Man is The Best Prey in Surviving The Game (1994)

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Ultimate Action Movies
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EVERYONE LOVES A GOOD HUNT.

What is the allure of hunting? It is something I’ve always wanted to try but never got round to. In Australia we do have a hunting culture called “pigging”, where you hunt wild pigs or boars otherwise known as “Razorbacks”. You take out some dogs, usually large mixed breeds and chase after the feral pigs. My cousin loves doing it, he even lost half his left foot after one adventurous night.

I’ve always enjoyed films about hunting as well. There is something exciting about them that gets me pumped. Must be the thrill of the chase. Predator, Hard Target and The Condemned are some of my favourites. And you can probably see a theme among them: “Man is the most dangerous game” and one of the most entertaining sub genres of action cinema.

But one movie stuck with me after I saw it at the tender age of 13 when it just came out on VHS. It showed the brutality of the social class system where the rich see the poor as nothing more as pawns for their own sick pleasure. But also you should never judge a book by it’s cover. That movie was Surviving The Game, directed by Ernest Dickerson and stars Ice T and Rutger Hauer.

WHAT IS THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME?

The story centers around Mason (Ice T), a homeless man with nothing to lose. After the deaths of his two best friends he decides he’s had enough of this mortal coil and chooses to end his life. Just as he is about to a good Samaritan named Cole (Charles S. Dutton) stops him and convinces Mason not to give up. He offers him a job as an assistant to Burns (Rutger Hauer), a hunter who takes rich businessmen out into the wilderness to hunt “big game”. Soon they head off to the mountains to a remote cabin where five other “hunters” are ready to go on their next hunt. Little does Mason know is what they are hunting will soon be him yet the hunters don’t realise how clever Mason really is.

THE THRILL IS IN THE KILL

What is essentially a modern update of the classic short story The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, which itself has inspired many other loose adaptions, it still holds up as a tightly wound action movie. The story by Eric Bernt (The Hitcher remake) keeps the tension constant with the uneasy feeling of dread for we as the audience know what is installed for Mason yet still unfolds with many character reveals and story surprises. The best written scene involves Mason with Doc (Gary Busey), a conversation about what it is to be a man, when you know your ready for adulthood and how you deal with it. Doc discusses his violent introduction to manhood and this scene sets up the machismo for the rest of the movie (poor Prince Henry Stout).

HOW FAR WILL YOU GO TO STAY ALIVE?

The directing and cinematography of the movie is like it’s wilderness setting: claustrophobic. Everything is shot in tight quarters but you can easily follow the action and the pacing is done really well, there isn’t many dull moments. The shots of the wilderness are breathtaking yet at the same time frightening as you wouldn’t want to stuck or at the worst hunted. The practical effects, especially the trophy room are very realistic but there are the occasional green screen shots that stand out but it was shot mostly on real locations so it would’ve been a treacherous shoot.

THE ULTIMATE MANHUNT

Acting wise they got quite the cast involved. Ice T is a believable hero, just skirting on the anti-hero scale but you root for him and is quite convincing as a down-in-his-luck drifter who didn’t see this job as a great second chance at life. Rutger Hauer is born to play villains and he doesn’t disappoint in this movie. As does Charles S. Dutton, after his role in Alien 3 it showed his range as in this movie that he can go between nurturing and frightening is the quickest of ease. The rest of the cast which includes F. Murray Abraham, John C. McGinley, William McNamara and Gary Busey round it off and they do a great job bringing the different personalities of the hunting party. But Busey stands out of the whole cast with his small role.

THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: KILL OR BE KILLED

The only problems I really have with the movie come from the clunky dialogue which does stand out from time to time and Mason’s suddenly ability to handle high-powered weapons with little experience but I can let it go cause it’s such an entertaining movie. Plus it had the misfortune being released a year after the similar themed Hard Target.

DID YOU CATCH YOUR PREY?

So overall if you want a white knuckle ride into the depravity of man then this is your movie. It came out at the right time before CGI ruined action movies and doesn’t disappoint on the with story, acting and directing. It makes the most dangerous game seem like something you might want to have a go at, if you have the stomach.

Dan Wilson comes from a land down under, where Mad Max roams and Vegemite tastes incredible. When he’s not fighting off drop bears he enjoys anything action, horror and sci-fi but sleeps when he can.

Let us know what you what you think in the comments!

Skyscraper Trailer: The Rock Tries His Best to Die Hard

By
Chelsey McCoy
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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Goes All Yippee Ki Yay.

If you tuned into Super Bowl 52 (LII for the numeral), you might have been able to catch some of the big trailers unveiled between Tide ads and, you know, American football. While Solo took the big fan boy gasps, a new movie called Skyscraper starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson perhaps gave ultimate action movie fans a chance to rekindle some ultimate action movie fan feelings they haven’t had since Bruce Willis Ho, Ho, Ho-ed all over Hans Gruber in the original Die Hard.

