Konterr Brilliant and touching

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

SnoopyStyle Karen Powell (Diane Lane) gives birth 7 months early but it looks like a full term pregnancy. The boy Jack (Robin Williams) is aging rapidly about 4 times the normal rate. The doctors have never seen anything like it. For 10 years, he's been hidden away at home. He's home-schooled with tutor Lawrence Woodruff (Bill Cosby). On his advise, Jack is sent to public school. Miss Marquez (Jennifer Lopez) is his new teacher.Director Francis Ford Coppola is making this fantasy. He needs the style to match but he doesn't have it. This is simply made to allow Robin Williams to act like a child. He's not given something more compelling to do. It's not funny enough to be a comedy. It's like an after school special. It misses an opportunity to be fanciful. This plays like a bad weird kid's movie. I do have to say that it's weird to see Robin Williams playing around with a bunch of little kids. The good thing about 'Big' was that Tom Hanks acted childish around a bunch of adults. That's much funnier. Even in the adult world, this doesn't have any fun. This is obvious not Coppola's finest moment. He just doesn't have the comedic touch.

zardoz-13 If you have ever experienced the paranoia that comes with the dread of fitting in with others, you may identify with the adolescent character that actor Robin Williams plays in "Godfather" director Francis Ford Coppola's imaginative comedy drama "Jack," a sensitive, sweet-spirited, feel-good film that costars Bill Cosby. Don't let the inevitable comparisons with the brilliant Tom Hanks comedy "Big" diminish your opinion about "Jack." Both movies manage to complement each other without competing in their chronicles about growing up. Neither should you let the memories of Robin Williams as a rollicking Brunhilda in "Mrs. Doubtfire" mislead you into thinking that "Jack" is all clown-beat without being downbeat."Jack" opens during a Halloween costume party. Karen Powell (Diana Lane of "Streets of Fire") has not been pregnant long enough to attend child-birth classes when she feels her future son kicking to get out. Brian Powell (Brian Kerwin) and a couple of their friends, all variously garbed as the Tin Man, a cigarette pack and a champagne class, rush Karen (dressed as a witch) off to the hospital. In the delivery room, everybody tries to convince Karen that it's a false alert until the doctor realizes that she is indeed about to give birth to a premature baby.Later, during a check-up, the Powells learn that Jack's inner clock ticks considerably faster than most clocks. The doctors guardedly explain to them that a condition that accelerates his growth afflicts poor Jack. When Jack reaches age 10, the doctors predict that he will resemble a 40-year old man. Otherwise, Jack is healthy and normal. Not! The Powells grow so protective of their cute baby with his beanstalk growth that they imprison him in his turret-like room. They hire tutor Lawrence Woodruff (Bill Cosby in a minor but masterly performance) to tech him. Brian and Karen keep Jack out of public school because they fear he would suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous ridicule. Woodruff disagrees with them. He thinks that Jack should not be deprived of the experience of going to school with kids his own age. Jack feels the same way. He chomps at the bit to attend public school. Reluctantly, Brian and Karen cave and escort Jack to school.So off goes Jack—all twinkle-eyed—to school. And not just any school, but an elementary school named after novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. Initially, Jack's towering hirsute presence makes him an outcast. Although the physical act of growing up may come easily to Jack, mastering the mental feats of maturation pose more difficulties to him than he could ever imagine. Jack experiences many of the problems that the Great Dane who hung out with the dachshunds encountered in the 1966 Dean Jones farce "The Ugly Dachshund."Just when you think that Robin Williams has worn out his welcome, the inventive actor manages to plumb new depths. His funny yet restrained performance of a 10-year old trapped in a the body of a 40-year old negotiating the obstacle course of adolescence probably would garner him an Oscar, but his Jack emerges as more of a character than a clown. Although "Jack" qualifies as a comedy, the film contains enough sharp dramatic turns to hoist it above similar slickly produced but synthetic kid ventures such as Dudley Moore's "Like Father, Like Son" and the 1988 Judge Reinhold movie "Vice Versa."In "Jack," Williams radiates best during those scenes when he discovers that life's silver the silver lining can just as easily turn to lead. A particularly poignant moment occurs when Jack struggles to persuade his fifth-grade teacher, Ms. Marquez (winningly enacted by Jennifer Lopez), to escort him to the school dance. Not only does Jack have a crush on her, but she is also the only person with whom he could dance who was his own height. When she reluctantly rejects him, prepare to be plunged headlong into your handkerchief. Although Robin Williams deserves praise for his charismatic performance, the real genius looking over the shoulders of "Jack" is Coppola. Several critics have savaged Coppola for helming what in their hallowed estimation is a far cry from "Apocalypse Now." Obviously, they forgot that Coppola cranked out his first comedy in 1966 with "You're A Big Boy Now," so the famous director is no stranger to high jinks. Coppola gives "Jack" an artsy-fartsy sophistication. Whenever possible, he presents the adult world from Jack's perspective, so we get a number of interesting shots, such as the instant of birth, the view from a turret window onto the outside world, or a glimpse through a slot in a box at Jack's mother trying to get him to come out and play. Coppola has cleverly crafted every minute of "Jack" for maximum dramatic impact. Coppola fleshes out Williams' superb performance with product references that enhance the juvenile facets of Jack's character. The blinking lights on the heels of Jack's sneakers, for example, are a splendid touch to Williams' shenanigans. Another amusing episode has Williams begging his parents to let him bed down with them, then asking if his "Stimpy" doll can crowd in with them. As Jack's overprotective mom, Diana Lane excels in showing the struggles to deal with a person as fragile as Jack. Of course, Bill Cosby strikes high notes every time he appears without having to steal scenes from Williams. Fran Drescher exudes sexuality but provides more than window dressing as party girl Dolores Durante, the mother of Jack's closest school yard chum, Louis (Adam Zolotin). The bickering duo of girls who harass Jack on the playground are fun to watch, too. "Jack" boasts many wonderful touches. Some touches you may overlook because Coppola so skillfully and invisibly integrates them without appreciating their underlying significance.If the concluding scenes of "Jack" do not move you to tears, you're obviously watching the wrong kind of movie. Ultimately, "Jack" proves that there are more important things in life than size.

