Painkiller Jane (2005 TV Movie) User Reviews

Excellent for Sci Fi Channel; about a 6 overall.

[gray1937-1 · 6/10 · 14 December 2005]

Reasonable plot, sufficient suspense and misdirection. The premise is believable in a science fiction way. There are no fake monsters. There are no incredibly stupid moves by the heroine ineptly designed to create artificial tension, an amateurish plot technique that seems to be rampant even in network (e.g., "24") programs. Good role for great old Richard (Shaft) Roundtree. No really awful acting. Attractive heroine. There were no parts that were so slow or boring that I skipped ahead, and I would watch this again in a year or so. It is head and shoulders above most Sci Fi Channel fare. Clearly, I was pretty impressed.

No, it's not Emmy caliber, but it is so much better than expected, I really can't understand what "ambrazos" is whining about in his review.

Surprisingly OK ...

[Vic_max · 6/10 · 27 April 2008]

After watching a few episodes of the recent TV series, I expected the worst. However, this movie (the original) was surprisingly different and better. All the actors are different and the plot is actually interesting.

Basically, the story is about a female soldier who has an unexpected reaction to a chemical agent. She gains regenerative and some sort of perceptual power. The military wants to seclude, study and use her ... but she's more interested in finding out what and who is responsible for what happened to her.

The film is reasonably well acted and the plot is interesting. Her quest to find a diabolical foreign scientist who is as surprised at her situation as she is ... is interesting. Plus, he's not quite as far away as one might think.

If you're looking to pass time with a semi-decent "made-for-TV", B-level sci-fi movie, this might work for you.

Predictable but enjoyable scifi flick

[VickyC · 5/10 · 15 December 2005]

Movie contains no real surprises but held my interest for the duration. Plot as described in other posts. "Dark Angel" comparisons are obvious even though the comic book that this movie is based on pre-dated that show. Characters are attractive and likable but needed more development and background.

*****spoiler*****

Some special effects like when she heals herself from a high powered rifle shot and the bullet spontaneously ejects from her abdomen are pretty cool. Bad and good guys are obvious and I agree with a previous poster that the "twist ending" is not a twist anymore. Romance is hinted at but plays no part in the film if that is what you are looking for and like in a movie. Tate Donovan plays against type as scientist involved in the plot.

****end spoiler****

As stated previously, it is an obvious setup for a series or sequel (depending on ratings is my guess). I have never read the comic book that this is based on but I will look for it now after seeing the movie

Fairly decent, obvious pilot for a series.

[fgunther · 5/10 · 17 December 2005]

This is the first show I've ever seen Emmanuelle Vaugier in, and she's not half bad, as an actress, or as eye candy.

The basic plot line seems to be, she's infected by a virus when she and her Army Special Ops team stumble onto a biolab camouflaged as an illegal drug factory. This virus is usually 100% fatal, but accelerates her body's healing abilities. She finds this out when she is the only survivor of an ambush as her team tries to evacuate the lab.

Naturally, Dark Forces in government and crime want to analyze her healing abilities, and create a force of unkillable warriors. For the remainder of the flick (pilot?), she's on the run, trying to figure out who's wearing the White Hats and Black Hats. She forms an alliance with a good-looking (naturally) thief and his buddies, and eventually figures out which way is up.

It is a pleasure to see Richard Roundtree again, and part of his excellence is, he is equally convincing as both good guy and bad guy (sorry, you'll have to watch the film to see which he turns out to be). Hopefully, the TV series, if it comes, will leave out some of the sappier sister/sister interactions, one of this film's weak points.

Good escapist Saturday afternoon stuff, about what you expect from SciFi's better original flicks.

Clichéd action film.

[imdb-19548 · 3/10 · 12 November 2007]

This is an OK film as long as you aren't expecting much, definitely leave your brain at the door.

The plot is nothing new, no original thought here. The acting is actually quite good although it's sometimes hard to judge the acting when the dialogue is this bad.

The main problem is that all the "surprises" are obvious, you won't be surprised by anything in this film, the plot twists can be see long before they arrive and they have all been used elsewhere.

The plot is also a bit nonsensical with characters behaviour, the villains in particular, not being believable.

The directing is terrible with annoying visual effects thrown in for no real reason.

All that said this is watchable trash if you are looking to kill a bit of time.

I want my time back

[ambrazos · 1/10 · 11 December 2005]

Hey, I have an idea for a movie - let's take Robocop, mix it a bit with Dark Angel, and throw in some SciFi Channel B-movie directing skills. Painkiller Jane was written with every worn out tired Hollywood cliché' available. It's like they opened the cliché book and just went to town. Good looking woman gets infected with some funky biological agent and becomes nearly invincible. Throw in a military conspiracy and a foreign bad-guy and you have a recipe for true disaster. The jerky camera shots and silly jogging through the woods sequence just added to my disgust. I can't believe I spent part of an evening watching this garbage. Please. Somebody. Make it go away.

