It might be a parody film, but we’ll be damned if ‘Hot Shots! Part Deux‘ isn’t an ultimate action movie classic!
Even the best action movies have a certain rhythm to them. There is an ebb and flow between shoot outs, dialog, explosions, intrigue, martial arts, and sex. Few action movies blend all these elements into one cohesive plot. It’s often too much for one movie. Even fewer movies can combine these elements into fast-paced thriller of a film. The first movie to do this well was Hot Shots! Part Deux.
Charlie Sheen returns to his role as Topper Harley. It’s funny how modern action movie stars don’t bother getting ripped because their characters are gifted superheroes. In 1993, packing on some muscle for an action role was expected. Charlie Sheen had a surprisingly Van-Damme-esque physique for this role and it showed.
But the real stars of this films were the seductive women. Brenda Bakke played the secondary love interest, the more sensual and erotic of the two. In the film, she resembles a young Kim Cattrall in in appearance, though Bakke is far hotter. Truth be told, Bakke should’ve had every role Cattrall and Sandra Bullock got in the 90s because she’s more appealing in every way.
Valeria Golino plays the primary love interest. She’s the more demure, yet exotic of the ladies and makes a good evil-twin to Bakke’s seductive temptress role. One of the highlights of Hot Shots! is when these ladies compete in an American Gladiators competition, which Golino wins via the joust.
The film wastes no time showing Topper’s martial prowess. With just his bare hands wrapped in cloth and caramel, Topper tears down a martial arts dojo and defeats a leading kick boxer in hand-to-hand combat. Even the referee feel the thrust of his fist, to mind-numbing effect. But there’s so much more.
When the bullets start to fly Topper and crew demonstrate that they are no strangers to hot, flying lead. At times, Topper is up his waist in expended shells (literally). So many bullets fly that the body count rises faster than the human mind can count. With 30 minutes still in the film, Hot Shots! surpasses Robocop’s body count. But in that remaining 30 minutes there are many more deaths, including those of a young Rowan Atkinson (a.k.a. Mr. Bean) and Saddam Hussein (portrayal).
Speaking of which, if you thought the James Bond fencing scene in Die Another Day was the best fencing sequence in action movie history, prepare to be educated. I’m not talking about the swashbucklers of the 1930s. In Hot Shots! Part Deux, the President of the U.S. gets into a heated fencing match with Saddam Hussein, with deadly results.
You won’t be spoiled to know that the traitor of the film all along was Brenda Bakke. She always had a devilish look to her, seductive and hypnotic. And when Topper’s true love re-enters his life midway through the film, you learn some more plot-twisting bombshells.
Yes, the dialog can be confusing, with talks of international peace treaties and international politics between the U.S. and Japan, but they don’t slow down the plot much. In fact, if you thought George H. W. Bush had strained relations with Japan, you’ll appreciate the drama of these scenes.
Hot Shots! Part Deux was the movie that discovered Ryan Stiles and made him a star. It should have done the same for Brenda Bakke, but America wasn’t ready for so much awesomeness back in 1993. 2019 is a different era though, one that knows how to appreciate an ultimate action movie, the temptresses that make the heroes explode, and the explosions that make the women ask for more.
Revisit Hot Shots! Part Deux today.
Read more from Jared at Legends of Men (www.legendsofmen.com).
What are your fondest memories from Hot Shots! Part Deux? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page!
Like Teddy Roosevelt, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Lee created a history for himself that still goes unweathered by the passage of time. The late actor and martial artist left us almost fifty years ago, but Lee’s catalog of movie and video game appearances continue -even if he’s represented onscreen by other actors and virtual likenesses.
The upcoming half-century anniversary of Lee’s passing looks likely to be a special one, not least because the Chinese-American artist will make a return to the screen in two upcoming movies. These movies are Bruce the Challenge and an eponymous Malayalam-language title due out in October 2021. While we wait for those updates to Bruce’s filmography, let’s take a look at the actors and digital appearances that have helped Bruce Lee’s legacy last into the new decade.
Birth of the Dragon
In the public’s collective mind, Bruce is perhaps best known for his superhuman speed, a trait that has spawned all sorts of legends about the martial artist. For instance, Lee could reportedly snatch a coin from an open palm and replace it with another one before the volunteer could close their first. This stunt has become the ultimate party trick over the years. Author Keith Pascal even wrote a how-to book featuring it in 2006.
However, Lee’s ability to teach his trade to others is arguably the most compelling aspect of this ordinary superhero’s life. Due to demand, Bruce charged up to $275 per hour for one-on-one tuition, infamously teaching all-comers, a decision that forced a duel with the more traditional Wong Jack-man in 1964. The fight was immortalized years later in the George Nolfi-directed movie, Birth of the Dragon (2018).
