Crackerjack (1994)

Wow! Such a good movie.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Put up your hand and than catapult it down, and say "bah!" to this film. An extremely weak film, that is based upon some old, already used cliché, you know "terrorists taking over, one man army, bunch of hostage", this time in the mountain hotel. Well... yahoo.We got Thomas Ian Griffith (Karate Kid 3, Vampires) as a leading action man, but he looked here like he didn't give a damn for this film. He was even slow in martial arts scenes, he can do faster than that, but when you're doing a low budget film... what's the point? Christopher Plummer is here! What a hell? A great, classically trained actor to appear in such low budget crap as a leading villain? I don't understand... what is attractive to such great actors in low budget films? We also have Nastasja Kinski... well, she was OK.There isn't much to say about this crap film. Except... you can watch it if you want to... fall asleep for example.

It's Die Hard (1988) in a hotel! Following in the tradition of "It's Die Hard in a ______________" (you fill in the blank) movies, Crackerjack has been said to be something of a cross between Die Hard and Cliffhanger (1993), but really it's much closer to the John McClane side of things. Thomas Ian Griffith stars as the awesomely-named Jack Wild, a Chicago cop on the edge. Does this seem at all familiar yet? His concerned family believes that he is too on the edge for his own good, so his brother Mike Wild (Sali), and his wife and baby all go to the rocky mountains. Why they thought that was a good location remains unknown.While at a remote mountain hotel, a sinister plot to steal millions of dollars worth of diamonds is spearheaded by the nefarious Ivan Getz (Plummer) and his band of vaguely-European goons. Then they're going to cause an avalanche to destroy the hotel, again with no rational explanation. Will the unmitigated power of Jack Wild stop the baddies, and romance "Activities Director" K.C. (Kinski) along the way? Just you wait and see! Actually this movie is not bad at all. It's professionally made, entertaining, and is able to propel itself along on cliché-power alone. It's one of the better T.I.G movies we've seen to date. He has a great entrance and the movie suffers when he's not on screen. T.I.G. is able to win over the audience with his charm, not to mention his fighting ability, and he carries the movie well. You genuinely like Jack Wild. When the classic 90's baddies are holding the hotel guests hostage and shooting a lot of people and blowing things up, you root for Wild. You can't ask for more in a movie like this. You'd be surprised how often filmmakers fail at this formula. Luckily, that did not happen here.As far as Christopher Plummer is concerned, the only question you'll have is, "why?" How did they get an actor of his caliber to appear in this type of product? I guess it wouldn't be the first time, as he was in an AIP movie (Firehead, 1991), so this is gold in comparison. An actor's gotta eat, and they probably told him this was his chance to outdo Alan Rickman, so he went for it. His acting style here seems to be "whisper a lot to seem intense and wear various types of eyewear". We also felt Robert Davi could have played this role.Oddly, there are not one, but two Crackerjack sequels, with different actors as different characters in the lead role. Was this movie that successful? We had no idea it made enough money to spawn sequels. But such is life, and at least this first (and only "true" Crackerjack movie for the fans...just kidding) has plenty of entertaining violence to pass the time.Shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Crackerjack might be one of the more watchable Die Hard knockoffs around.for more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

but Thomas Ian Griffith just doesn't have the polish that a big bucks actor has, granted this was made 5+ years ago. Some of the humorous lines could have been timed to make this not only action, but comedy. And how do you get KC out of Katia Koslovska anyhow? Plummer's character was so corny, he would have fit better in a Bullwinkle toon. Personally, if action flicks are going to show skin -- I'd have liked to have seen equal time between female/male, otherwise don't show any.

It's Die Hard meets Cliffhanger when a ski resort is besieged by terrorists and it's up to one cop, Jack (Crackerjack) to stop this.A B-action movie that borrows from other films and is quite good with pretty good action, a ridiculous plot (as always in these movies) and three fine stars. Thomas Ian Griffith as the cop and Nastasja Kinski and Christopher Plummer as terrorists. If you don't like stupid B-action movies this is not for you.