Skyspcraper’s Ultimate Action

It takes a certain type of ultimateness to get a pure action movie made in today’s day and age. Skyscraper seems to fit the bill of what it means to be an action flick in a post 9/11 international market. Starring an American veteran who lost a leg in battle, Skyscraper looks to take place in China in a new Sauron-esque mega-skyscraper which quickly terrifies the general public once it inevitably goes up in flames. The premises seems a good mix of heavy-Americanism packaged for a strong worldwide box office draw. However, the action looks legit, if not spectacle-filled, which suits The Rock just fine as a duly capable action fighter and stunt man – plus his average Joe quips look top notch.

Similarities to Die Hard

To ultimate action movie fans, Skyscraper also almost immediately seems like a thematic reboot to the Bruce Willis franchise-starter Die Hard, which came out 30 years ago in 1988. Both movies have their star trapped in an building while trying to save love ones against hijacking terrorists. While Skyscraper’s stunts might look more dramatic (at least the main one off the crane which is heavily featured in the trailer and the branding), Bruce Willis did his fair share of leaps and bounds while eluding Hans and his merry German terrorists.

It’s still to be seen how closely the internal plot in Skyscraper lines up with Die Hard’s. In one short sequence shown in the trailer we see the supposed terrorists disguised as some sort of maintenance team, while Die Hard’s terrorist organization infiltrated Nakatomi Plaza in a courier service truck. Although, it also looks like The Rock is captured by the terrorists rather early on and has his family dramatically threatened, while John McClane more aptly sneaks around knocking the terrorists off to his usual tongue-in-cheek delight – but that might more of a sign of the times than anything else.

Either way, we’ll know more as more information and trailers are unveiled in anticipation of its promised summer 2018 release date (3D release is scheduled for July 13th, 2018). The movie is written and directed by Rawson M. Thurber, who worked with The Rock on Central Intelligence (as well as, um, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story) and also stars Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller, Pablo Schreiber, Byron Mann, Hannah Quinlivan, and Noah Taylor.

Article by Jourdan Aldredge – born in the golden year of action cinema (1987), Jourdan has been an ultimate action movie fan and avid VHS collector since high school. He is an original founding member of the Ultimate Action Movie Club and the Managing Editor of the blog.

What do you guys think of Skyscraper and how it compares to Die Hard? Let us know in the comments!

Celebrating Cannon Films’ Greatest Action Movie – American Ninja (1985)

By
John Acquavita
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American Ninja: Cannon’s Perfection

In 1981, Van Halen released “Fair Warning,” their fourth LP. (Note to younger readers: the acronym “LP” stands for long play, i.e., full-length records — which preceded MP3s, compact discs and tapes. Google it if you don’t believe me.) After recording eight songs, the band thought they had the album “in the can.” But after unplugging their instruments and winding down, producer Ted Templeman said they needed one more song. Begrudgingly, they re-entered the studio, plugged in, and in one take recorded “One Foot out the Door”, what I believe to be a perfect song.

No overdubs. No re-recordings. ONE TAKE.

Much can be said of the cinematic output from Cannon Films in their 1980s heyday: schlock, low-budget, cheap, etc. But to me, American Ninja is as perfect a movie as they ever produced.

An Ultimate Action Movie Club Review

Released in 1985, American Ninja starred Michael Dudikoff as Joe Armstrong, a private in the U.S. Army. Joe’s father was stationed there during his service. After Joe’s dad was killed in an explosion, Joe was taken in and raised by Shinjuki (played by John Fujioka), who raised him as a son. You see, Shinjuki was secretly a ninja who had imparted his years of wisdom onto Joe throughout his life, for he lacked sons of his own to impart his wisdom on.

But just because Joe was trained as a ninja doesn’t mean he walked around like a bad ass. He’s not some well-oiled killing machine. Oh, no; he has amnesia from the explosion. His body reacts and performs ninjutsu, basically from muscle memory. While he acts heroically, it’s all reactive, not proactive. Therein lies the rub.

Joe was somewhat of a troublemaker as a youth and enlisted in the Army as a way of avoiding jail time. While there, he just wanted to be alone, do his time and avoid trouble — but trouble seemed to have a way of finding him. Although he tried his hardest to be a loner, Joe befriended Cpl. Curtis Jackson, played by the late Steve James. Jackson was demonstrating martial arts to servicemen when Joe walked by. Taunting him for the deaths of soldiers that occurred in the movie’s open, Jackson tried to goad Joe into a scuffle on the base. However, one does not scuffle with a ninja unscathed. Joe easily takes Jackson, even at one time with a metal bucket over his head! A friendship that would spill over into 1987’s American Ninja 2 (The Confrontation) would develop.

Remember how I said trouble had a way of finding Joe? Throughout the movie, a slow romance develops between him and Patricia (played by Judie Aronson of Weird Science fame). However, when Joe stumbles upon a conspiracy involving Patricia’s dad, Col. William Hickock (who heads the Army base), it lands him in jail.