Lee’s experience with Wong Jack-man eventually led to the retirement of his personal Jun Fan Gung Fu martial art, which he felt was too rigid. His amended Jeet Kune Do style became as much a school of philosophy as a means of self-defense, and he would eventually come to teach the ‘Way of the Intercepting Fist’ to many popular movie stars of the day. These stars included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Coburn, Steve McQueen, and Dean Martin.
‘Bruceploitation’ and Jackie Chan
Bruce Lee’s movie career took a turn for the strange after his passing in 1973, with the arrival of the ‘Bruceploitation’ genre of movies in several Asian countries, such as Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan. Bruceploitation films were usually low-quality, low-budget titles that featured a lookalike of the real martial artist. A feature on Bruceploitation by movie website ScreenRant notes that one of these actors was former Lee stuntman, Jackie Chan.
Bruceploitation died out quickly due to the continuing evolution and popularity of mainstream martial arts movies, which now held the West rapt too. Chan’s legendary film career would begin in 1978, for instance, while Jet Li’s film career would start with 1982’s Shaolin Temple. As we’ve already hinted at, though, other actors would continue to portray Lee well into the second decade of the 21st century.
One of the more high-profile of Lee’s posthumous inclusions is in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which American actor Mike Moh plays a rambling, monologuing caricature of Lee. The China Morning Post pointed to his rapid loss to Brad Pitt’s character as one of the highlights (or lowlights, depending on your perspective) of this controversial depiction of the famous martial artist.
The Atari 8-bit, Marshall Law
Of course, today, entertainment is more than movies. All fighting games owe their existence to Bruce Lee movies, in the opinion of gaming site Polygon. While that might sound a mite dramatic, Lee’s first appearance in a video game predates the likes of Street Fighter, Tekken, and Mortal Kombat by three years. In fact, his first game was called, simply, Bruce Lee. It was released on the Atari 8-bit in 1984.
A distinctly more modern take on Bruce involves the entertainment website Betway, which carries, amongst other action titles, a slot game dedicated to the actor, inspired by his martial arts works in the seventies. This game’s presence on such a mainstream site speaks volumes about Lee’s enduring popularity in modern entertainment. However, one of the more notorious of Lee’s likenesses in digital media is Tekken’s Marshall Law. The character possesses all of Bruce’s mannerisms, including his stance, voice, and the yellow jumpsuit he wore in 1972’s Game of Death.
Born in the year and the hour of the dragon, Bruce Lee’s phenomenal ability and subsequent legacy seem almost divinely planned. While some of the dedicated content released after his passing is questionable, his continuing presence in media is nevertheless a testament to Lee’s influence and popularity in life.
It’s no secret that the film industry uses a wide-ranging selection of different concepts as plot devices. These storytelling components play a pivotal role in advancing on-screen stories by establishing the desired narrative. Over the years, crystals and gems have been at the forefront of numerous movies, as evident from the Sankara Stones in the 1984 film, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. So, let’s consider how the movie sector uses these elements as plot devices.
Is the Theme Exclusive to Film?
Two years before Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’s release, Frank Oz and Jim Henson created The Dark Crystal. The 1982 film saw Henson’s character, Jen, search for shards of a magical crystal across the planet Thra. It’s a testament to the film’s popularity that it transitioned into the gaming sector in the same year with The Dark Crystal, a graphical adventure title. In 2019, BonusXP developed The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics, which is a tactical role-playing game centered around Gelfing’s resistance. Furthermore, Netflix released The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance television series in August 2019, showcasing that crystal and gem plot devices aren’t exclusive to movies.
From a gaming standpoint, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics isn’t the only crystal-themed offering on the market. It speaks volumes about the plot device’s versatility that it has also inspired several online casino developments, such as the Gemix Slot game. The seven-reel Play’n Go creation uses traditional gem-inspired imagery to create an immersive visual experience. Furthermore, they also set the tone for the title’s other components, including the Wizard’s World Wilds. Like in The Dark Crystal, Play’n Go uses gems to establish an underlying theme that gives rise to intriguing subplots.
Used in Big-Screen Productions as a Magical Concept
According to Masterclass, there are several ways to use crystals and gems as plot devices. Firstly, they can act as a plot coupon, meaning that their importance grows throughout the story before becoming critical at the end. Furthermore, they can also contribute to a MacGuffin plot, which uses objects merely as a means of progressing the story, with their involvement as objects being largely insignificant.
