The characters are underdeveloped and one-dimensional; the soundtrack is only a shade better than the synth-pop soup of "Day of the Dead"; the actors sound like they're reading directly off an unrevised script; and the plot is about as loose and messy as a rice krispie marshmallow treat. All these little nuances aside, "Jake Speed" has got to be, hands-down, the greatest action/adventure B-movie I've ever seen. The title character (played brilliantly by unassuming "everyman" Wayne Crawford) is a bona-fide dime novel adventurer, seeking to defeat the nefarious forces of evil with the aid of his disturbingly effete partner Des and ingenious little innovations such as "The Kid" (a super-powered automatic shotgun!) and H.A.R.V. (an armored Jeep with side-mounted machine gun turrets!). As you might expect, moral absolutism (the titanic, interminable struggle of the good heroes vs. evil villains) and cheap sensationalism abound, just as they would in any good piece of bad action-melodrama. If you're in the mood for a cute, tongue-in-cheek, low-budget iteration of early-twentieth century action serials or just one laugh after another from a ceaseless torrent of cheesy heroic one-liners, pick up your copy of "Jake Speed" today!
