CineBad!!!

Why is this movie called The Jack Bull? Nobody’s name was Jack. I was thinking perhaps this is some sort of horse ranching term I don’t know about. There was one line in which the main character is compared to a Jack Russell terrier, but then he mentions a British bulldog? Is there a Jack connection? I don’t know– I’m a cat person, but I think I may have hit on something here. However, none of the parties with whom I watched this film picked up on that. But then, not all of the parties with whom I watched this film with opted to remain for the entire duration.

Jack Bull is the tale of Myrl Redding (Cusack), a horse rancher who was wronged by a bad guy (based on a true story!). It’s your basic good-guy-versus-bad-guy flick from here on. It’s full of people making speeches about justice and morality. The bad guys are mean, rude and uncaring stereotypes, and the good guys are nice and kind and love animals. Most of the lawmen are corrupt, and everyone else fits into a nice little character stereotype in some way or another. Guys ride around on horses and pass the same windmill about 6 times. Unlike westerns of the past, this film is multicultural– there’s a Black guy, a couple of Native Americans, assorted Europeans, and one lady from Generica (she just has some sort of foreign accent).

For a totally formulaic western, this wasn’t that bad. in fact, John Cusack and the other actors were actually pretty good. Of course, John Cusack is how old? around 30? How he can have a son who looks about 14 is beyond me, but I’m just being picky. We get the surprise twist– the good guy dies and the bad guy lives at the end (oops, did I give it away?). All in all, this film was completely full of cliches and cheesy dialogue, but if you like draggy westerns, you’ll probably like it. If you like cheesy movies, this one has the standard cliches and corniness to point out, but it doesn’t break new cheesy territory. I think this film is best summed up in the words of my cousin 12-year-old cousin Bernadette, “Don’t you think this movie is kind of… well… slow?”