Mighty Jack (1968 TV Movie) User Reviews

Mighty Crap

[InzyWimzy · 1/10 · 9 September 2000]

Imagine going on the teacups ride at Disneyworld spinning round and round. Remember that feeling when you stepped off the ride? Well, who needs teacups when there's Mighty Jack!

I cannot even attempt to explain what this was about. There is the good guys who battle "Q" the evil organization whose leader looks like the japanese version of Blowfeld. The film includes rescuing a guy named Nintendo...I mean, Atari, escaping many traps, survive double crosses left and right, use of special effects from Kay-Bee, a huge iceberg, and no plot to be found anywhere. Even after 3 viewings, I could find no answers. Just headaches.

Make the hurting stop!

[Progbear-4 · 1/10 · 12 May 2000]

Apparently edited down from a Japanese TV series, "Mighty Jack" looks more like several completely unrelated spy films chopped up and reedited randomly. The plot, if it can be said to have one, is an exercise in incoherence. A plot synopsis is impossible for this film, *none* of it makes sense. What an endurance test this film is, anyone who makes it all the way to the end deserves some sort of medal.

What the.....

[bensonmum2 · 1/10 · 22 July 2007]

Since I began what I'm calling my 2007 Mystery Science Theater 3000 Challenge, I've seen a ton of bad movies. And I seem to find myself writing at least once each week that the most recent abomination I've watched has to be one of the worst movies ever made. I'm really starting to sound like a broken record. So here I am with the latest assault on the senses – Mighty Jack. I realize that Mighty Jack was taken from a Japanese television series and put together by one of Sandy Frank's flunkies, but I'm not rating the television show – I'm rating the movie. And what a frustratingly confusing movie it is! I'm really in the dark about most of what I've just seen. It doesn't make a lick of sense. Some bad guys named Q want to do something bad with a weapon that creates something called hot ice. Another group of people called Mighty Jack use their flying submarine to stop Q. That's about the best I can do.

Like the turd of a plot, the rest of Mighty Jack is just as bad. The acting – bad. The miniature work (usually a strong point in a Japanese film of this type) – bad. The music – bad (and often inappropriate). The direction – bad. Everything else you can name – bad. As I said, I'm starting to sound like a broken record but Mighty Jack is seriously one very bad movie.

MST3K Episode #314 isn't as good as I had hoped. Usually, MST3K did some great work with the Japanese films they used. Here, other than the bits about the old guy smoking dope, there's not much that made me come close to laughing out loud. So I'll rate it a 3/5 on my MST3K rating scale – a wishy-washy average rating.

Huh?

[Jonah14 · 22 October 1999]

That was my thought-process during the entire movie.

It looked like some sort of spy movie... and there was a plane coming out of the ocean, I think... and a Japanese guy declaring his heart had always been German... oh, and a supergroup named Mighty Jack, led by a Japanese JFK lookalike.

But lordy, I never EVER understand WHAT was going on. The entire "movie", which was coddled from a Japanese TV series, had all the logic of a fever dream.

Even now, I couldn't tell you what I thought was happening, or even who was who, since the good guys and bad guys were indistinguishable.

God, what a bad film.

Should be in everyones top 2 worst films of all time

[info-325-517148 · 1/10 · 16 July 2014]

I've owned a VHS copy of this film for more than 25 years and no matter how wasted I get i can never reach past 10 minutes in any single viewing. This film is utterly incoherent. Even accepting the cultural nuances of 1960's Japanese narrative when experienced with 'Westen' expectation, it evades any grip of comprehension. The tin-pot, Special effects are remarkable in their lack of charm and no acting performance warrants the payment of even a kind word. The IMDb rating of more than 1 out of 10 can only be due to cast and crew voting as even their families could not have summoned such generosity. This extraordinary collection of images and sounds is so unwatchable that it is always my trump-card to the question: "Worst Film Ever Made?"

A pieced together Japanese show that has lots of random things happening!

