Cactus Jack is a complete waste of potential, and I wish it did wasn't. The film centers around what some would envision the average 4chan user to be, spewing his hateful rhetoric until it leads to a really powerful moment showing his mother screaming at him and berating him and it shows the trauma and the influences on him that gave him such twisted views, the moment is powerful, the specific hand movements he does, it shows a broken man trying not to snap and after this scene it goes downhill. The movie contains two clear ideas for a movie a dramatic portrayal of a man with mental illness and hateful views and a weird over the top exploitation flick both I find entertaining in their own different respected ways but put together they clash and undermine each other, I give Cactus Jack a final, 4/10.
12 Reviews
Some Unused Potential
andrewoliverjazz4 March 2021
I gave it a 5/10 because I think they were at least trying to do something interesting. A lot of the 1 or 2 star reviews on here are pretty clearly from conservatives upset about the film's message and "propaganda." I suppose that's understandable. My issue with the film is not the message, but rather that it just isn't very good. You can only look at the same few shots of a guy talking to a camera for so long before it gets old. The Cactus Jack Show sections are far more interesting. We finally get some vibrant color and the imagery is pretty horrifying and surreal. If more of the film was like that - or if it had a narrative element at all - this could have really been something. I'm hoping that the people who made this film learn some lessons from it, because I think they have real potential.
Too long
violetraven30 April 2021
Garbage that tries to make a name for itself using the most overused and over exaggerated words for the last 4 years.
mrjoshua-9261022 January 2021
Title says it all. This is a waste of time and effort and shouldn't even be viewed by by anyone. It's pure tribalism trying to get one side to hate the other based on assumptions of a reddit rat. Mind numbingly ridiculous and over the top in the worst way possible.
Found Footage Propaganda
MogwaiMovieReviews22 January 2021
Well now, this is a very ugly and unpleasant way to spend 80 minutes, and I don't recommend you do.
'Cactus Jack' tries to take the Blair Witch "found footage" genre and politicize it in a very 2021 way that jettisons storytelling, characterization and all conceivable entertainment value.
The premise is a documentary filmmaker begins filming a far right fanatic as he rants about the state of the world at great length and starts plotting to kill people. And that's about it: that's the film.
Early on it put me in mind of the (incomparably better) Interview With The Assassin, which pulled off a much more believable and enigmaticly engaging antagonist because he wasn't required to just spout strawman profanities from the first time he opened his mouth until the last.
The first 20 minutes are the best, but after that they just go off the rails: more than half the film has no story at all, it is simply Cactus Jack frothing at the camera in such relentlessly hateful ways I had to skip through parts just to get to where the story picked up again and protect my mental health. So I must have missed about 30 minutes of it, and I'm glad I did. And I still felt like I needed to take a bath throughout.
As the titular gun nut, R. Michael Gull is very good, even if EVERYTHING he is made to say is so over the top racist, sexist, homo/islamo/trans/etc-phobic, he starts feeling unrealistic within seconds. People just don't talk this way in real life: they don't add three or more targeted victim groups to EVERY sentence (LITERALLY every sentence) they speak, and then end it by reminding you they hate their mother. That's just silly. And hence the fictional bad guy *himself* becomes silly. I'm pretty sure even the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan has to take a break, crack a joke and pet a dog once in awhile.
What's really odd is there's no rejoinder presented to the positions Cactus Jack puts forwards: a good proportion of what he says is actually factually true, so I'm puzzled as to what the filmmakers are trying to achieve. If there ARE no factual arguments that disprove them, is it just the fact that he is prepared to LOOK at those uncomfortable truths that makes him a 'bad' person? Should 'good' people then believe things that aren't true? What kind of message is that to put out into the world? It seems the filmmakers simply think the mere fact that he holds them is enough to condemn him in the audience's eyes, and so don't offer any reasons why he should conclude anything differently, or realize he is mistaken in his conclusions: I'm sure there must be SOME good liberal/left-wing arguments against his positions on race, crime, terrorism, etc, but if there are it doesn't seem the filmmakers are aware of them. So they simply have him state his beliefs with a hefty dollop of the foulest language they can come up with on top to shock the audience and then hurry on.