With friends and believers few and far between, and an evil wrist rocket-wearing ninja (you gotta love Cannon!) out to get him, Joe must dig deep into his ninjutsu repertoire to save the day, get the girl, and star in the sequel.

The Multiple Levels of Perfection

I could delve deeper into a review, but this movie needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. As I’ve said before, I truly think it’s perfect on so many levels:

  • The reluctant hero trying to control his powers (comic books have been using this trope for nearly a century now)
  • The trusty, loyal sidekick who’s a good fighter, but not better than the protagonist
  • The love interest, who doesn’t rely upon gratuitous nudity to advance the plot
  • The father-figure elder/trainer
  • The antagonist (think of the wildest version of the word “ninja” you can, and multiply that by 100)

You get the picture.

American Ninja has been released on VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray. As God is my witness, it’s the only movie I own on all three media. I’ve collected American Ninja advertising, marketing and promotional materials. I also own original movie posters of it and its first sequel.

It is that perfect to me.

“Honor the code” and watch it sometime. Then feel free to let me know what you think of it.

Part Tony Manero, part Rocky Balboa, John Acquavita is a N.Y.-area transplant currently living in Ohio. He uses his “particular set of skills” to contribute to various websites covering 1980s-era action movies.

Let us know what you what you think in the comments!

9 Unforgettably Awful Lines From Ultimate Action Movies

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Ultimate Action Movies
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Ultimately Awful One Liners.

There’s a scene in Hard Ticket to Hawaii, the 1987 action flick by BBB (bullets, bombs and boobs) director Andy Sidaris, where DEA agent Rowdy Abilene (played by Ronn Moss) yells out to a girl jogging away from him on the beach: “Hey Colleen! You’ve got a great ass.” Colleen’s response? “So do you, pilgrim.”

Bad lines and action movies go together like grilled cheese and tomato soup. Some of this cheesy dialogue, like the aforementioned line, is intentional. Hard Ticket to Hawaii was always meant to be tongue and cheek, and in this case, it works. But, there are plenty of lines in action movies that fall flat, bringing the action to a grinding halt, and leaving the audience groaning.

These are some of those lines.

Samurai Cop (1991)

Synopsis: Mathew Karedas is Samurai Cop. He’s a cop, who’s also a samurai. I mean, what else do you need? The title alone sells itself.
Who said it: Robert Z’Dar as Yamashita
Quote: “I will bring you his head, and I will place it on your piano.”
Why it’s bad: In a movie filled with epically bad dialogue (like this speech) it’s hard to find a line that wouldn’t end up on this list. But the last thing anybody really wants is a rotting severed head on a white baby grand piano. That’s how you get ants.

The Order (2001)

Synopsis: Rudy (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a thief go goes to Israel in search of his father – an archeologist on a quest to find religious artifacts. Basically, Indiana Jones with Han Solo in the lead role.
Who said it: Jean-Claude Van Damme as Rudy Cafmeyer
Quote: (answering the question: Did someone get shot?) “No. I Farted.”
Why it’s bad: Farts are funny. Fart sounds are funny. Trying to cover up a fart by coughing or asking, “did anyone see that elephant?” is funny. I the middle of a shootout, it just doesn’t work. Sorry, JCVD. Any line would have been an improvement, including something as juvenile as, “No, it’s your mom.”

Above the Law (1988)

Synopsis: Nico (Steven Seagal), a Chicago cop who happens to be former Special Ops well versed in Aikido and breaking arms, uncovers CIA covert operations while bringing down drug dealers in his hometown. 
Who said it: Steven Seagal as Nico Toscani
Quote: “You guys think you’re above the law. Well, you ain’t above mine.”
Why it’s bad: Let’s face it, even on a good day Steven Seagal isn’t great with the words and the talking. But this line is just a sloppy sendup to the title, and it feels forced. That said, you can pretty much create this line with any Steven Seagal movie title. “You think you’re hard to kill? You think you’re out for justice? You think you’re marked for death” You think you’re under siege” You think you’re the glimmer man? You think you’re born to raise hell?” You get the picture.

Agent Red (2000)

Synopsis: In what could be described as the only movie co-produced by the Lifetime and Spike networks, Captain Matt Hendricks (Dolph Lundgren) teams up with former fiancée Dr. Linda Christian (Meilani Paul) to keep a dangerous chemical weapon out of the hands of terrorists. Will they fall in love again?
Who said it: Dolph Lundgren as Captain Matt Hendricks, Meilani Paul as Dr. Linda Christian
Quote: Dr. Linda Christian – “You’ve never heard of Agent Red?”
Captain Matt Hendricks – “It sounds like a bad action movie.”
Why it’s bad: You really need to break the fourth wall with a line like this, wink at the audience and give them the silent “wha whaw.” In this case, however, it was an astute observation about the quality of this movie. I really hope this line was adlibbed.

Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

Synopsis: Sgt. Chris Kenner (Dolph Lundgren) and partner Johnny Murata (Brandon Lee) go up against the yakuza to keep a beautiful woman (Tia Carrere) alive long enough to testify again its leader. 
Who said it: Brandon Lee as Johnny Murata (to Dolph Lundgren)
Quote: “Kenner, just in case we get killed, I wanted to tell you, you have the biggest d*** I’ve ever seen on a man.”
Why it’s bad: Ok, this line is pretty funny. I’d give it a pass, but the first time I heard it I was like, “wait, what?” Speaking of Tia Carrere, you ever watch her show, Relic Hunter? It was actually pretty cool. Not groundbreaking, it was basically Tomb Raider, but still worth checking out.

Colors (1988)

Synopsis: Los Angeles Police Officer Bob Hodges (Robert Duvall) breaks in a new partner, Officer Danny “Pac-Man” McGavin (Sean Penn), while battling gangs in LA.
Who said it: Rudy Ramos as Lieutenant Melindez
Quote: “Tampax go someplace good.”
Why it’s bad: Although Colors is technically not an action film, this line makes the list because it comes after a poignant speech about the state of gang violence in late 1980s Los Angeles. Also, ew.

Demolition Man (1993)

Synopsis: John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone), wrongly convicted and sentenced to cryro-prison, is woken up in 2032 – now a society free from crime – to help the San Angeles Police track down and capture Spartan’s old nemesis, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes).
Who said it: Sylvester Stallone as John Spartan
Quote: “You, get me a Marlboro.”
Why it’s bad: Nobody in the history of smoking has ever asked for a loosie by brand name. A pack of cigarettes? Yes. And, I know, there have been hundreds of studies done on brand loyalty of cigarette smokers, but beggars are never choosers. Maybe if Spartan asked for a Winston and then sung the old Winston jingle like Fred Flintstone did – Winston tastes goooood, like a cigarette should – that would have been something!

Blade (1998)

Synopsis: Blade (Wesley Snipes) is a half-man, half-vampire who wears a lot of leather while protecting humans from a gang of evil vampires.
Who said it: Wesley Snipes as Blade
Quote: “Some mother******s are always trying to ice-skate uphill.”
Why it’s bad: In a movie with no ice, or skating, or cold conditions, or a hill, it really comes out of nowhere. It ends the entire scene on a total WTF moment. I can think of a bunch of other cheesy one-liners they could have used: No mis-stake about it. Sink your teeth into this. This is going to suck. Time to see the light. Die, you stupid vampire jerkface.

Dark Angel a.k.a. I Come in Peace (1990)

Synopsis: Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) is a good cop who doesn’t play by the rules. When he isn’t beating drug dealers to a bloody pulp, he’s making time for his special lady. Oh, there’s an alien drug dealer who is killing people to steal their endorphins and sell them on his home planet. He keeps saying, “I come in peace,” but does he really mean it? The answer: no.
Who said it: Dolph Lundgren as Jack Caine
Quote: “F— you, spaceman!”
Why it’s bad: This movie has the distinction of having both a terrible one-liner (this one) and a fairly clever one (when the alien tells Caine “I Come in Peace” and he replies, “And you go in pieces”) within one minute of each other. They could have replaced the spaceman line with just anything else and it would have been an improvement – even “Some mother******s are always trying to ice-skate uphill.”

Article by Eric LaRose – a Wisconsin-based connoisseur of action, horror and sci-fi movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s. A former journalist and podcaster, Eric wrote the ending to the Toxic Avenger Part 4, but the only person who will back up that claim is his wife.

Let us know what you what you think in the comments!

Jeff Speakman is the Perfect Action Hero in The Perfect Weapon (1991)

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Ultimate Action Movies
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The Dos and Don’ts of Creating The Perfect Action Hero.

It was 1991, and Jeff Speakman was busy promoting his first action movie for Paramount Pictures – The Perfect Weapon. He had just signed a four-picture deal with Paramount and was looking forward to joining the cinematic ranks of Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Speakman, who at the time was a 4th degree black belt in American Kenpo Karate under the late American Kenpo Karate Founder, Grandmaster Ed Parker, and a black belt in Japanese Goju-Ryu (he’s now 7th degree in both), had few acting credits to his name when he signed with Paramount (his largest being a noir thriller Side Roads along with very minor roles as a café customer in 1988’s Slaughterhouse Rock and a security guard in 1990’s Lionheart starring JCVD).

Still, Speakman was conscious of the mistakes others had made before him. As evidenced in this video, he didn’t want to be known as another action guy, he wanted to be known as an actor who could also do action. He had one movie in the can, and Paramount was already interested in a sequel and attaching Speakman to another actioner about a cop trying to foil a terrorist plot. More about that second movie later.