Not very original, but pretty good

[sjberke · 7/10 · 17 December 2005]

Nothing really imaginative, creative, or original about this movie, but well made and a very earnest effort to make you think as well as entertain you. Definitely avoided going for cheap scares or titillation. The earnestness of this effort is shown as much by what was not there as much as what was--there were no romantic/sexual scenes at all. Had this movie been the hackwork that 'ambrazos' would have you believe, we would have seen Jane tumble into bed with either Nick the thief or 'Dr. Knight' (maybe both). We didn't and that impressed me some.

While the cast generally did well enough (and it certainly was good to see Roundtree again), I was really impressed by Vaugier. A very impressive presence, without being sexual or showing much skin. As an action heroine, I think she stands comparison with Jennifer Garner, maybe even Angelina Jolie All in all, a movie worth recording and watching (mostly because of Vaugier).

Should have been Painful Jane

[mrfrane · 30 December 2005]

While this is clearly not in the same league as the usual SciFi Saturday night godawful piece o'junk, with much better production values (not Bulgaria? sonofagun!) and decent acting, the story itself was a complete snore. Not an original concept in the whole thing and it just dragged on for two hours without anything really happening. Yeah, she's cute, yeah, she looks nice in leather, but Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Ooops, sorry, dozed off.

I spent two hours waiting for something, anything, to happen. Oooh, goodie, a shootout. Now there's an original concept, and certainly one worth waiting for. And, ooooh, the suspense is killing me. Is she really dead? If this was a pilot, I'm not too curious about the show. If it wasn't a pilot, there's no excuse for the utter lack of story.

Good Pilot, Embarrassingly Poor Military References

[ich_yama · 5/10 · 22 December 2005]

This is a reasonable TV pilot. I would even watch the series if only the SciFi channel would hire a military consultant to sufficiently cultivate the illusion of realism.

Here are my military complaints: (1) The uniforms do not match the depicted branch of service. (2) The mixed-gender assault element in the beginning of the film is unbelievable. (3) The Aliens-style crab-walk-with-a-rifle does not pass even school-children's idea of tactical muster.

The protagonist is believable in other respects, not to mention physically attractive without crossing the 1950's Amazon Action Heroine threshold. The directing seemed inspired, the casting excellent, and the acting well above the level demanded by the mediocre script!

Ich_Yama's SciFi-meter:

(BBB: 1 primary character)

(BEM: None)

(World: Present/near-future)

(Preference: Conspiracy theorists)

Not bad

[mintchan · 6/10 · 1 April 2006]

It could have been worse. The plot was realistic and reasonable but need more factual details to be more convincing. There are a lot of interesting characters but the lacking of their background stories make them feeled more like props. The direction was foggy. It seemed like the director let the audience fill in the blanks. There seemed to be a lot more of the story to tell but it was left out, trying to fit the whole stories into the movie. This should have been a ten-hour mini-series or a series.

There were no romance or sexual tension (from what I got) and that was the good part of the film. I also like the superhero(ine) that has enough weakness to make her feel like a human. I probably like Jane more than Superman, Batman or even Laura Croft.

The soundtrack was lovely, it could be the best part of the film. The worst part would be the Vaugier's hair. What were they thinking.

Disappointing

[sarastro7 · 5/10 · 29 January 2006]

I never read the Painkiller Jane comic book, but I read a review of this movie that said it was OK. So I watched it. I have to say I was a little bored, though. The actors are not bad, but the story was not very well told, lacked depth and action, and fizzled out with a very poor climax at the end. There were practically no stunts, no martial arts, nothing resembling superhero-style action.

The woman who played Painkiller Jane was fairly charismatic, however, and convincingly portrayed an army captain. I kept thinking how much she resembled Evangeline Lilly (Kate from "Lost"), body-type-wise. This would have been a true eye-candy experience if Lilly had played the lead character, but the other actress was a fair substitute. Too bad she didn't really have much to do.

5 out of 10.

It may be predictable, but it's still pretty damn good!

[nzswanny · 7/10 · 6 May 2016]

QUICK REVIEW:

Okay, maybe a 10 is a bit high, but the rating is unbelievably low! Painkiller Jane delivers an unoriginal movie about someone that gets exposed to a biochemical weapon that lets her have self-healing powers. The military tries to get her so they can cure her, but also wants to get her back under their security. Not too bad a plot, am I correct? Yes, however, it is predictable and the story is unoriginal. But that doesn't mean this is a bad movie! You won't like it if you hate cheesy movies, however, if you like cheesy movies, go grab some popcorn and enjoy this film! It's more of a cheesy popcorn movie, and it is a bit too fast paced a lot through out the movie. If this movie was a bit slower, I'd rate it a 6.6/10. But, because it's really fast paced, I rate it 6.2/10.

