Rating: 
Summary: Big Jake IS one of the Duke's classics
Review: I disagree with the review from Amazon. My dad always took me to the movies every time that a John Wayne move came out, and I think that Big Jake is one of the Duke's classics. It had humor and emotions in it that you usually don't see from the Duke.
Enjoy
Rating:
Summary: My Favorite John Wayne movie
Review: I have a few Wayne movies in our collection, but by far, this is the best! This an action packed movie all the way through. John Wayne "Duke" makes some classic lines. My favorite part is when he takes out a bad guy through the shower with a "Greener". Richard Boone also played an excellent role, along with "Fatty-the machette man", and his disrespectful son, Patrick Wayne. I like many other John Wayne movies, but this one is the one that I believe to have the most humor, action, and is just an all around good movie! It comes highly recomended!
Rating:
Summary: Lots of action made me give this one five stars.
Review: I like this movie a lot, but my opinion of it went down some when Bruce Cabot & Wayne's dog met their deaths. If there was anything I didn't like About "Big Jake", it was that.
Rating: 
Summary: One for the collection
Review: I really enjoy this one . It is filled with humor and some great lines delivered as only the Duke can. Great supporting cast and Richard Boone is excellent as a bad guy. Yes, it is violent in a stabbing/butchery sort of way, but audience appeal was changing in the mid 70's and the Dukes films were changing with them. Overall worth a buy. The only thing missing is a widescreen picture to represent the outdoor scenery in the way which is so important in a great western. Thank goodness for DVD.
Rating: 
Summary: Big Jake - Poorly written western
Review: I'm a big fan of John Wayne and his western movies. If you've never seen this movie, it's worth a watch but that's about it. I think it's one of his worse westerns. The premise is good but the writing and acting are not. I liked the juxtaposition of Big Jake's old world, tried and true methods against his 2 younger sons embrace of new technology. Good start but the casting and acting very poor. First having Bruce Cabot playing an Indian is down right stupid. Why not get an Indian actor to play this part? Second, Big Jakes' 2 sons continue to act very adolescent, as if they're out on their first camping trip. I think they're both a little to ripe (30 years old) to be playing such goofy people. I think Big Jake would have to seriously consider that Ms Big Jake might have fooled around a bit to produce such stupid offspring. The climax is ok but still logically some stupid macho antics. i.e. Gunman gets drop on Jake Jr and ops for a fair draw instead of just shooting him. Poor, poor writing.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I hoped...
Review: I'm giving this one four stars for the quality of the video, sound, and the fact that this movie has, for at least 90 minutes, everything you would ever want in a late-era John Wayne movie. The acting is not bad at all, the story is set up very well, the villians are believable, and you have the obligatory old codger showing up his estranged smart-aleck sons while he teaches them a thing or two. After we've been through 90 minutes of establishing trust and killing a few bad guys along the way, we come to the big showdown where the Duke tries to bluff the kidnappers, and then kill them. It's a pretty good shoot-out, and of course the good guys win. The problem I have is that the Duke loses his best friend and his dog in the fight, as well as getting shot twice himself. When it's all over, Big Jake, his two sons, and his grandson exit with big smiles on their faces. The camera freezes on this image while the credits are rolling. It was kind of like a bad 1970's crime drama. I expected to see in bold letters, "A QUINN MARTIN PRODUCTION."
Rating:
Summary: A Pretty Good Reason to Waste a Couple of Hours
Review: It's out West at the turn of the century. Unreliable technology (cars) mix it up with reliable protein (horses). A gang of vicious kidnappers attacks a ranch, kill several people and make off with the young grandson of Jacob McCandles (John Wayne) and Martha McCandles (Maureeen O'Hara). They've been estranged for years, but she calls on him to rescue their grandson. Big Jake is a crusty, aging rancher with -- for his grandson -- a heart as big as his gut. He sets out with the ransom, a couple of his sons who don't know him, an Indian Scout and a dog. And he finds the kid. In the process he gets reacquainted with his sons and wipes out the gang, led by Richard Boone in a really first-rate performance.
This movie is a very pleasant way to waste a couple of hours. It has it's drawbacks. His two sons are played by Patrick Wayne, one of Wayne's own, and Christopher Mitchum, one of Robert's. They're both good looking guys but they have the acting ability of two logs. The story is predictable. But the movie works for me because...
--The relationship between McCandles and the sons is prickly and interesting.
--The relationship between McCandles and his grandson is genuinely endearing. The last of the movie, during the actual rescue, Wayne does an excellent job of working with the boy.
--Maureen O'Hara's role is small but important. It turns out she is just as ruthless as her estranged husband can be.
--And maybe most of all, there's Richard Boone. He was a charismatic actor and is more than able to stand up to Wayne's star power. The confrontation between the two at the end has a lot of energy.
--And every now and then there's some amusing dialogue...
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Jake : And now you understand. Anything goes wrong, anything at all...your fault, my fault, nobody's fault...it won't matter...I'm gonna blow your head off. No matter what else happens, no matter who gets killed, I'm gonna blow your head off.
---
O'Brian : They tell me you killed two good men in a fair fight tonight. That true?
James McCandles : No, three...countin' you.
Rating:
Summary: John Wayne!
Review: JOHN WAYNE THE BIG MAN! He getting older though in this one.His sons have become just as good shots as him and as John Wayne is slower and has bad eye sight it helps to a have two young men on your side.For they are up agains't a ruthless,bloody,horrible,and no mercy to anybody kind of gang.I remember the big machete brute is perhaps the worst.John Goodman is his name the front man who kill's em all....well almost.You know John Wayne will make it. But I still found one of the most exciting movies I have ever seen.It may not be hightech spac ships blasting,car crash movies but it still totes a good gun.
Rating: 
Summary: Stinkbomb alert--take cover
Review: John Wayne was as great as great can be when he was working for the major directors and had a good cast around him. His turkeys were invariably cooked up by his own production company Batjac, and this is one of them. Maybe when he was paying the bills he lost his sense of proportion or movie instincts, it's hard to tell. He certainly should have examined the script more closely: "Big Jake" doesn't have a single convincing scene or line of dialogue throughout. Wayne was 62 when it was filmed and as an action hero cuts a preposterous figure, lumbering through stunts he was a dozen years too old to do. At least earlier in "True Grit" and later in "The Shootist" this infirmity was written into the story; here it's ignored. The supporting cast except for Richard Boone is beneath contempt and even Boone is given some howlers to declaim. He looks positively grateful to be dead in the last scene.
Rating:
Summary: Big Jake
Review: My wife and I both thorougly enjoyed this movie. It was much more violent than any other John Wayne movie we've seen, but it also had its share of humerous moments. Additionally, the storyline was interesting, and the characters were, more or less, pleasurable to watch. Maureen O'Hara's (who, unfortunately, had only a small role) grandson is kidnapped for $1 million ransom. O'Hara's estranged husband, "Big Jake" McCandles, and their two sons, are sent to rescue the boy. Patrick Wayne and Chris Mitchum did a credible job in their roles as O'Hara's sons, and had some amusing confrontations with their "daddy" McCandles. The true stars of the movies though, were both Wayne and Richard Boone, who played the leader of the outlaw gang that kidnapped the boy and destroyed O'Hara's ranch. Boone was very believable as the top villain. The movie culminated in a very suspenseful confrontation between Wayne and his sons, and his Indian friend (played admirably by Bruce Cabot)with the outlaw gang. I was literally on the edge of my seat anticipating its end. A terrific movie, with a terrific cast and plot.
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