BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Bauer-Martinez
MSRP: $19.99
RATED: PG-13
RUNNING TIME: 90 min.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Interview with Eddie Griffin
• Theatrical trailer
The Pitch
“It’s Black Knight meets overseas tax incentives!”
The Humans
Eddie Griffin (Undercover Brother), Anna Friel (Timeline), Kevin R. McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean), Dudley Sutton (Up at the Villa), Mo’Nique (Domino), Tallulah Pitt-Brown
The Nutshell
The people of a tiny Irish village scheme to put their last independently-owned property out of reach of a greedy English developer by giving it away in a poetry contest. Sure, makes sense to me. About as much sense as the idea that this cash-strapped town would promote their contest with full-page ads in California newspapers, but that’s how Jimmy (Griffin) gets involved. He plagiarizes a rap song, mails it in and whoops– he owns him an Irish pub. Let the fish-out-of-water hijinks begin!
Eddie hears that Chappelle’s Show is looking for a new host
The Lowdown
Irish Jam gets off to a rough start. We don’t really need to spend time watching Jimmy scam dealers in L.A. unless they’re going to figure in the plot later on, which they don’t. While there is some attention paid to the historical parallels between the Black experience and the Irish experience (The Commitments is duly saluted), the novel concept of reading rap lyrics as prose (or vice-versa) is never expanded upon. There is much evidence of heavy re-editing throughout. Also, Griffin’s randy motormouth persona is, to put it lightly, an acquired taste.
"So you can pee farther. I bet I can still burp louder."
But something interesting happens about halfway through: the film acknowledges Jimmy’s boastfulness and endless reliance on funny voices as a bluff, a defense mechanism. Blarney, if you will. Despite the relentlessly formulaic storyline (First rule of fish-out-of-water hijinks: Find yourself a beautiful widow with a small child who never talks), Griffin fairly convinces us that Jimmy could find a place for himself on the Irish coast.
Get in line, Davis.
The Package
The ‘interview’ is a couple minutes of Griffin spinning the movie. The box says the presentation is widescreen, but it isn’t. The role of Ireland is played by Cornwall, but the locations look gorgeous anyway.