[Aaron1375 · 3/10 · 13 April 2012]

I saw this 'movie' as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It is actually another in a long line of Sandy Frank cocktails where he pieces together several television episodes and presents them as a movie. He did the same thing with another MST3K riffed movie, "Time of Apes". He did a bit better job in this one than that one as that one left so much out that by the end you really felt like you missed a lot of key plot points. This one seems to be made up of the first few episodes of the television show it was cut from and the last few and the episodes are so distinct that nothing is really brought up that makes it seem like you missed a whole heck of a lot of things that would have helped in understanding the film as a whole. I will say that the first portion of this one is not all that bad and is the highlight while the second portion of the film gets really crazy as it starts with one thing, then turns all spy movie and then finishes with a zany barrage! So, overall, not a really good mash up, but miles ahead of "Time of Apes" and the "Fugitive Alien" movies.

The story starts out with a man being kidnapped by the dastardly organization known as Q. Soon the super secret agent squad, Mighty Jack, is dispatched to rescue this man in their super big ship that can fly and submerge! During this section of the film, we learn that you apparently have to open your eyes to see the amazingly bright lights and go blind and keeping them shut is not an option and we learn that the super awesome ship does a lot of bank turns. The second portion of the film has Mighty Jack discovering Q has the ability to make ice that does not melt! There is a lot of double agents in this section of the film before the awesome climax of watching the Mighty Jack ship fight a big old glacier!

This made for a very funny episode of MST3K as most Sandy Frank movies do. Even if they are overall good films, his editing and dubbing can turn even sort of good films bad and this one just does not seem all that good. A strange show that seems to be part model attack show like Ultraman or that one Toho film featuring the ship that fought the serpent monster combined with a Bond film as the main villain was obviously copying Blofeld as he was even accentuated with a kitty cat. The jokes were funny and the one bump making fun of the whole barrel over the guy with blinding lights was great.

So this 'film' was better than a couple of other Sandy Frank mash up television shows that I have seen, but still not good. The cast is okay, but as with most dubbed films, you cannot really get a true feeling as to what their true ability is. The first portion of the film was the best part as the second portion of the film seemed almost rushed. This may have been the case as the show may have been told they had to end it so they could have ended it the best way the could. Not the first time I have seen this as the video game Xenosaga was to be a six part series of games, but got cut short and the third game seemed very rushed and sped you to a conclusion that seemed rush.

What's the worst thing you can say about a movie?

[vonnoosh · 1/10 · 30 November 2016]

Even bad movies have an appeal to them. Perhaps a film has horrible acting, perhaps a minuscule budget which sadly shows itself practically in every frame, perhaps lousy effects like a rubbery monster and people drip bright fire engine red colored blood, or perhaps the script is stupid or poorly represented by an incompetent director.

None of these criticisms work in terms of wrecking the entertainment factor. If that were true, not enough would have sat through Plan 9 for more than 15 minutes to make it a cult classic. Seeing Tor Johnson struggling to get out of a grave wouldn't be remembered if it doesn't serve as a kind of entertainment. But people do find bad movies entertaining, if only to laugh at how bad they are.

Mighty Jack does not have the Plan 9 quality in terms of entertaining bad films. The worst thing anyone can say about any movie is that it is boring and Mighty Jack is just that, boring.

The movie is two separate episodes of a 60's TV show called Fight! Mighty Jack! From what we see from what ended up in this movie, I am guessing the show didn't have a run that lasted more than 26 episodes.

I don't know why these two episodes had to be put together in a single movie. I don't see the point to it. I understand the first half of the movie was to establish characters but it doesn't really work,and it doesn't develop a plot to set up the 2nd half of the story beyond the fact that there are good guys, Mighty Jack, versus the bad guys, Q. I think the lack of any kind of cohesion in terms of story is where the boredom factor lies because you don't really know or care about any character on the screen because there's no reason to know about them.

This fails in a lot of ways, the most entertaining aspect of how bad this is for me was their sad attempts at special effects. The toy divers, the toothpaste tube looking Mighty Jack ship/jet. The dubbing which turns every actor's performance into wood,but the worst is how dull it is. There is a clear distinction between bad and being boring while being bad. I never met anyone who deliberately sat down and watched this movie and just watch it like I did.

