torture porn. (Why are all horror movies torture stories nowadays?) It would be torturous to watch, but my American friends could watch it and report back here on how bad it was. You guys will watch all sorts of crap, right?
January 14th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Well, I know what just moved up to the top spot on my Netflix queue!
Seriously, though, I say we get Chris Cope to come over to Dublin and we all watch it together. And see which American starts to cry first.
I’m happy to see that the black rapper had an Irish name, though. That makes sense.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:50 am
We could rent it and watch it semi-simultaneously, say five minutes apart. I would watch it with the sound turned off and you could Twitter or text when a particularly egregiously oirish bit was coming up. I fear if I watched more than five minutes with the sound on I might suffer an embolism.
January 14th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
“The luck of the Irish JUST RAN OUT” is a tagline begging for a script to do it justice. I’m talking about an epic tale of loss involving famine, exodus, an army of riot police robots led by the terrible half-mechanical Future Cromwell, a plague of meteors, the works. Let’s see what would happen if the Luck Of The Irish really ran out.
Opening shot: a bankrupt zoo. A tumour-ridden celtic tiger in a plastic leprauchan hat lies helpless on a bed of shit and concrete. A mother and child turn away in disgust. The mother is a deeply traditional red-headed beauty wearing a proper 17th century woman-shawl. Perhaps she has a small cut on her lip hinting at spousal abuse. The daughter is clad in full Irish dancing gear and makeup–like those creepy American pageants (“but sort of traditional so it’s alright.”) The daughter bends down and finds a four-leafed clover. She holds it up to her mother.
“Look, ma!”
The mother smiles–a mouth of broken teeth.
Focus on the clover in the childs hand. Dew glinting. Slow motion now. A jagged bullet rips through it, rushing towards the screen. As the leaves fall away we see the first of Future Cromwell’s terrible robotic Englishmen, gun-arm raised towards us, eyes glowing red behind a coal-black boilerplate face, gouting smoke from the chimney on its back.
GO TO TITLE
January 14th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Donal you always find the best shit.
‘Irish Jam’ for a moment I was terrified you’d found more WitchJelly ™.
That sounds like something you’d have to watch on a broken telly, with the sound down while wearing a gimp mask and smeared in butter. Why?
Hell, I dunno, it might add to the experience.
I vote you rent it while Brian is over and you could do a MST3k on it.
Although I don’t know who you’d get to spot you for the 5.25 ONE NIGHT RENTAL charge. Damn.
January 16th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
“Why are all horror movies torture stories nowadays?” I blame Twilight.
January 16th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Some evil, terrible self-hating part of me actually does want to watch this. When is Brian over? Perhaps I will join in the MST3K-ing of said film.
January 16th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Meanwhile, as the only African American person in the bunch, I am writhing in double the humiliated agony of the rest of you.
Witch jelly would have been preferable. Donal, I’m joining you in the embolism, I think.
January 16th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I’m over the last full week of March, and will be in Dublin around the 27th – 29th. You should come over, since this thing has to happen now.
January 16th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
But what if you both come over and someone else has rented it?
January 16th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Oh God, what have I done.
Tadmack, this is how I feel whenever that ‘There’s no one is as Irish as Barack O’Bama’ song comes on.
January 16th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Teaandcakes: you’re actually worried that someone may rent this thing?
And I’ll be ready to have an Irish sing-a-long to that O’Bama song. ‘Cause that’s what the Irish like to do, right? Get drunk and sing songs together?
I actually did that once, in Galway, but it was to John Denver and Neil Diamond. You people are strange–nothing like the movies and guidebooks. Perhaps “Irish Jam” will present a truer picture of the fair people of Eire.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
THANK YOU, Donal. No, really.
I’d just gotten that bloody song out of my head.
I’m considering taking a ferry ride to Ireland. Just so you’re all well warned.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
…not, as you might guess, with the purpose of visiting you. But to find that video store, and remove said DVD. It’d be a lot more satisfying if it were an actual video, and then I could claw the tape out and festoon the trees with it in vicious black snippets, but alas, I’ll have to settle for just breaking it. And then moving on. To the next video store…
January 21st, 2009 at 11:54 pm
[...] ok, last post on this I promise. It amused me greatly that the only clips of Irish Jam to be found on YouTube were in Czech. Enjoy! [...]
October 28th, 2009 at 12:12 am
I know that it is not quite Fellini, but this film, I must admit, was a guilty pleasure of mine. I thought that Anna Friel was adorably feisty, Eddie Griffin was his usual irreverent but hilarious self and whether or not the film was shot in Ireland, one must not forget that cinema at some point, will invite fantasy over for the ride. With that in mind, lighten up guys! The little mute girl touched my heart….