 

Unfortunately, Speakman’s journey to the upper echelon of action stardom would be stopped dead in its tracks. The Perfect Weapon underperformed, earning $14 million on its $10 million budget, and Paramount went through big leadership changes, leaving Speakman in its wake. Speakman’s next movie, Street Knight – the last movie produced by the floundering Cannon Films, barely saw a theatrical release, and Speakman’s remaining movies were made-for-cable and direct-to-video releases.

Today, The Perfect Weapon serves as a great example of what to do, and what not to do, when producing a potential action star’s introduction to audiences.

‘Street Knight’ and the Rise of Jeff Speakman as an Action Movie Star

Do This, Not That

 

Do: Show off fighting skills early on. Speakman is an impressive fighter, which director Mark DiSalle put on display in an early, shirtless training montage.

Don’t: Have a lame cold open. Having the hero working on a brutally hot construction site and being told he can take a water break is not a great opening scene. Skip to the training.

Do: Have an emotional backstory. Jeff Sanders had a rough childhood (yes, Jeff Speakman’s character basically had the same name). It wasn’t until he discovered Kenpo, through gentle prodding from a family friend, that he found some drive and purpose. Now, that friend needs his help.

Don’t: Take 15 minutes to tell the backstory. One-sixth of the movie is backstory, delaying the first fight scene – a sequence that’s only one minute!

Do: Be respectful of the ethnic qualities of your setting. Most of the movie takes place in Koreatown. The characters are Korean, the food is Korean, Jeff’s family friend, Kim, is Korean, and gives a great speech about the Korean experience in America. You get the picture.

Don’t: Forget the difference between ethnicities. Kim, the man who gives that speech about emigrating from Korea, is played by Mako – who is Japanese. None of the main actors are Korean. James Hong – Chinese. Seth Sakai – Hawaiian. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa – Japanese. Dante Basco – Filipino American. And even Professor Toru Tanaka – Hawaiian (who you can read more about as one of the top 10 pro-wresters turned action movie stars here.)

Do: Have a strong female lead. And you don’t get much stronger than Mariska Hargitay, who would go on to play tough-talking Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, for which she’s one both a Golden Globe and an Emmy.

Don’t: Keep her silent. Hargitay has no lines in this movie. She stares at the camera. Effective, but give the girl some lines. She had more lines in Ghoulies! GHOULIES! In fact, and I’ve watched this movie several times to verify this, there are zero lines delivered by women in this entire movie besides screams and mumbles. What?

 

Do: Have a major fight scene in a bar that could only be from the ‘90s. Neon lights. Loud dance music. Lots of leather. Glow-in-the-dark body paint. A confrontational or uncooperative customer. A live crocodile. Let the punching and neck snapping begin!

Don’t: Have the lead get knocked out by a beer bottle after kicking the crap out of like 10 people. Ugh. Speakman fast-punches his way through a group of angry bar patrons, snapping necks, punching throats, breaking arms, and then a guy with a beer bottle takes him out. Speakman deserved better!

Jeff Speakman is in Rare and Ultimate Form in ‘Running Red’ (1999)

The Nearly Perfect Action Star

 

For what it’s worth, The Perfect Weapon is worth the watch (and it is currently available to stream for Amazon Prime Members). Speakman’s fight scenes were pretty damn solid, and he wasn’t bad as an actor, either. He certainly didn’t deserve to disappear from theaters after this outing.

Speakman, by the way, never stopped kicking ass – though less of it was in front of the camera. He’s been inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame, the World Martial Arts Hall of Fame and the Masters Hall of Fame. According to his website, Jeff lives in Las Vegas, where he oversees the largest Kenpo Karate organization in the world, the American Kenpo Karate Systems, and operates the Jeff Speakman’s Kenpo Karate 5.0 franchise schools now in 20 counties.

Fun Fact: That third movie Paramount was eyeing Speakman for? Well, Paramount lost out on the script and it went to 20th Century Fox. Now starring Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper and Sandra Bullock, Speed would become the eighth-highest-grossing movies of 1994 and one of the biggest action movies of all time earning $350 million worldwide.

Article by Eric LaRose – a Wisconsin-based connoisseur of action, horror and sci-fi movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s. A former journalist and podcaster, Eric wrote the ending to the Toxic Avenger Part 4, but the only person who will back up that claim is his wife.

Let us know what you what you think in the comments!

Original Writer Teases New Direct Sequel for RoboCop

By
Chelsey McCoy
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Forget the Remake, RoboCop Goes Old School.

30 years since RoboCop came to life for the first time, the original cyber cop action hero has warmed our cold hearts and spurred a worldwide franchise. Two sequels, a live action TV series, two animated shows, video games, comic books and even a mostly unfortunate remake in 2014. However, nothing has quite matched the critical and commercial success of the original, which remains cult classic for its stylized effects, media influence and 80s cyber punk roots.