Yep. That review sure was short. However, I'm a bit busy right now, so maybe I'll edit the review later.

Generous 5 rating for a souless film

[PaxD75 · 5/10 · 16 November 2020]

Having recently watched (and reviewed) the TV series (which I enjoyed, with some caveats), I still had a need for a little more Painkiller Jane. When you binge an enjoyable TV series - the characters, the experiences, the world that was created stay with you for a little bit on an emotional level.

While the TV series had drama, emotional highs/lows, emotional responses to characters (positive and negative) - this film offered none of that.

The plot was as basic as it gets. There was no drama, no sense of expectation, no layered or complex story-telling. It felt like a template for a plot that wasn't fleshed out; an idea scribbled on a napkin; an overused pun; business speak, small talk - predictable, empty.

If the plot didn't put you to sleep, the acting most certainly did. Everyone was cool, stoic, in control. Every interaction was cool, in control. No emotional ups or downs. No screaming, no fear, no sense of danger, no heavy breathing, no sweat, no drama, no problem. Just people talking to eachother. Even the secondary characters acted the same - cool, in control, above it all.

When you couple the total lack of emotional acting with a very linear predictable plot - it's like unwrapping a candy bar only to discover that it's plastic. You are left wanting.

Rating this a 5 because all the technical stuff is there (like mannequins on display or robots on an assembly line) but the film lacks any semblance of a soul. Would never watch this again not because it's horrific but because it's empty of everything that matters.

fairly enjoyable...

[gammakrikit · 7/10 · 15 December 2006]

having never read the comic, I didn't really notice all the liberties they took with the 10 year old story... for those that care, this is probably about as faithful an adaption as the 1st Punisher movie (you know, the Dolph Lundgren version we try not to think about), although probably more enjoyable... Richard Roundtree, of course, was great... Emmanuelle Vaugier did a pretty good job, although I must confess, I initially mistook her for Erica Cerra from Eureka, not that that's a bad thing for either girls - plus it's even funnier, as they're both listed as being from Vancouver (hey, I was tired)... I would agree that certain military angles get tired, but it seemed pretty minimal, all things considered... The villain became pretty predictable (possibly the fault of a natural inclination to dismiss his insinuation of Roundtree as the true villain), but not too detrimental to the film... probably rent or watch it on television before making any final decisions...

Worth the watch

[the_doofy · 6/10 · 3 June 2021]

The antagonist gender and race has become all too predictable in these things

That being said the movie was clean, the acting was decent, no drugs, pot smoking, pervasive language

I enjoyed it, my wife was interested in it

thumbs up.

Not perfect, but watchable and much better than the series that followed

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 23 August 2012]

For SyFy original movies Painkiller Jane is quite good. Most SyFy movies are garbage, but there are some tolerable ones out there and Painkiller Jane is one of them, in fact I'd go to say that it is also one of their better ones overall. And it is much better than the series that followed, which I never got into in all honesty. Sure the film is flawed, I didn't care for the twist ending, which was predictable and rather obvious, or for the rather clichéd villain and his motivations. The story is a good idea generally and has some good moments like some tense action, but the middle section does see it not as focused narratively and somewhat draggy in pace sometimes. Conversely, I actually found the filming to be quite good, I personally find the criticisms of jerky camera shots to apply to the series more than here, here it is much less hackneyed than most SyFy movies. The settings are less drab here too. Thankfully there is less of an emphasis thrown-in special effects, what effects there are are not that great but there have also been worse. The music is lovely, while most of the characters don't feel like underdeveloped props like they did in the series. The script is a mixed bag, again an improvement on most SyFy movies, there is evidence of wit and tension, but there are also bits that could have flowed better and felt rather forced. The acting is better than average and much more natural. Emmanuelle Vaugier is a beautiful woman and suitably charismatic and gritty, much more of a leading lady than the series' lead Kristiana Loken. In conclusion, a watchable movie that even with its flaws is better than most SyFy original movies and the series. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Actually enjoyable.

[Terryfan · 7/10 · 13 February 2015]

While I don't watch movies on SCI/FI Channel this one I watch out of boredom.

To my surprise I actually found a movie on the SCI/FI Channel that got my attention from start to finish.

Painkiller Jane is inspired by the comic book character of the same name.

The plot centers on the protagonist Captain Jane Elizabeth Browning played by Emmanuelle Vaugier gets exposed to a biochemical weapon that sudden gives her super human powers as healing powers, speed, strength.

She later discovers that they want to use her as a test subject which promotes her to escape and comes to see there was more troubles than she realizes.

While the plot may not be the most original it is enough to hold the viewer attention.

The music is interesting with some rock songs to help tell the story.

Painkiller Jane was actually a film that kept my interesting which is a rare for the channel.

While it may seem like another SCI/FI Channel film that is going to be a mess it actually was enjoyable.

With a interesting enough plot you might enjoy it.

I give Painkiller Jane a 7 out of 10