However, as seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, gems can also inspire a quest. Take Thanos, for example. Throughout Avengers: Infinity War, the character sets out to collect the six powerful Infinity Stones. Because of the stones’ power, it highlights how the film sector uses gems. Predominantly, they serve a mythical purpose, as opposed to being central to heist-driven stories.
As touched on above, Indiana Jones helped bring these plot devices to the forefront during the mid-1980s. Since then, the franchise continued to use gems. It speaks volumes about the importance of crystals in the film industry that Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull set a new world record for the highest box-office gross for a screenwriter in 2015.
Tried and Tested Storytelling Components
There can be no doubt that crystals and gems aren’t only a plot device within the film sector, but they’re now also an area of focus throughout various entertainment streams. The theme has recently reached new heights within gaming and television, and it’s unlikely that it will begin to fizzle out any time soon. Furthermore, after Marvel’s success with the Infinity Stones, the concept is arguably more popular than ever.
UAMC highly recommends this direct-to-video Speakman classic!
When I was younger, I was an action movie addict. I’m sure I rented out most of the Action section films from my local video store back in the day. Nowadays, with a wife, kids and a job, I have a lot fewer opportunities to sit down and watch offerings from the action genre. But when I do, I try to catch ones that check as many boxes as possible (more on that later).
In the 1980s, action movies were a dime a dozen; for better or for worse, it seemed that every actor in Hollywood tried their hand at making an action movie. But when the 90s rolled around, there was a cosmic shift in budgets, fashion, soundtrack music and leading men in action movies. Although they weren’t quite at the same level as 80s action movies, 90s actioners — especially some lesser-known direct to video (DTV) fare — could still unquestionably hold their own in terms of quality. Studios just didn’t have the marketing budgets to promote them. They literally had to rely on “word of mouth” recommendations from viewer to viewer.
Well, I’m here to continue that tradition from yesteryear and give my recommendation for you to catch Jeff Speakman starring in Deadly Outbreak.
Getting back to quality: when it comes to quality, every reader on this site should join me in bowing down with reverence to the altar of Jeff Speakman’s 1991 masterpiece, The Perfect Weapon. Having seen that (multiple times), 1993’s Street Knight (infamously Cannon Films’ final product before closing shop) and 2000’s Running Red (with the incredibly stunning Angie Everhart), I’m convinced anything with Jeff Speakman’s name attached is quality.
And that was the case once again with 1995’s Deadly Outbreak. I’m positive you’re familiar with the tried and true “Die Hard in a …” 90s trope — whether it be a battleship, submarine, train, high school, etc. — so I’m sure that you’ll immediately recognize the setup with Deadly Outbreak (Die Hard in a chemical plant). Ron Silver is the poor man’s Hans Gruber — a brilliant tactician; impeccably dressed (his goatee looked even resembled Gruber’s facial hair style); remarkably cool, calm and collected, no matter what chaos surrounds him; and even throws in a slight accent that reminded me of the character. He and his squad of goons — complete with requisite mullets, steroid-induced frames, a small army’s worth of artillery, and a computer hacker capable of cracking codes in seconds — take over a chemical plant in Israel.
But what they fail to take into account is Speakman’s Sgt. Dutton Elvis Hatfield, a former Marine just looking to get home so he could buy his son a birthday gift. When the terrorists overtake the chemical plant by storm (a really fantastic sequence of violence), Hatfield must use every trick in his arsenal. Unlike other DTV fare which rely on unlimited ammunition, Dutton actually has to reload, runs out of bullets, and has to pick up the weaponry of dead terrorists, adding a sense of reality. And, fans of Speakman’s Kenpo skills need not fear, for Deadly Outbreak showcases multiple scenes of his marvelous hand-to-hand artistry.
But there are two elements of the movie (which I both admit I loved) that counter reality. 1) Dutton’s gift of gab when it comes to one-liners that may make Schwarzenegger chuckle. 2) The DTV insistence on casting Playboy/Penthouse models as “fish out of water” damsels in distress.
We here at The Ultimate Action Movie Club know what it takes to make a great action movie — and I’m more than happy to report that Deadly Outbreak delivers it in spades:
Handsome action hero (check)
Hero acting alone for the most part (check)
Quippy one-liners (check)
Lots of explosions, some even unnecessarily (check)
A completely impossible romantic scenario with a woman who probably posed in a men’s magazine at one point (check)
Deadly Outbreak is currently streaming for free on Prime, and I give it my highest recommendations. If you check your expectations at the door and are seeking an enjoyable popcorn flick, you could do a lot worse than this one.
What are your thoughts on this Jeff Speakman 90s action classic? Let us know in the comments!
