Lightning Jack (1994)

Is this Kane able?

Lightning Jack is directed by Simon Wincer and written by Paul Hogan. Hogan stars as the title character and he’s supported by Cuba Gooding Jr., Beverly D’Angelo, Pat Hingle and L.Q. Jones. Music is by Bruce Rowland and cinematography by David Eggby.

Having burst onto the scene in movie world with Crocodile Dundee in 1986, Paul Hogan it seemed was set for a tilt at being a fully fledged film star. As it transpired, in spite of the first Dundee sequel proving popular, Hogan didn’t have much of a film career at all. So it’s with great interest to revisit his non Dundee films.

Lightning Jack is a comedy Western that pitches Hogan as outlaw Lightning Jack Kane, an Australian in the Old Wild West of America. He hankers to be more well known, to be wanted with a big reward on his head, so after (mis)fortune pairs him up with mute Ben Doyle (Gooding Jr.), they promptly go on an adventure of becoming criminally well known.

It’s really as simple as that, and if we break it down to the bare facts, it’s really just a chance for Hogan to play Hogan in a Wild West setting. But this is harmless comedy fare produced by an engaging comedy actor, okay so it may not be uproarious or have the fresh comedy finesse of Crocodile Dundee, but did it really deserve the scorn it got from critics?

Well it’s very thin on plot leaving us with a film that’s more a stitched together job of funny set-ups (your comedy barometer needs setting at amiable), but it is fun and likable due to Hogan and Gooding being easy to engage with. It also boasts gorgeous scenery, the locales sparkling thanks to smart work by Eggby (Mad Max/Quigley Down Under).

D’Angelo gets to be more than a token hooker with a heart, and is lovely into the bargain. Elsewhere, the presence of L.Q. Jones (Ride the High Country/Major Dundee) and Pat Hingle (Nevada Smith/Hang 'Em High) gives some Western solidification, and interesting cameo appearances by Roger Daltrey and Roger Clemens remind us that it’s just a bit of amusement after all.

Not up to the standard of the criminally under valued Almost An Angel, and of course the first two Dundee movies are on a different plane to this. But it has its moments and is a decent time waster for genre fans in need of a gentle perk me up. 6/10

**_Crocodile Dundee in the Old West_**

When Cole Younger’s gang is involved in a robbery-gone-wrong in a town in the Southwest, the lone survivor, Jack Kane (Paul Hogan), acquires a mute newbie partner (Cuba Gooding Jr.). He wants to make one last big score before moving to New York with his saloon lass (Beverly D'Angelo).

"Lightning Jack" (1994) is an amusing Western starring Hogan, but it’s not an all-out comedy like, say, “Blazing Saddles.” Ball-park comparisons include “The War Wagon,” “Sam Whiskey,” “Something Big,” "Cattle Annie and Little Britches," “Maverick” and “The Lone Ranger.” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” is another, but that one’s a little more serious.

While not great and relatively slow-moving, the locations are excellent and the developing relationship of the antiheros is entertaining. Beverly is another highlight.

While the opening bank job is similar to the doomed 1876 real-life raid in Northfield, Minnesota, Cole Younger was only wounded and ended up in prison in which he worked on a newspaper as a printer’s devil. He was paroled in 1901 and ended up writing a memoir, lecturing and touring in a wild west show with Frank James. A couple of years before his death in 1915, he became a believer and repented of his criminal past. By contrast, Cole’s brother, Jim, was paroled with him in 1901, but couldn’t adjust and so committed suicide fifteen months later in a hotel room in Saint Paul.

At the end of the day, if you liked the Crocodile Dundee flicks, you’ll probably appreciate this.

The film runs 1 hour, 37 minutes, and was shot in Santa Fe; Tucson and Page, Arizona; Moab, Utah; and Colorado; with some interiors filmed in the studio on the Gold Coast, Australia.

GRADE: B-/B