The Jack of Hearts Review The Premise- A former cop from Florida, Jack Newland, moves to Vegas to get a new start after being ousted from the Police force amid a department scandal. He finds Vegas is run by 2 Rival Casino Bosses and a corrupt police department which is on the payroll of at least one of the bosses. The search is on for the missing books left by the assassinated bookkeeper for one of the bosses that could ruin him and give total control of the city to the other. Who will find the books first?
Early on, I found this movie really dull, especially for one that bills itself an action flick… “Shoot from the Hip or Don’t Shoot at All!” Yes, There was action and fight scenes, but they came across as lethargic & forced, with some formulaic explosions throw in as well. It reminded me of a 1970’s or 80’s Made-for-TV movie of the week or an episode of the old TV series “Vegas”. Everything seemed to be in the mix alright, But no excitement, no passion, no fire! Unfortunately, the movie stayed dull most of the way thru out. This movie seemed more like the result of “A Job” rather than a “Work of Art” or “Labor of Love”!
The premise itself wasn’t bad, But most of the acting seemed a bit wooden, and the actual look of the film was uninspiring! 3 exceptions were character actor.M. Emmet Walsh (the short time he was in it), Ben Gazzara as Casino boss Bartossa, & Lucky Vanous as one of the more believable henchman. Also of note was Roddy Piper. Roddy Piper’s role in this movie was the corrupt Police Chief Deeks. Due to the weak script, He was pretty limited in what he could do with this 2 dimensional character. Basically his character had 2 functions, 1) as crony to boss Murcant, constantly calling and apologizing for not stopping the new cop, and 2) To be the stereotypical police chief who threatens/suspends/fires the honest cop (aka The Good Guy)! He did a pretty good job of giving some depth to the role he had, But it would’ve been nice to see his character developed a little more, with a little more screen time. It would’ve added to this movie to have several multi-tiered villains. As it is, there is no central focus for one villain. You have 2 Bosses who run the place, but they don’t seem to be trying very hard. You also are supposed to have the ENTIRE Vegas police force out on a man hunt, but you rarely see any of them. I cant remember seeing more than one or possibly two police cars in any one scene. Maybe they were ALL at the Donut Shop! I should also mention that I found the soundtrack/back up music quite distracting & irritating at times.
So, How would I grade this movie? Would I rent it again at the video store? No! Would I even watch it again? Probably not! I’m going to give it a 4 out of 10, just for the nice bikini scene at the beginning. In Hindsight, This movie may be worth one viewing just to see Gazzara as a cagey Mobster and seeing Roddy Piper do a solid job in a different role than usual for him.
Maybe another reason to see this movie is to see a cool “Magic trick” -*Very Minor Spoiler Here* -, … watch as Jack runs up & goes to kick a dirt biker with nothing in his hands, and then a Silver Bag “Magically” appears in his hand as he finishes the kick. I had to scan back on the DVD to see if I imagined this incredible feat of magic. ‘Nuff Said!