I can think of several bad movies that fit into the boring category too. UFO Target Earth, The Curse of the Headless Horseman, Manos The Hands of Fate, Monster A Go-Go, The Creeping Terror, The Naked Witch, The Snake People, all share this movie's space in that list. Being bad is one thing being dull while being bad is something else. This is bad and dull. Entertainment factor is near nil.

Outdated background noise...

[Movie-Misfit · 4/10 · 20 May 2018]

I remember buying Mighty Jack for £1 in a discount store many years ago. There was nothing overly appealing about it (apart from the price), but I knew that with most 60's/70's Japanese sci-fi action films, there was often a diamond in the rough that provided some genuine viewing pleasure for fans of Asian cinema. And after a few years on the shelf, I finally got round to watching it...

A diamond it is not.

By no means is Mighty Jack terrible! It's shot well enough, the (dubbed) performances seem alright, and the action is akin to that of the oldest Godzilla movies (albeit minus the rubber suited monsters). With a dull, out-dated looking print taken straight from video, I'm sure Mighty Jack would actually fare better with a HD clean up and original language release. It just screams late 60's film, taking tips from James Bond in style and with its main Western villain called Q, complete with fluffy white cat on his lap.

Mighty Jack itself is a submarine vessel that plays as the base for the good guys. That's pretty much the basis of it all. Even though the team spend much of the film above the water, they gather now and again on Mighty Jack to thwart the evil Q via a collection of scenes that plays out like an episode of the classic Thunderbirds.

Although not as bad as much of their other content, Mighty Jack is the kind of film you would probably see on Mystery Science Theatre 3000 - allowing for plenty of laughs and corny entertainment. And that includes a classic 60's freeze-gun! You could do worse, but for £1 and some background viewing, I'm happy enough...

Do not see

[bkstruhl · 1/10 · 14 October 2006]

If you are "tempted" to see this because you enjoy bad movies, or you have the MST version DO NOT SUCCUMB TO TEMPTATION. The MST version has nothing going for it, even. It is merely a dull wasted 90 minutes of your life. DO NOT make the same mistake we did, and think it might be funny.

There is little more to say besides this. The plot? Does the plot really matter? A team of spies and agents who fly around in a submarine. That sounds funny, but I reiterate, it is not. They battle a force named Q that has come up with unmeltable ice. Again, not interesting. There is much dialog here, but it is all very difficult to listen too on account of being horribly dubbed.

I don't remember this episode of MSTK that well.

[medievalmike · 2/10 · 17 April 2006]

Contains a spoiler, but for something else.

I do remember in the beginning, TV's Frank introduces the "movie" as, "'Jack,'...'Mighty Jack,' produced by Frank,... Sandy Frank." Then, when the movie started, the bots & host (I forget whether it was Joel or Mike) sang along to the tune of the theme music, when Sandy Frank's name appeared in the credits: "Sandy Frank, Sandy Frank, fun for you and me!" I always thought, since then, this could be changed to a theme song for TV's Frank: "TV's Frank, TV's Frank, fun for you and me!" You know what I mean. But I digress.

From what little I do remember of it, and what I've read here and in the Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Book, it seems to me like it might be a good series if it were shown and either dubbed or subtitled in its entireity. But still, I digress.

The reason I made this review was really to talk about "hot ice," which I don't remember from actually watching the show. As described in the summary here, it sounds like the writers and producers of Mighty Jack simply copied the idea of "ice nine" in Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. As to why a form of water that solidifies at room temperature is dangerous is that if it gets into a natural body of water, even a puddle, all of that body's tributaries will freeze, all the ground water surrounding it will freeze, all the bodies to which it is tributary, including all the oceans, will freeze, and then, all the tributaries of all the oceans, every body of water in the world, will freeze, all the rain will turn into sleet upon contact with the hardened ground and water, and hardly any of it will ever melt, except some of it on the hottest days. If you get it in your eyes, nose, or mouth, you are dead.

An artificial iceberg made of such a thing that came into contact with a real ocean would simply have the effect I described above, however, and therefore be pretty pointless. Making "weapons" out of it would be redundant, since it would be possible to destroy the world with just piece the size of a grain of sand.

I don't mean to spread rumors here. I'm not claiming this would ever happen. Luckily, in real life, such a thing could never exist.

