Tagline 1

A $50 million heist
A ski resort held hostage
A cop with nothing to lose

Tagline 2

Jack take a vacation? Not on his life.

Elevator pitch

Die Hard at a ski resort (but without any skiing, that shit’s expensive!)

Summary

Troubled loose cannon cop Jack Wild (yes, really) is persuaded by his brother and sister-in-law to take a break from it all and accompany them on a ski trip… only to find a mobster at the resort. And then a team of baddies take over the place to get the mobster’s diamonds.

Trailer

Personnel

Cast

Info

Opinion

When I say this is Die Hard at a ski resort, boy, do I mean it!

Die Hard checklist
  • Unmarried cop on vacation: check!
  • Family member/s on site for higher stakes: check!
  • Assorted Euro baddies taking over a buildingful of hostages: check!
  • Led by a respected, international actor playing a well-dressed, well-spoken East German killer: check!
  • Cop talks to himself sarcastically about how well his vacation is going: check!
  • Cop disbelieved when reporting the hostage crisis to the authorities over the radio: check!
  • Cop takes out baddies one by one: check!
  • Cop and lead baddie exchange snappy repartee via stolen walkie-talkie: check!
  • Baddie threatens to kill hostage unless hero gives himself up: check!
  • Baddies already prepared for the inevitable response from the cavalry: check!
  • Bye bye, cavalry: check!
  • Baddie identifies the cop and cop’s family member/s: check!
  • Baddies have a plan to kill all the hostages and make it look like they’re dead, too: check!
  • Baddie reveals his motive is not what he made it seem: check!

Just about the only thing they didn’t include was comic relief or a Christmas theme. And the snow was right there, fer crying out loud!

But given just how many Die Hard rip-offs there have been, and how bad most of them are, Crackerjack comes off as one of the better ones, especially given its low budget ($4 million Canadian, which is, what, a buck fiddy in real money? ;). Plummer’s accent is not in Rickman’s league, Kinski doesn’t get to make us care much about her, and it lacks the little comic touches of its role model.

On the other hand, things move along at a fair pace (once the trouble starts), and when it comes to the hand-to-hand combat, it feels genuinely punishing, with Griffith pulling off some sweet moves. (I thought he was an actor!)

Spawned two more movies: in 2, Jack Wild is played by a different actor. And 3 has no other connection to the other two apart from the title. Always a sign of quality! :D

Movie

All movie links are for free (no account required), legal & licensed (AFAIK) streaming VOD in English (or original language with English subtitles) and work at time of writing in my location, Mexico. Availability and language options may be different in your location. Asterisk by the one I watched.

Screenshots

Crackerjack 1994

Crackerjack 1994

Crackerjack 1994

Crackerjack 1994