DVD
REVIEW: MY BOY JACK
04/19/08
“My Boy Jack”, based a poem
by Rudyard Kipling (David Haig) tells the story of Rudyard’s
unabashed love for the British Empire. Rudyard feared that
the Germans with their massive army posed a great threat to
everything the British had built. As a result, he wants to
encourage every able body man to fight in what is know as
World War I. Rudyard also wants his son, John Kipling (Daniel
Radcliffe ), to fight and so he signs him up for The Royal
Navy, but because of his severe myopia he is not accepted.
Rudyard next tries to enlist his son in the army, but he is
told that his myopia makes him a danger to the other man and
himself. Using this connection, Rudyard finally enlist his
son in the Irish Guard. Rudyard wife Caroline Kipling (Kim Cattrall) is furious, although, John proves an able shooter
but only with his glasses on. He soon moves to the rank of
squad leader. However, John is soon reported missing in “The
Battle of Loos” and his father is left with second thoughts.
David Haig is perfectly cast in the role of Rudyard Kipling,
and why not? It is a role that he knows well as he wrote the
stage play for “My Boy Jack” and the film’s screenplay and he
played Rudyard Kipling in both. Daniel Radcliffe performance
was also very good and I didn’t ever think about Harry Potter
when I first saw him. Well, maybe, for the first few minutes.
Kim Cattrall also did a decent job here, however it was hard
to see her as a respectable women after seeing her as
Samantha in “Sex and the City“.
The main problem with the movie is that they didn’t do much
in translating the stage play to a movie and the result is
that the movie is not very exciting. It is sort of like
watching a stage play on TV. The only scenes that seem made
for the movie are those where John Kipling is in battle and
ever here the action is lackluster. The decision to make this
a direct to TV movie was a good one, as I don’t think this
movie would have had a chance at the box-office.
The DVD includes interviews with David Haig, Daniel RadCliffe
and Kim Cattrall and a hodgepodges of 4 delete scenes. For a
movie that was shown on TV, they should have included many
more features to give the people a reason to purchase the
DVD. Given how popular Rudyard Kipling was and how
interesting his story is, I don’t think that would have been
hard to do.
Review By Brad Peterson
brad@smartcine.com
VIDEO:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1:78:1)
AUDIO:
English,
5.1 (Dolby Digital).
Subtitles - English
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Interviews - an interview with David Haig,
Daniel Radcliff, and Kim Cattrall discussing what this movie
meant to them. (24:17)
Deleted Scenes - 4 delete scenes are present him
however they are mashed together and not separated by title.
The most in interesting is the last one starting around the
3:45 mark and features Rudyard Kipling address the people
about how it they have to do more. (6:18)
RATING BREAK DOWN:
| FILM REVIEW |
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VIDEO |
 |
|
AUDIO |
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| BONUS
FEATURES |
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People Movie Review
Prom Night
|
PM |
60 |
|
I enjoyed the movie for
what it was. I'm a big fan of Daniel's
(by the way, it's Radcliffe- with an e)
I agree this would not have been a box
office smash, but then it wasn't
intended to be. |
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