An ‘Old School’ Sequel

 

We’re not supposed to say too much. There’s been a bunch of other RoboCop movies and there was recently a remake and I would say this would be kind of going back to the old RoboCop we all love and starting there and going forward. So it’s a continuation really of the first movie. In my mind. So it’s a little bit more of the old school thing.

In a recent interview with Zeitgeist Magazine, writer Edward Neumeier (who wrote the original RoboCop treatment and co-wrote the script with Michael Miner) hinted that he may very well be already working on a new, direct sequel to the original which would be both a “continuation of the first movie” and “more of the old school thing.”

80s Action and Satire

 

It was sort of how I look at things and way, way back in the 1980’s when I was writing this, you were supposed to write action movies that were exciting, but you weren’t really supposed to write action movies that were funny or satirical and I always thought you could do that. In the 80’s that was kind of a satire about corporate America and a little bit about what was going in law enforcement and policing and stuff like that. Those were topics that I thought I could write about in a fun way and luckily I hooked up with a bunch of talented people and the movie turned out really well.

In the same interview, Neumeier talks about how action movies have aged since he first penned the original in 1987. At the time, action movies were not typically seen as funny or subversive to mainstream audiences, yet in Neumeier’s script, themes of corporate corruption, human greed and dystopian capitalism found an enjoyable balance with the typical action movie elements and plot.

Unexpected Cult Following

 

I had seen early screenings and people laughed at it so I thought: “Oh it might be successful” and it was more successful than anybody really knew it would be. I didn’t expect to be talking about it thirty years later. It was kind of the start of my career and later we did Starship Troopers – which was an enormous movie that took forever. I think all of that came out of that and it’s nice that people are still interested in RoboCop and they have me working on a new one at MGM right now so maybe we’ll get another one out of it.

After the 1988 writer’s strike forced Neumeier off of writing RoboCop 2 (which was aptly picked up by comic book artist Frank Miller), Neumeier eventually rejoined with RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven to create Starship Troopers, which itself went to become a hugely successful franchise in its own right (and which Neumeier was able to stay on as its primary writer). However, as RoboCop continued to spin off sequels and other iterations outside of his control, the cult reverence for his original has created an unexpected interest which has until now, been unresolved.

Article by Jourdan Aldredge – born in the golden year of action cinema (1987), Jourdan has been an ultimate action movie fan and avid VHS collector since high school. He’s an original founding member of the Ultimate Action Movie Club and the Managing Editor of the blog.

What do you think about a new RoboCop direct sequel? Let us know in the comments!

VHS Review: College Kickboxers (1991) is a Martial Arts Revelation

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Ultimate Action Movies
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The Karate Kid Goes to College.

Anyone who spent some time browsing the Action section of their local video store back in the 90’s can no doubt rattle off a few popular American Martial Arts movies- No Retreat, No Surrender, Rush Hour and just about anything starring Jean Claude Van Damme. You’d be forgiven for thinking these classics of the genre were as good as it got, but delve a little deeper into the VHS archives and I can assure you you’ll find some lesser-known but just as entertaining flicks out there. Eric Sherman’s College Kickboxers is one such ultimate action movie.

VHS is Best

 

In the early 2000’s one of my local video stores decided to become an industry leader and completely devote itself to DVD’s. As a movie obsessed teenager this meant only one thing- A massive, one-off sale of VHS’s at bargain basement prices. Knowing that the store would likely be mobbed by like-minded movie buffs I donned my backpack and jumped onto my BMX pronto. This sale was not something I was about to miss.

When I arrived at the store I pushed through the crowds gathered around the ‘overnights’ section, multi-million dollar blockbusters spilling out of their hands. I wasn’t about to be lured by the sirens of critically acclaimed films, I was going straight for the good stuff – The Action Section. As a skinny, pale white boy action movies were my passion, they offered me glimpses into the type of life I knew I would soon be living. Big buff heroes kicking ass and saving buxom girls, that was my future. But right now I had a store to pillage.

At $1 each I scooped up action movies by the handful, the more violent the cover-art the better. It was at the end of the ‘C’ section I came across College Kickboxers with a determined looking James Caulfied on the cover. I added it to my stack of goodies and after raiding the rest of the genre I came home with my summer holiday watching sorted. It wasn’t until a few days into my solo movie marathon that I watched the movie, but strangely it stuck with me. More to the point, the performance of Tang Tak-Wing left a definite impression- his moves were so fluid, so sharp for a man of his proportions. But more on that later.

Trained to Fight

 

College Kickboxers, released in the United States as Trained to Fight sticks to the same sort of story you come to expect from 90’s American marital arts movies. James Caulfield, played by Ken McLeod is a young martial arts master who finds himself in a new city for his freshman year of college. On his first day he butts heads with his bookworm roommate Mark, but after a brief tussle the two find a shared passion in martial arts and become buddies. It’s also on his first day that James encounters local badass Craig Tanner (played by Matthew Ray Cohen) and his racist, though strangely multi-ethnic martial arts gang ‘The White Tigers’.