What most disturbs me is that this seems to be how (most?) Democrats see the 70,000,000+ people in their own country who voted for Trump in 2016: a "basket of deplorables" with no redeeming features, no possible grounds or rationale for any of their concerns or grievances. Those 70,000,000 people are simply evil.
But "evil", obviously, is a very unhealthy and unhelpful way to consider every second neighbour, workmate and family member in your life. It won't make you, them, or your country any happier, safer or unified in the future. As soon as you dehumanize people in this cartoonish way, the civilized conversation is over and the battle lines are drawn. The less you listen to (and care for) these people, the more angry and violent they're going to become. Isn't that obvious?
For all this, it's still impressive what the makers have done with a miniscule budget: the acting and (iphone!) photography is more than would be hoped for with a project of this size, and the two guys in it have clearly committed themselves to the mission. The problem really is just that the mission is extremist political propaganda that will only cause further division in a country more divided now than it has been probably since the Civil War. Which seems to me an objectively awful thing to do. I really wish I hadn't seen it.
'Cactus Jack' tries to take the Blair Witch "found footage" genre and politicize it in a very 2021 way that jettisons storytelling, characterization and all conceivable entertainment value.
The premise is a documentary filmmaker begins filming a far right fanatic as he rants about the state of the world at great length and starts plotting to kill people. And that's about it: that's the film.
Early on it put me in mind of the (incomparably better) Interview With The Assassin, which pulled off a much more believable and enigmaticly engaging antagonist because he wasn't required to just spout strawman profanities from the first time he opened his mouth until the last.
The first 20 minutes are the best, but after that they just go off the rails: more than half the film has no story at all, it is simply Cactus Jack frothing at the camera in such relentlessly hateful ways I had to skip through parts just to get to where the story picked up again and protect my mental health. So I must have missed about 30 minutes of it, and I'm glad I did. And I still felt like I needed to take a bath throughout.
As the titular gun nut, R. Michael Gull is very good, even if EVERYTHING he is made to say is so over the top racist, sexist, homo/islamo/trans/etc-phobic, he starts feeling unrealistic within seconds. People just don't talk this way in real life: they don't add three or more targeted victim groups to EVERY sentence (LITERALLY every sentence) they speak, and then end it by reminding you they hate their mother. That's just silly. And hence the fictional bad guy *himself* becomes silly. I'm pretty sure even the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan has to take a break, crack a joke and pet a dog once in awhile.
What's really odd is there's no rejoinder presented to the positions Cactus Jack puts forwards: a good proportion of what he says is actually factually true, so I'm puzzled as to what the filmmakers are trying to achieve. If there ARE no factual arguments that disprove them, is it just the fact that he is prepared to LOOK at those uncomfortable truths that makes him a 'bad' person? Should 'good' people then believe things that aren't true? What kind of message is that to put out into the world? It seems the filmmakers simply think the mere fact that he holds them is enough to condemn him in the audience's eyes, and so don't offer any reasons why he should conclude anything differently, or realize he is mistaken in his conclusions: I'm sure there must be SOME good liberal/left-wing arguments against his positions on race, crime, terrorism, etc, but if there are it doesn't seem the filmmakers are aware of them. So they simply have him state his beliefs with a hefty dollop of the foulest language they can come up with on top to shock the audience and then hurry on.
What most disturbs me is that this seems to be how (most?) Democrats see the 70,000,000+ people in their own country who voted for Trump in 2016: a "basket of deplorables" with no redeeming features, no possible grounds or rationale for any of their concerns or grievances. Those 70,000,000 people are simply evil.
But "evil", obviously, is a very unhealthy and unhelpful way to consider every second neighbour, workmate and family member in your life. It won't make you, them, or your country any happier, safer or unified in the future. As soon as you dehumanize people in this cartoonish way, the civilized conversation is over and the battle lines are drawn. The less you listen to (and care for) these people, the more angry and violent they're going to become. Isn't that obvious?
For all this, it's still impressive what the makers have done with a miniscule budget: the acting and (iphone!) photography is more than would be hoped for with a project of this size, and the two guys in it have clearly committed themselves to the mission. The problem really is just that the mission is extremist political propaganda that will only cause further division in a country more divided now than it has been probably since the Civil War. Which seems to me an objectively awful thing to do. I really wish I hadn't seen it.
