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Jungleground
1995 film by Don Allan From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Jungleground is a 1995 Canadian action film directed by Don Allan and starring Roddy Piper, Torri Higginson, Peter Williams, JR Bourne and Rachel Wilson. Piper plays a cop challenged to a high stakes escape game by the ruler of a violent no-go zone (JR Bourne), who has kidnapped his girlfriend (Higginson) and threatens to kill her if he fails.
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Plot
 | This article's plot summary needs to be improved. (November 2024) |
Cast
- Roddy Piper as Lt. Jake Cornell
- Torri Higginson as Sammy Woods
- Peter Williams as Dragon
- JR Bourne as Odin
- Rachel Wilson as Posie
- Joel Gordon as Gameshow
- Lexa Doig as Spider
- Nicholas Campbell as Robert Neilson
- Christopher Kennedy as Diesel
- Jason Blicker as Ferret
- Jeff Wood as Thor
- Michael A. Miranda as Slim (as Silvio Oliviero)
- Victoria Snow as Sgt. Purdy
- Damon D'Oliveira as Blackjack
- Anne Marie DeLuise as Whitney (as Anne Marie Loder)
- Robin Dunne as Pretty Boy
- Earl Pastko as Louis Brising
- Nicole de Boer as Caitlin Dean
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Production
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Jungleground was made by two Toronto companies, Peter R. Simpson's Norstar Entertainment and George Flak's Performance Pictures, who had worked with Piper the year prior on Back in Action.[1][2] It marked Piper's ninth feature film appearance.[3] Despite its familiar gang-based storyline, the star vouched to rise above mere exploitation, saying: "We don't want this to be just a fighter punching out a bunch of kids. Also, several of the characters are more than just stereotypes."[4] Don Allan of Revolver Pictures, a notable player in the field of music videos, made his first and only directorial feature with this film.[5]
Principal photography took place in the Toronto metropolitan area between mid July and late August 1994, shortly after No Contest, another Norstar production in which Piper played a supporting role.[3][6][5][7] The announced budget was CAD$2.5 million.[8] A section of Cherry Street, a public road in the south of the city, was flanked with rows of derelict cars to transform it into the main artery of the film's fictional crime district.[7] A number of extras, whom Piper described as "decent kids in bad situations", were actually drawn from local gangs.[4] Allan rented pieces from Hamilton plastician Antonella Sigismondi, a friend who had done art direction for several music videos, to represent the work of Torri Higginson's sculptor character.[9][10]
Release
Pre-release
The film was screened for industry professionals at the 1995 American Film Market in Santa Monica, and the MIFED in Milan.[11][12]
Home media
Jungleground debuted on Canadian and U.S. VHS on August 8, 1995.[13][14] In Canada, the film was part of a multi-picture distribution deal between Norstar and Malofilm.[8] In the U.S., it was picked up by Triboro Entertainment.[15] Triboro and disc-based media specialists Image Entertainment brought the film to LaserDisc on October 25, 1995.[16] Image also re-issued it on DVD on July 20, 1999.[17]
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Reception
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Commercial
According to numbers quoted from trade publication Video Store Magazine, Jungleground produced a strong return on investment of 164.2 percent for its rental outlets.[18]
Critical
Jungleground received mostly positive reviews. Mike Mayo of The Roanoke Times wrote that "[o]verall, the film's got an inventiveness, colorful characters and humor that fans expect of a good action movie, and Piper has the presence to carry it off.[14] Robert Philpot of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram assessed that "[f]ormer pro wrestler Roddy Piper has a way with a one-liner, and for all its derivativeness, the movie does have some original ideas".[19] In his publication VideoScope, genre critic Joe Kane described it as "Escape from New York meets The Most Dangerous Game", but added that "[f]ortunately, director Don Allan and crew keep the pace so blistering that this new sprint through old turf kept us pretty much glued".[20] LaserDisc News was in agreement, saying that "[t]he explosions are good and the narrative never slows down or gets sidetracked".[21]
Among dissenters was TV Guide, who opined that "[n]ot one minute of Jungleground is enlivened by any emotional subtext" while "[c]haracters only exist to be set up as potential homicides". It also deemed that comparisons with the recent and bigger-budgeted Hard Target and Surviving the Game did it no favor.[22] Gerard Fratley, author of the book A Century of Canadian Cinema, was strongly put off by Jungleground's violence. Calling it "[a]n odious film", he complained that "[p]unks are everywhere, buildings are decrepit, crime is rampant, brutal gang war rules, bullets fly and cars are aflame in a darkness that seems eternal. A love affair between a policeman and a dancer lightens this pit of depravity all too briefly."[23]
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References
External links
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