James managed to find a job at a local Asian restaurant owned by the secretive Wu (played by Tang Tak-Wing). One evening at work James is jumped by The White Tigers who deal him a vicious 90’s style ass kicking. Wu overhears the commotion and intervenes, giving the gang members an ass kicking of their own. James, already a black belt in multiple styles, has never seen Kung Fu before and begs Wu to teach him so he can defeat Craig at an upcoming tournament. Wu declines stating that ‘Kung Fu for money no good’.

James doesn’t relent however and quickly proves his worth to Wu who eventually agrees to teach him provided he doesn’t fight in the tournament. James agrees, but after several more encounters with the White Tigers he’s forced to break his promise to Wu and enter the tournament. The tournament is a melee of un-sportsman like battles between the evil White Tigers and the other local martial arts schools resulting in a final showdown between James and Gary, the largest and most vicious member of the Tigers. Wu miraculously shows up to the tournament, gives his approval for James to kick Gary’s ass with Kung Fu (or was it Kung Wu?) and James wins the tournament, wins Wu’s approval and donates all the prize money to a local Karate school for underprivileged kids.

UAMC Review

There’s a lot to like about College Kickboxers. Tang Tak-Wing really shines through as Wu, so much so that he steals all the scenes he’s in. It’s a real shame Wing never really continued acting and stuck to behind the scenes roles after College Kickboxers. The fight scenes (which Wing choreographed) are also enjoyable to watch and thankfully avoided the zoomed-in, quick cut styling that crept into martial arts movies later in the decade. The movie also manages to stay on a positive note throughout, steering clear of the seediness often seen in low budget action movies.

The movie is far from perfect however. The dialogue is fairly poor and the acting is wooden at times (the initial scene where James meets love-interest Kimberly is cringeworthy). Probably most annoying is the Craig Tanner gang leader caricature. He rocks sunglasses indoors, wears fingerless leather gloves and tries very, very hard to give off seething psychopath vibe all of which leave the viewer wondering if he’s meant to be taken seriously at all.

Despite its flaws I really enjoyed College Kickboxers. It certainly isn’t an Oscar’s contender but as far as American martial arts movies go this one performs far better than many from the genre, which probably explains why I still have that $1 VHS in my cupboard. UAMC Review: 3.5 stars out of 5.

Article by Chris Z – what do you think about College Kickboxers and other martial arts UAMC classics? Let us know in the comments!

Jean Claude Van Johnson Cancelled by Amazon

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Ultimate Action Movies
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And it’s a Van Damme Shame Too.

Less than a month after being released by Amazon Studios, Jean Claude Van Johnson has been abruptly cancelled before any considerations for a second season could conceivably begin. The show, which starred Jean Claude Van Damme as a tongue-in-cheek version of himself who lives a double life as part-time action movie star, part-time international secret agent, received mixed (if not above average) reviews while holding a 64% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Self Aware Action Comedy

While Amazon Prime doesn’t release its numbers, it’s safe to assume that from a cost-analysis perspective, Van Johnson was not hitting its marks from the get-go to warrant such a quick dismal. (Note: being cancelled does not mean you still can’t watch the show on Amazon Prime.) Created by veteran screenwriter David Callaham (who has his own solid, but convoluted, background in action movies having purportedly written the script which The Expendables is based on), the show mixed classic action movie tropes with the light-hearted self-aware comedy of director Peter Atencio (who directed all of the successful comedy franchise Key & Peele and their action-comedy feature Keanu).

Was it UAMC Worthy?

It’s a shame that Van Johnson isn’t going to another season. It wasn’t the greatest show, and a far cry from the ultimate action movies Van Damme starred in the 80s and 90s which cemented his legacy. It also seemed to skip over Van Damme’s kickboxing roots while making it seem like he only starred in over-the-top sci-fi flicks like Time Cop and Universal Soldier while ignoring his martial arts tournament-style classics like Bloodsport and Kickboxer. (And the movie-in-the-show which they’re filming is such a joke that it feels almost mean-spirited in its awfulness.) But, it did have its moments and gave Van Damme a great deal of opportunity to poke fun at himself as a dually capable action and comedy actor.

However, as it is with any action star, Van Damme always had a talent to make even his movies which were considered flops at the time (like Double Team and Street Fighter) memorable and awesome, hopefully Jean Claude Van Johnson will find a spot for JCVD fans to enjoy six episodes of him performing an odd parody of himself that involves some truly stupid and wacky disguises, performances and fight scenes. If not, let it quickly fade from memory and fire up your VCR to pop in your copy of Bloodsport for the 700th time!


What did you think about Jean Claude Van Johnson? Let us know in the comments!

The James Bond Gymnast: Remembering the UAMC Classic ‘Spitfire’ (1995)

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Action Packed Super Spy Gymnast.