jplatten I watched ten minutes of this and felt pretty sick.There have been documentaries on this subject on television of real children that are actually interesting, sad and happy by turns in the real world. What got into people to make such a thing is beyond me. This is the worst kind of sentimental mawkishness and a thoroughly sick and bad idea irrespective of the intentions. I think if we can have a film about marching penguins, or more seriously the columbine massacres shown at the cinema its about time we were able to face an actual documentary about a child with this condition instead of this horrible, horrible proxy for one.By the way... The central conceit that children with this syndrome look like Robin Williams is so very far off beam. In actuality they are the same height as normal children with an adult facial appearance and other attributes. (I know from a made for TV documentary that did this whole thing PROPERLY) This film is a total travesty. Only in America! If you are a buyer for a TV company: I am sure you can find the documentary I watched instead if you really try. Show that instead.

Elswet Many reviewers have compared this work to Tom Hanks's Big, wherein a young boy wishes he were "big," and the wish is granted. However, this work is the anti-thesis of that work, as an adult portrays a young child, physically, which thrusts Jack into the same venue as Martin Short's "Clifford," which was done some two years prior to this work.That not withstanding, Clifford was a holy terror, while Jack is a mother's dream. While both works require a total suspension of belief in order to enjoy them, Jack is endearing, sweet, sentimental, and entertaining. There is nothing endearing, sweet, or sentimental about Clifford.Jack is born with a genetic disorder which causes him to age 4 years for every 10, thereby causing him to appear as a 40 year old man at the age of 10.Many have bludgeoned Coppola's involvement in such a scheme, citing his prior "masterpiece" works while bemoaning this one. The fans seem to forget that artistic people who do not spread their wings, and plant their feet on strange ground, never grow as individuals and artists.Some found this work "insulting" due to the premise. It is called unintelligent. But not all films are based on intellect, and not all movie-goers care to have to think in order to enjoy a movie. And there is the added benefit of the heartwarming sentiment carried by this work. It did well in the box office, nearly doubling its budget, worldwide, and is generally under-rated here at IMDb (if only mildly so), which says that word of mouth (that this film wasn't as bad as the critics said) carried this film further than the negative reviews would have liked. It rates a 6.2/10 from...the Fiend :.