I liked it better than most!

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 26 January 2022]

Not only did Eiji Tsuburaya co-create Godzilla, he was the man who brought us Ultraman. His Tsuburaya Productions continues to own the rights to the various Ultra series that have spun off from the original show such as Ultraman Gaia, Ultraman Dyna, Ultraman 80 and The Ultraman.

Tsuburaya considered this series his best work, as it was about people, rather than vehicles and special effects. He was inspired by the word of Gerry Anderson and sadly, the public didn't watch the show as much until the second show, Fight! Mighty Jack, added aliens and monsters.

How much did Tsuburaya love this show? The Mighty Jack team logo is the same logo for Tsuburaya Productions.

It's bad. Really really bad.

[mamaderder · 1/10 · 16 November 2019]

The only really watchable version of this film is the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version.....and even that is pretty difficult to sit through. Mystery and Bond-wanna-be intrigue.....however, the real intrigue here is trying to follow the plot!

Exciting 🤙

[robertguill · 5/10 · 16 May 2019]

If you like long banked turns. Then this is the movie for you. You can feel the excitement as Mighty Jack goes into its longer than normal banked turns. As the crew prepare to battle the evil Q.

Something of a Mess

[gavin6942 · 3/10 · 28 November 2016]

Espionage team "Mighty Jack", headquartered on a flying submarine, opposes the plans of Q, which is trying to take over the world using... um... ice that doesn't melt.

This film has a number of problems. The first is that it was apparently created by editing together scenes from another show. Sometimes this works, sometimes not at all. I have no idea if the English voiceovers are in any way connected to what we are seeing on screen. I doubt it. I suspect if we heard the original Japanese (and understood it) we would find that the scenes are in no order.

Another major problem is that the characters blend together. Other than Hatari, it is hard to see who is who or what roles they play. Maybe part of this is cultural and I don't distinguish Japanese actors as easily as European ones, but I don't think so. I've watched a large number of Japanese movies without any problem keeping people straight... I think the cast of this movie just has very unrecognizable actors.

Even The Riffed Version Was Painful

[florida87 · 1/10 · 8 November 2014]

I am trying to complete watching every episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and Mighty Jack is about the last one I have yet to watch. I was going back to KTMA episode days and started watching that Mighty Jack and man oh man was it sucking, I think Joel and his buds were mainly ad libbing in those days with a lot of long pauses in the riffing, so after 15 minutes of that (FYI avoid the KTMA version of Mighty Jack), I switched to the season 3 version. Now Joel has been doing this for over 3 years and this is his heyday, he is in the groove, they have joke writers and things are moving along good. Except for this episode that is. It's not the least favorite episode I have watched (Those Master Ninja ones and Castle Of Fu Manchu may be close to bottom for me), but it's not a good episode or even an average episode. I will say that the first half of the episode is good, Joel doing the toking a doobie bit made me laugh, but after that it gets pretty boring until the end when it gets funny again. 1 of 10 for the film, 5 of 10 as an MST3K episode. Don't point a newbie to start here. My favorite Sandy Frank episode? Time Of The Apes for sure followed by the Fugitive Alien episodes and then the first 3 Gamera ones. This one is probably my least favorite Sandy Frank MST3K episode.

The Citizen Kane of Japanese Movies

[mikec32001 · 5 April 2002]

Well, maybe not, but my oh my, isn't Mighty Jack getting a bad press! The simple fact is, the "movie" (it's nothing of the sort) has been soooo hacked about from its TV origins it's all you can do but sit back and either turn it off or enjoy the ride. See above for the basic outline of "plot" proceedings but, yes, it's pure trash. But here's why I like this video: the Gerry Anderson style models and effects. Along with so many otherwise disposal Jap flicks, this one is festooned with tasty technology and nifty effects that the script (and acting) is frankly not worthy to be seen with. Like Anderson, this film fetishises the Skydiver-alike Mighty Jack with repeated, dare I say lingering shots of it's various functions and ticks. OK, this kind of stuff only suffices for a distraction but if you enjoyed Derek Meddings water/model effects in "UFO" or you're a model nut, this is worth a look. Just a quick one, mind.