There are certain times where you look at the people involved in a film and think 'oh that's absolutely going to be something I'm going to love'. Jade was one of these situations for me. Director James Bamford is someone that I'd been aware of since his days as the stunt coordinator on Stargate SG-1, and had followed his move over to Arrow, where some of the best action in the entire series was done in episodes he'd directed. Shaina West, the British stunt performer and actress, came ton my attention on Instagram, where she frequently uploads videos of herself performing amazing weapons drills, and I've regularly watched her stuff. I've known Katherine McNamara from both Arrow and Shadowhunters, and Mickey Rourke and Mark Dacascos are both just huge names who are always great in whatever they're in. I was primed to really enjoy Jade; yet that enjoyment never really came.
Jade opens with a snazzy animated sequence that gives us the important background details for our titular main character, played by West. Born in London, she and her brother moved to the US after their parents were killed, but ended up taking part in criminal gangs. This unfortunately led to an incident in which Jade accidentally killed and shot her brother. The why of it all are not really covered as the details don't really matter, but this is a bugbear that will continue throughout the rest of the film.
In the present, we meet Jade as she's given a hard drive by a friend from her gang days, which immediately results in a shoot out and Jade having to run for her life. Barely a few minutes into the film and our heroine is already running around, trying to avoid the gangsters on her trail. This kind of pacing is indicative of the movie, and it goes from action piece to action piece very quickly, with brief moments of story and character scattered between them. It turns out that local gangster, Tork (Mickey Rourke) is after the hard drive, and is willing to kill Jade to get it. All Jade wants to do is to make it through the night, and to protect Layla (Katherine McNamara), the pregnant girlfriend of her dead brother.
As an action fan, I was looking forward to seeing what Bamford put onto the screen, but one of the biggest issues I had with Jade is that it doesn't seem to know what kind of tone it's aiming for. There are times where the film is brutal and bloody, yet others where it's almost comedic. At one point in the film Jade throws her afro comb, which impales a man through the eye. I'm no expert on afro combs, but it looked very plastic on screen, so it being able to pierce the skull seemed a bit too much for me. But this is something that Jade does a lot, where the film seems to prioritise style over substance. We get a kill count on the screen, blood splashes and the word Fatality on the wall during one kill (with voice over announcement).
The dialogue seems to play out the same way, with characters trying to compete with each other for who can say the wittiest one liner, leading to most of the people in the film feeling like flat caricatures and ill thought out stand-ins for real people. Whilst West does have a lot of charm to her, and delivers some of these cheesy moments with a flair she seems to be the only person in the film who actually wants to put any real effort in. Mickey Rourke delivers his lines like he's bored, and his expression barely changes from blank throughout the film. There are some decent actors amongst the cast, so I don't know if it's a case of them not having the right material to work with, or simply not wanting to be there, but West often feels like the only actor who's actually invested.
But, this is an action film, so there's never a guarantee that the the acting is what's being focused on. The action is a big part of things, and whilst the action does take centre stage in Jade it too varies in quality a lot. There are some parts of the action where Bamford lets the camera hang back a little, giving West the chance to really show off her combat skills. These are the best parts of the film, as the audience get to see that it's really her performing, and that she can do longer takes without making mistakes or looking bad. However, there are times when Bamford throws unneeded cuts, jumps, close-ups, slow motion, and other editing tricks into the action that really breaks the flow and makes it feel less impactful. The use of CGI for muzzle flashes and blood splatter also made the film look and feel cheap in places. Digital bullet impacts were happening around West, but after the initial impact the environment was left untouched and intact, showing that no bullets were actually being fired at her. Practical effects would have gone a long way to making things feel real, and would have helped prevent a lot of the sense of falseness that movie had.
As a showcase reel for Shaina West Jade is great, it showcases her physical abilities and her stunt work well, and there are even hints of someone able to step more into the spotlight too. But, as an entertaining piece of film Jade just kept falling short for me. It's not a long film, sitting at 88 minutes, but I kept checking my watch to see how long it had been going for. I was left bored more times than not, and an action film should be doing the exact opposite to that. I wanted to like this film, I wanted to love this film; it has so many names attached to it that I like, yet it failed to entertain me. Perhaps it was me, maybe I just didn't click with it, but sadly Jade ended up being a movie that I just can't recommend.
Jade is released digitally on 24th June 2024.
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