★★★
“Always bet on black…”
Director Bamford has certainly had himself a year. This is the third film of his in 2024 to be reviewed on this site, following Air Force One Down and Hard Home. It’s actually his feature debut, and seems to date back a few years, before getting released. Jade is definitely rougher around the edges than what would follow, although that offers some advantages as well, in that there appear to be more risks taken stylistically. Whether these work or nor is likely a matter of personal taste. For example, how do you feel about a heroine who kills one enemy by throwing her Afro pick at an enemy like a ninja death star, embedding it in his forehead?
Me, I liked it, but have seen other reviews which called it ‘just plain silly’, so to each their own, I guess. It does need some more consistency of tone, I think, and the script is too loose, with elements which don’t matter. The heroine, Jade (West), is a Brit who came over to America with her brother after their parents were murdered, fell in with the wrong crowd and accidentally killed her sibling with a stray bullet. She’s now sworn off guns, but is in trouble after coming into possession of a hard drive, sought after by gang boss Tork (Rourke), with extreme prejudice. While her allies are few, they include her brother’s widow, Layla (McNamara) and a cop investigating things, Reese (Dacascos).
It’s clear that the main inspiration for Jade is Pam Grier, and her roles in the likes of Coffy and Foxy Brown. This is most apparent in her fabulous Afro, which is so large, you feel it should have its own gravitational well. West is a stuntwoman, a background shared by Bamford, and a lot of the supporting cast too. This comes through, for obvious reasons, in the action, which is reliably well-executed. However, Bamford seems to be trying to find his style, and adopts a few different approaches, not all equally successful. For example, sometimes he goes for a shaki-cam approach. You’d think someone like him would know that’s close to the worst approach when it comes to showcasing stunt work.
As noted, the story has issues too, especially early on, with a particularly rough expositional dump at the beginning. Turns out the whole saga of Jade’s brother and her background in Britain are not very important at all – except for explaining her strong English accent. It’s definitely a case where less would have been more. Still, there’s a good deal to enjoy here, and I will be interested to see where West goes. She seems to have a huge social media presence – 1.1 million followers on something called “Instagram”, whatever that is… Her comic-book style there seems to match the approach in this, and she has potential. As we’ve seen, the same goes for Bamford, and I am looking forward to seeing what he brings to our table, in 2025 and beyond.
Dir: James Bamford
Star: Shaina West, Katherine McNamara, Mickey Rourke, Mark Dacascos