The Club Needed More Mischief

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MOVIE REVIEWS
Jackie the Stripper
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Genre: Action, Comedy, Thriller
Year Released: 2026
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director(s): Michael Head
Writer(s): Michael Head
Cast: Charlotte Kirk, Kimberly Wyatt, James Phelps, Jamie Lomas, Patsy Kensit, Emily Wyatt, Michael Head, Michael John Treanor, Chloe Meadows, Katie Price, Perry Benson, Sophie Rankin
Where to Watch: select U.S. theatrical engagements; Amazon in the UK; U.S. streaming release coming soon

RAVING REVIEW: JACKIE THE STRIPPER should have been an easy homerun. The title promises trashy fun; the premise involves female assassins taking on a secret society linked to Jack the Ripper; and the production clearly had enough money to make the sets, costumes, and overall presentation look considerably better than the average low-budget grindhouse throwback. Every so often, the movie even finds exactly the ridiculous tone it needed. The problem is that writer/director Michael Head keeps pulling away from that version of the film to make room for drama that simply isn't strong enough to support the seriousness with which it's presented.

Charlotte Kirk stars as Jackie, the leader of a group of women targeting members of “the Court,” a male-dominated organization whose history reaches back to Jack the Ripper. There's revenge, conspiracy, assassins, strippers, elaborate costumes, and enough personalities to suggest something completely unhinged should be around every corner. Instead, the movie repeatedly slows itself down to explain mythology, establish emotional stakes, and convince us that its increasingly absurd story wants to be treated with genuine drama.

That's where JACKIE THE STRIPPER lost me. There's nothing wrong with giving a ridiculous movie sincere characters or emotional consequences. Some of the best genre movies know exactly when to stop joking. Here, though, those dramatic moments often feel forced into a story that would have benefited from embracing its own silliness. The performances become more solemn, the conversations stretch on a sentence or two too long, and suddenly a movie about scantily clad vigilante assassins battling an organization descended from Jack the Ripper starts asking us to engage with material that hasn't earned that level of seriousness.

The frustration comes from seeing how many of the pieces are there. This isn't one of those productions where you can dismiss the shortcomings as the inevitable result of having no money. The cinematography knows what it's doing, the editing and lighting all work, and the locations give Head plenty to work with. There's color and texture throughout the production, and Jackie and her crew look like they belong in a much more confidently outrageous movie, in the best way possible.

Kirk handles Jackie well enough, particularly when the character is allowed to enjoy herself. She has the confidence necessary to lead this group and doesn't seem uncomfortable with the heightened world around her. Her weaker moments tend to come when the screenplay asks her to carry heavier dramatic material that clashes with everything surrounding it. That's less a problem with Kirk than with the movie's refusal to decide whether Jackie belongs in a ridiculous revenge fantasy or a serious story about trauma, power, and female solidarity.

The supporting cast fares better whenever Head permits them to be the chaos agents they should be. Sophie Rankin's Savage gets what may be the funniest line in the entire movie with a perfectly placed, "and that's why I went vegan." It's exactly the kind of absurdity JACKIE THE STRIPPER needed more of, a joke that works because the movie doesn't try to stop and explain why it's so funny or turn it into another piece of mythology. Rankin understands the assignment in that moment and provides one of the easiest laughs in a film that could have used far more of them.

Rebecca Michael is another standout as Moonbeam, which makes the character's limited screen time especially puzzling. Michael has an immediate presence that fits the heightened material beautifully; the peak Britney Spears cosplay created one of the film's most iconic characters, and Moonbeam feels like someone who could have added considerably more personality to the ensemble if the screenplay had given her the opportunity. Making that underuse even stranger is the fact that she's essentially the main focus of one of the film's posters. Marketing her that prominently creates an expectation that Moonbeam will have a meaningful place in the story, only for Michael to be left with far less to do than her performance deserves. It's one of the film's biggest missed opportunities.

Kimberly Wyatt, James Phelps, Jamie Lomas, Patsy Kensit, Emily Wyatt, and the rest of the large ensemble contribute to a movie crowded with characters, though having so many people involved can be a problem. There's simply too much competing for attention. The Court needs its history explained; Jack the Ripper needs his connection to the present; Jackie needs her mission, her past, and her reasoning shown; the women need their individual personalities; and the film still wants room for comedy, action, romance, revenge, and heavier material.

A more ruthless screenplay could have removed a considerable amount of explanation and let the characters bounce off one another. The basic idea doesn't require much convincing. Bad men run an evil organization. Jackie and her crew want them dead. That's plenty. Every additional layer makes the movie feel less playful, and the mythology gradually becomes something the film has to work toward rather than something adding to the fun.

Then there's the stripping, or rather, the surprising lack of it. This isn't really a complaint, and the movie certainly doesn't owe anyone a specific amount of skin. It's simply strange that a film called JACKIE THE STRIPPER places relatively little emphasis on the actual stripping. The title suggests a particular kind of exploitation movie, and the marketing leans into that expectation, only for the finished film to spend much more time on secret societies, personal histories, and dramatic confrontations. (Again, that’s fine, just felt odd.)

It reminded me of the kind of movie that might have turned up on USA Up All Night in the 1990s. The title and poster would have promised something completely trashy, filled with chaos, T&A, bad behavior, and probably something that parents didn't want younger viewers watching. You'd stay up expecting exactly that and gradually realize you'd stumbled into somebody's passion project, one that was convinced its characters and mythology wanted to tell a deeper story.

There's actually something charming about that comparison because JACKIE THE STRIPPER does feel like a passion project. Head clearly believes in this world and has put real effort into building it. The problem isn't caring too much about the movie. It's not recognizing which parts of that enthusiasm translate to the audience and which parts needed trimming. The story doesn't become more meaningful simply because the characters start speaking at length about the world they’re in.

The humor demonstrates what could have worked. When JACKIE THE STRIPPER allows itself to be cheeky, inappropriate, or outright ridiculous, the cast responds well. The villains become more enjoyable. Even the rougher edges feel appropriate because you're watching something that knows exactly what kind of entertainment it's providing. Those moments unfortunately never last long enough. The comedy can't build momentum because the drama interrupts it; in a version of this, those extremes complement each other.

The action has a similar inconsistency. There are energetic bursts and enough visual imagination to keep the movie from looking flat, but the confrontations rarely become as wild as the setup promises. When you're already operating in this kind of heightened world, restraint isn't necessarily an asset. The movie keeps reaching the point where it could finally lose control, only to pull itself back. That's probably the most disappointing thing about JACKIE THE STRIPPER. It's not a cheap-looking disaster with nothing going for it. It has the production values, costumes, sets, a cast willing to go along with the insanity, occasional genuinely funny moments, and a premise that shouldn't require much effort to turn into an entertaining piece of trashy genre filmmaking.

Instead, the movie spends too much of its runtime trying to prove that there's something more substantial underneath all of that. Maybe there is, but the harder it pushes for seriousness, the further it gets from what gives it the potential. Savage's vegan punchline and Moonbeam's brief appearances understand this world better than several of the larger dramatic sequences do. They aren't embarrassed by how ridiculous it is.

JACKIE THE STRIPPER needed more of that confidence. Give Rebecca Michael more screen time, let Sophie Rankin keep tossing out one-liners, cut back the mythology, stop forcing emotion into every conflict, and allow the assassins, strippers, villains, and Jack the Ripper nonsense to become as chaotic as they sound on paper. The movie already had everything necessary to be a wildly entertaining guilty pleasure. Its biggest mistake was repeatedly insisting on being taken seriously.

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[photo courtesy of FRANKHAM FILMS, HEWES PICTURES]

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