A bad idea unless intended
macshrikemobile24 January 2021
Just watched it till the end because I thought there must be a whopping good twist or point coming.
But nope. Can't unhear it (nothing to see really). Suggest you do not.
If anything its a free ticket to being able to spew hate and vile idea's. There is no balance, there is no lesson/idea; about 99% is cursing. Its a good source for foul language and anti-social behaviour. And its true that such an ideology like this exists I might even agree (if ever so slightly) with some of the arguments made. But it does nothing for those who do not share such a world view, rather it is fuel and intoxicating for those who do. We have seen the effect recently with the 2020 elections.
In short: A bad idea to give bad ideas such an accessible platform and format.
If anything its a free ticket to being able to spew hate and vile idea's. There is no balance, there is no lesson/idea; about 99% is cursing. Its a good source for foul language and anti-social behaviour. And its true that such an ideology like this exists I might even agree (if ever so slightly) with some of the arguments made. But it does nothing for those who do not share such a world view, rather it is fuel and intoxicating for those who do. We have seen the effect recently with the 2020 elections.
In short: A bad idea to give bad ideas such an accessible platform and format.
Appalling and Impressive
llana31 January 2021
The word "Intense" doesn't even begin to cut it. This film WILL make you feel something. It might be anger, it might be fear; it will most certainly be disgust. I seriously felt gross watching it. And that is why I believe the filmmakers did something really brilliant here. If you can stomach listening to the hate-fueled words of the most racist individual you could imagine for 90 minutes, this is worth watching. The way it's put together is artful and beautifully cinematic, (in a gross and gritty way). I was horrified, appalled, and impressed by this film.
Could he be YOUR neighbor?
kvfinn26 January 2021
" A good library has something that offends everyone."
Cactus Jack is not for the timid, or the easily offended. But good art is often offensive. This film is a barrel of TNT with Wile E. Coyote lighting a match on top of it, because it is a film about truth--there are those among us who spout hatred of their fellow man or woman, who incite violence and sponsor extremism in the name of a better America, in the name of a better world.
CACTUS JACK dares ask the questions, 'Are they your neighbors? Do you really know what they are capable of?'
CACTUS JACK takes the worst of these extremists and rolls them up into a single ball of fire, vividly and ferociously portrayed with an all-too-truthful realism. Nobody wants to admit these people exist, but the most terrifying aspect of this film is admitting to yourself they are out there. Among us. Next to us.
CACTUS JACK is a well-placed window into the soul of extremist xenophobia. It's a movie with balls, one that will offend many times over, but just when you believe it's too much, you'll realize it's making you think.
It is a brilliantly crafted film, a labor of love with a message. And if you can think for yourself, you'll see it.
Cactus Jack is not for the timid, or the easily offended. But good art is often offensive. This film is a barrel of TNT with Wile E. Coyote lighting a match on top of it, because it is a film about truth--there are those among us who spout hatred of their fellow man or woman, who incite violence and sponsor extremism in the name of a better America, in the name of a better world.
CACTUS JACK dares ask the questions, 'Are they your neighbors? Do you really know what they are capable of?'
CACTUS JACK takes the worst of these extremists and rolls them up into a single ball of fire, vividly and ferociously portrayed with an all-too-truthful realism. Nobody wants to admit these people exist, but the most terrifying aspect of this film is admitting to yourself they are out there. Among us. Next to us.
CACTUS JACK is a well-placed window into the soul of extremist xenophobia. It's a movie with balls, one that will offend many times over, but just when you believe it's too much, you'll realize it's making you think.
It is a brilliantly crafted film, a labor of love with a message. And if you can think for yourself, you'll see it.
Most disturbing found footage movies ever! And not because of the gore
horrorhomo10 October 2022
I'm a bit obsessed with the found footage sub genre so I tend to see the majority of FF movies that come out. Sure there are some great ones out there but it's hard to find truly disturbing FF movies, Poughkeepsie Tapes and Crowsnest are two that come to mind but there has yet to be another movie like Cactus Jack. It is disturbing and unsettling on so many levels. Now if you are expecting a gorefest you would be disappointed but my god this movie fu@ks with your head so bad that by the end of it you want to go live in a basement somewhere or it will make you want to become an activist. Set before trump was installed in the White House by Putin, Cactus Jack follows a documentarian who is following a right wing nut job (to say the least) who lives in his mothers basement prepping for the upcoming civil war between the left and the right.