It was 1995 and director Albert Pyun (Cyborg, Dollman) was prepping to film his new cyborg/kickboxing movie, Heatseeker. Facing delays, he decided to use his time wisely and quickly film two movies back to back – Hong Kong ’97 starring Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) and Spitfire (starring gymnast Kristie Phillips).

Both films were released direct-to-video in the U.S. Because of its semi-serious tone, timeliness of the story and star, Hong Kong ’97 found an immediate audience. Spitfire, which had none of those things, took a bit longer, which is really quite a shame. For a movie without a known actor in the lead role, a rushed production schedule and a cast of really whomever happened to be around, it’s not bad.

My name is Bond, (cough) I mean Charles

The film opens in a hotel room where tuxedoed super spy Richard Charles (an under-utilized Lance Henriksen) is bedding CIA Operative Amanda Case (former Playboy playmate Debra Jo Fondren). Case tells Charles he has a daughter (a gymnast) and gives him some nuclear missile launch codes before being killed in a shootout with Soviet spy Carla Davis (Sarah Douglas). Charles escapes via jet pack, flies through the opening credit sequence of a low-rent James Bond movie, and ends up in Rome where he meets his daughter, Charlie Case (Kristie Phillips). He gives her a bag containing the launch codes, and surrenders to a gang of Soviet spies. Now Case, with gymnastics reporter Rex Beechum (the always dependable Tim Thomerson) at her side, must outrun the Soviets, get a key from a half-brother she didn’t know about and deliver it to another half-brother she didn’t know about, kick ass on the streets of Hong Kong and get to her next gymnastics tournaments in Malaysia and Athens on time.

Kristie Phillips is who again?

In the late 1980s, Kristie Phillips was kind of a household name. An alternate member of the 1988 Olympic Gymnastics Team member and a former US National Champion gymnast, she was once labeled the “next Mary Lou Retton.” That said, she wasn’t exactly household name when it came to action movies. Truth be told, after watching this movie I tried to find any reason why she would have ended up in the lead role of this movie, her sole acting credit, and I couldn’t find any. It’s almost as if Pyun started phoning around to see who was available, and then wrote a script around whomever he could get on short notice.

No matter how it happened, Phillips rose to the occasion. Now, I’m no expert on gymnastics, but her routines in this film appeared to be solid, as they should be. Pyun didn’t give her much for a script, but she delivered her lines with enthusiasm and seemed quite comfortable with the choreographed fight scenes (in one, she dodges a bullet by doing a backflip). She’s definitely someone I would have watched in another film, heck I could have even seen her teaming up with Cynthia Rothrock. Of course, that never happened.

Obscurity = Longevity

In 1995, I was at my local video store almost daily, yet I have no recollection of seeing this film in the new releases. I remember trailers for its sister movie Hong Kong ’97 (which also starred Thomerson) and I’ve seen it and Pyun’s follow-up, Heatseeker (also starring Thomerson – boy, he was busy). But this movie didn’t show up on my radar until Amazon recommended it to me (you liked Cynthia Rothrock in Guardian Angel, you’ll may also like Spitfire). I’m glad it did, because Spitfire really is a hidden gem.

 

Is it a great movie? No, but it’s certainly better than a lot of crap I’ve seen (To the Limit starring Anna Nicole Smith comes to mind.) For all its faults – an untested lead actress, an obviously rushed production schedule, scenes that literally have people walking through them, – it’s worthy of viewing.

Article by Eric LaRose – a Wisconsin-based connoisseur of action, horror and sci-fi movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s. A former journalist and podcaster, Eric wrote the ending to the Toxic Avenger Part 4, but the only person who will back up that claim is his wife.

Bob Odenkirk to Star in John Wick-esque Action Movie

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Ultimate Action Movies
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Bob Odenkirk + John Wick = Falling Down?

Breaking news first reported by Deadline reveals that Bob Odenkirk (best known for his roles as Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul as well as improv comedy roots in Mr. Show with Bob and David) will star in an new action thriller tentatively titled “Nobody.” The project is being driven by John Wick directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski along with John Wick writer Derek Kolstad executive producing along with Kelly McCormick (Atomic Blonde producer) and Odenkirk himself. No director is currently tabbed, but that group certainly has some action movie chops between them.

John Wick  Meets Falling Down

As stated in the first reports, all we currently know about the plot is that it promises that Odenkirk will play an “everyday man who gets pushed past his limits.” Which for us ultimate action movie fans sounds a lot like Michael Douglas‘ iconic role in the Joel Schumacher classic Falling Down (1993). However, the report continues to go on in a more John Wick-esque direction where “the story follow a man who comes to the defense of a woman being harassed by thugs, only to learn later that one of the men he put in the hospital is the brother of a drug kingpin, now out for vengeance.”

We can only imagine Bob Odenkirk doing his goofy straight guy routine in classic action scenes like this:

What do you think about Bob Odenkirk in a John Wick-esque action movie? Let us know in the comments!

Cover photo via Wikimedia

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