I cringed a little when I picked up the DVD of Irish Jam, it had all the hallmarks of a 'lets send Eddie Griffin to a wee old Irish village and have the leprechauns steal his lucky charms' type movie. However I was sort of pleasantly surprised after viewing it. Irish Jam is a nice story. Basically, a small Irish village is in trouble of being bought out by an aristocratic Englishman, Lord Hailstock (Kevin McNally), who wants to turn it into a theme park called Leprechaunland. The only place in the village not owned by him, and therefore the final piece in his puzzle, is the local pub. The owners of the pub can't afford to keep it and to avoid having to sell it to him decide to hold a worldwide poetry contest which will raise the necessary funds to keep the pub, and present it as a prize to the winner, keeping it out of Hailstock's hands. Meanwhile in America, Jimmy McDevitt (Griffin), a down and out amateur conman, comes across an ad for the poetry contest in a newspaper. What follows is a nice story of friendship amongst clashing cultures in which Griffin is both funny and sweet.The fact that this movie is filmed in England and not Ireland doesn't really make much difference, as the Cornwall setting could just as easily be mistaken for rural Ireland. My main, and big, gripe with this movie is its casting. More or less ALL of the Irish villagers are played by English people. Not so bad if they could all do good Irish accents, but they can't. Some sound like they have been practicing with re-runs of Ballykissangel, others like they have been forced to watch the Commitments over and over. It ends up like a mismatch of Dublin, Belfast and Kerry accents and wannabe Irish accents. How hard would it have been just to get ACTUAL Irish actors? To put it in perspective, its like having a movie set in a tiny Essex village where the 'locals' have Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Glasgow accents. Or having a movie set on a ranch in Texas where the 'locals' sound like they're from the Bronx, Chicago or even Toronto. Maybe viewers who don't know any better won't notice. But any Irish viewers, or probably anybody who's ever been to Ireland will cop on immediately.All this aside, Irish Jam will more than anything probably leave you with a good feeling in your heart and a song in your head. Albeit song you might want to jig and breakdance to all at once.

I think this film was very funny, and they were stuck doing some stereotypical moments in the film, but overall I was really interested in their editing. Quick edits, sometimes 4-5 segments right on top of each other within 2-3 seconds. I love that. The editing style reminded me a lot of 'crank' which you may love or hate, but the piece was fun.The emotional reactions of half the actors really felt very realistic, and the parts that didn't were incredibly scripted. It was interesting to see the age groups approve more of this film the younger they were, must be not quite set in their ways. Funny how the film is about that even.The soundtrack was pretty well scored too, and it felt like it just fit. Its good to see the acting talent actually sing instead of be voiced over constantly. The voice acting was very clean and some digital effects had to be introduced, because they sounded extremely clean. If this is all too technical, Ill let you back to the other postings.Also, I think the outtakes are pretty funny. Really funny to say the least.

bit of a spoiler at the end of this my gawd (to paraphrase our American cousins) Only watched this for a bed what a heap of unadulterated muck, how can anyone say that this is firstly any way entertaining. Listen lads i'm from Ireland, rural Ireland as a matter of fact and how anyone can say this is anyway remotely realistic or bearing any semblance to the truth is beyond me. Darby O'Gill, Finians Rainbow with it's leprechauns and little people is more realistic than this. But first and foremost you can overlook Hollywood 'orishiness' (tom cruises accent still one of the worst ever in home and away, Nicole kidmans accent actually not bad, but not to be nitpicking but as a landlords daughter she would actually have an English accent) if it is well made with a good plot, storyline, script and acting. The pinnacle of this of course is the Quiet Man, which is a great film despite it referring to an Ireland that only existed in John Ford's imagination. So don't be bothering with this rubbish (only one Irish actor in the cast) and get out some good decent Irish films like "inside I'm Dancing" or "Michael Collins" and save yourself wasting two hours of your life. (p.s i don't know how a whole village can be mortgaged)

Fun entertaining movie that brings together hip-hop and Irish folk music. How many movies do that effectively, or at all? I have to admit I love almost all Irish-themed movies and this is no exception. Eddie Griffin is wonderful. His best role yet. Funny and warm and romantic. Who knew? The music in this movie is fun. The plot may not win any awards, but the acting and the characters in the small Irish town are cozy and feel like family. Eddie's love interest and her daughter have great chemistry with Eddie's character. His character really grows during the film, at first very distant and the typical con-artist then turns into a sensitive sweet guy, his facade being broken down each day he spends in this beautiful little village.