Jack the Giant Killer (2013 film)

A man who appears crazy shows up at Jack's eighteenth birthday party claiming to have a gift from Jack's missing father, Newald Krutchens. The stranger, Jess Walters, tells Jack that he never forgets a promise. Jack's mother, Sharon, believes Jess is "clinically insane" and wants Jack to forget about the ordeal. After opening the gift and discovering it contains only beans, Jack tosses them into an empty field.

Discovering the beanstalk the next morning, Jack is trapped by a bean tendril, and carried up into the clouds to find a strange land. He is chased by a dinosaur-like monster and takes refuge in a nearby floating mechanical castle, which is revealed to be operated by his father. For Jack, his father has been missing since birth, but Newald swears he has only been gone a few days. He is surprised that his son is now a legal adult but accepts that it must be true. He further deduces that the following must be true: one day in this land is equivalent to one year on Earth. Newald is still only twenty-nine. Jack explains to his father that Jess gave him the beans, and Newald fondly recalls that his friend never forgets a promise. Jack then suggests they go back down the beanstalk together, but Newald points out that "only he who plants the bean can travel the stalk".

Jack and his father explore the Land of the Clouds and visit the mysterious sorceress Selina in hope of finding a solution to their problem. Newald confronts Selina as she is taking a bath in the middle of an empty room. Meanwhile, Jack's girlfriend plants another beanstalk to rescue Jack, but Selina uses this beanstalk to take the beasts down to Earth so she can become its ruler.

With the world's military weapons ineffective against the beast, Jack must figure out how to get back down and save everyone from the oncoming threat. Jess sacrifices himself to distract the beast with his motorcycle, and is tragically squashed underfoot. Jack eventually saves the day, and Selina hugs Newald, undecided about her plans for retribution. [2]

The film was released direct-to-video and on video-on-demand on March 12, 2013. In the tradition of The Asylum's catalog, Jack the Giant Killer is a mockbuster of the New Line Cinema/Legendary Pictures film Jack the Giant Slayer.[3]

Influx Magazine rated it "D" and called it "pretty bad".[4] Moira gave he movie one star, finding the movie to have a good premise and that the first half has some promise, but that the last part of the movie fails to live up to this. [5]

• Jack the Giant Killer at IMDb
• Official website