Three things make this movie stand out from the others. One....the script is absolutely immaculate! Totally sucks the viewer in to the seedy word of Cactus Jack and gives a psychological snapshot of true evil. Two....the acting is top notch, with a great script you still need great actors to pull off the story and both of the main actors are amazing. And finally the rhetoric that Cactus Jack spews through out its run time is the most disturbing part of this movie. Raciism, homophobia, misogynist and xenophobia all are on full ugly display and if you are apart of one of these groups then this movie will sting. But It is delivered in such a way that it makes you want to watch it til the end.
Hands down the best found footage movie in decades!
Three things make this movie stand out from the others. One....the script is absolutely immaculate! Totally sucks the viewer in to the seedy word of Cactus Jack and gives a psychological snapshot of true evil. Two....the acting is top notch, with a great script you still need great actors to pull off the story and both of the main actors are amazing. And finally the rhetoric that Cactus Jack spews through out its run time is the most disturbing part of this movie. Raciism, homophobia, misogynist and xenophobia all are on full ugly display and if you are apart of one of these groups then this movie will sting. But It is delivered in such a way that it makes you want to watch it til the end.
Hands down the best found footage movie in decades!
Probably hits too close to home for some
filmstockbarrel26 August 2021
Absolute Deplorable Gutter Trash And So Are The Directors!
silicontourist22 April 2021
This reviewer, andrewoliverjazz, thought that anyone who only gave this ugly filth 1 or 2 stars was/is obviously a conservative. Andrew should learn manners and stay with discussing the film, and not insulting people, just because they disagree with their/his/her taste for foul mouthed despicable gutter filth!
Gutter language and attitude has grown to unbelievably all time low standards for at least 20 years! In that time it has gotten to the point whereby you can hardly see a film (from the USA or the UK) that uses bad language gratuitously throughout. It has become the must be type of script for many, many lackluster and talent less directors; who think they can score kudos by being shocking. This excuse for a drama is the most foul mouthed and disgusting release I have ever had the displeasure of watching...EVER! Its ludicrously inept with its white trash supremacist message because those idiots (no matter how lacking in brain cells and intelligence they are) do not/would not string together phrases in the manner of which they are used here. Proper grammatical usage just doesn't allow for such crap!
This film should never have been given a release (or made for that matter) by the Board of Censors. What is the point of protective censorship if the idiots on the board are lacking in common sense and respectful morality, thus allowing offensive garbage to be distributed. They, and the directors/Turner brothers, should be dragged into a court and charged with an offense of public decency etc then sacked, with the Turner brothers having their film licenses/credentials cancelled and revoked for good!
There is enough foul mouthed thug culture in our streets today, and I am sick to death of directors, script writers and producers pushing it into our homes relentlessly; just because they have no ideas, no real talent and no decency!
Gutter language and attitude has grown to unbelievably all time low standards for at least 20 years! In that time it has gotten to the point whereby you can hardly see a film (from the USA or the UK) that uses bad language gratuitously throughout. It has become the must be type of script for many, many lackluster and talent less directors; who think they can score kudos by being shocking. This excuse for a drama is the most foul mouthed and disgusting release I have ever had the displeasure of watching...EVER! Its ludicrously inept with its white trash supremacist message because those idiots (no matter how lacking in brain cells and intelligence they are) do not/would not string together phrases in the manner of which they are used here. Proper grammatical usage just doesn't allow for such crap!
This film should never have been given a release (or made for that matter) by the Board of Censors. What is the point of protective censorship if the idiots on the board are lacking in common sense and respectful morality, thus allowing offensive garbage to be distributed. They, and the directors/Turner brothers, should be dragged into a court and charged with an offense of public decency etc then sacked, with the Turner brothers having their film licenses/credentials cancelled and revoked for good!
There is enough foul mouthed thug culture in our streets today, and I am sick to death of directors, script writers and producers pushing it into our homes relentlessly; just because they have no ideas, no real talent and no decency!
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