Jack the Giant Slayer

Jack the Giant Slayer 2013

• Director: Bryan Singer
• Based on the fairy tale
• Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Eleanor Tomlinson, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Eddie Marsan, Christopher Fairbank, Bill Nighy, Warwick Davis
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Nicholas Hoult – Mad Max Fury Road, X Men Days of Future Past, Wah-Wah, About a Boy, Intimate Relations
• Eleanor Tomlinson – Poldark, Alice in Wonderland
• Ewan McGregor – American Pastoral, Our Kind of Traitor, Mortdecai, August Osage County, The Impossible, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Perfect Sense, The Ghost Writer, The Island, Star Wars, Big Fish, Young Adam, Moulin Rouge, Little Voice, Velvet Goldmine, A Life Less Ordinary, Brassed Off, Trainspotting, Shallow Grave
• Stanley Tucci - Fortitude, The Hunger Games, Swing Vote, Maid in Manhattan, Road to Perdition, Joe Gould’s Secret, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Life Less Ordinary, The Pelican File, Billy Bathgate, Prizzi’s Honor
• Eddie Marsan - Their Finest Hour, Happy-Go-Lucky, River, Filth, The World’s End, Snow White and the Huntsman, Sherlock Holmes Game of Shadows, Merlin, Sherlock Holmes, V for Vendetta, Vera Drake, 21 Grams, Gangs of New York
• Christopher Fairbank – Wallander, Wolf Hall, Doctor Who, Pirates of the Caribbean, Merlin, The Fifth Element, Crocodile Shoes, Alien 3, Hamlet
• Bill Nighy - Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, Gideon’s Daughter, The World’s End, About Time, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1, Doctor Who, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hot Fuzz, Notes on a Scandal, The Constant Gardener, The Girl in the Café, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Shaun of the Dead, Still Crazy, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Kiss Me Kate, Longitude
• Warwick Davis – Star Wars etc, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Merlin, Life’s Too Short, Extras
• Why? Ewan McGregor
• Seen: 23 June 2019      

       Peasant boy Jack (Hoult) and crown princess Isabelle (Tomlinson) both hear the legend of the giants as children. Ten years pass. Jack happens to defend Isabelle from ruffians at a fair. Then he happens to get some beans. Isabelle happens to be in Jack’s cottage. One of the beans happens to sprout and explodes out of the cottage floor. The adventure in Giant Land begins.

       Ewan McGregor is the intrepid but blasé guardian, Eddie Marsan his stalwart colleague. Jack is played by the kid who was the boy in About a Boy, a little more grown up. Bill Nighy is unrecognisable as one of the giants, but his voice is unmistakable. Stan Tucci is Isabelle’s evil betrothed.

       There are moments of excitement, some good effects and a mild entertainment factor. Good cast notwithstanding, however, the characters are uninteresting and the damsel in distress premise isn’t countered by Isabelle’s occasional tomboyishness. It’s all very macho.

       The first half hovered around 3* but it disintegrated to about

2* of 5