Chad Stahelski David Leitch reportedly looking to reboot Bloodsport. (Image via The Kong Blog)
There has been little news since a Variety report six years ago of a Bloodsport remake or reboot happening. However, the original screenwriter Sheldon Lettich has shed some light into his discussions with Bloodsport uber-fans Chad Stahelski and David Leitch regarding a reboot for the Jean-Claude Van Damme classic.
At a recent screening of the Lettich-directed Double Impact in Austin, Texas, the acclaimed ultimate action movie writer and director opened up about a meeting he had with the Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. Which – amongst other topics – mentioned their Bloodsport reboot desires.
“I know the guys who did the John Wick movies, and one of them has gone on to do Hobbes & Shaw. His name is David Leitch and he was a stunt double on one of my movies. These guys, Chad and David, came to my house many years ago and they saw this Bloodsports poster on the wall and you’d think they’d seen a religious icon. And apparently now that they’ve gotten to be these big shots in action movies. The movies they want to do are a reboot of Bloodsport and they also want to do a reboot of Enter the Dragon.”
According to Lettich, both are huge Bloodsport fans and are gunning to take the reins of handling a reboot from wherever they were left off six years ago.
Chad Stahelski and David Leitch’s Action Credentials
David Leitch on top of the car, Van Damme below talking to Peter Malota (courtesy of Sheldon Lettich)
Both Chad Stahelski and David Leitch rose through the action movie ranks in stunt acting and coordination.
David Leitch also worked with Lettich and Stahelski on Perfect Target as well as working with Lettich as Van Damme’s stunt double in The Order before he would go on to major blockbuster success with his work directing Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2 and the Fast & Furious spin-off Hobbes & Shaw.
David Leitch on the right, demonstrating how Van Damme should block a punch (courtesy of Sheldon Lettich)
Chad Stahelski notably working as a stunt double for Keanu Reeves in The Matrix franchise as well as even doubling for his friend Brandon Lee when finishing up the late actor’s shoots for The Crow. Stahelski was Lettich’s fight choreographer on his movie Perfect Target. He also had an on-screen role as fighter “Max Omega” in the direct to video Bloodsport III in 1996.
Chad Stahelski on far left, wearing a green cap. Daniel Bernhardt just to the right of him, having makeup applied to his face. Sheldon Lettich in the center, wearing tan cap (courtesy of Sheldon Lettich)
The movie rights to both Bloodsport and Enter the Dragon –Lettich would go on to say – are apparently under the control of Warner Bros. And have Chad and David working behind the scenes to bring the reboots to life. No word yet on when either project should be expected to begin production. Or if Jean-Claude Van Damme would have any involvement at this point. (Although it’s worth noting that Van Damme has at least made cameos in some of his franchise reboots and spinoffs in the past.)
Asked after the screening if these budding stunt workers turned franchise directors had “his blessing”, Lettich laughed and said he thought a reboot would be in good hands.
Are you excited for a Bloodsport reboot? Do you think Chad Stahelski and David Leitch are the directors to do it right? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
GoldenEye set the foundations for what Ian Fleming’s character should be in a post-Cold War era, on the road to the new Millennium and with new threats coming after the 9-11 attacks
GoldenEye was the first James Bond film to be released after the fall of the Berlin Wall and, therefore, the one that put an end to a much-beloved tradition in the legendary series where the Russians were the enemy or, actually, believed to be the enemy. The film saw the light on November 13, 1995, at the Radio City Music Hall of New York City, where thousands of celebrities, journalists and guests gathered to see the long-awaited return of Ian Fleming’s secret agent to the big screen, after a six-year-and-a-half hiatus which began after the poor numbers of 1989’s Licence To Kill and a legal conflict between Danjaq and the businessmen taking over MGM/United Artists in the early 1990s.
For the last time, during the movie’s pre-credit sequence set in 1986 on a desolated chemical weapons facility in Archangel, north of the Soviet Union, we saw James Bond exchanging bullets with those olive uniform troops bearing a red star in their berets and their red jacket stripes. The main title credits, designed by Daniel Kleinman on his first Bond collaboration (not counting Gladys Knight’s “Licence To Kill” song music video) served as an ellipsis between 1986 and 1995 with scantily-clad women destroying Communist symbols and statues with hammers and mazes.
And then we are in the present: agent 007 is in Monaco, races a beautiful brunette on his Aston Martin DB5, and then meets her at the expensive Casino de Monte Carlo, where he learns her name is Xenia Onatopp and comes from a new Russia: “a land of opportunities”, where she can enjoy driving a red Ferrari and other western luxuries. However, as it always happens to James Bond, the people who come across his path are rarely men or women “from the street” and the fact that Xenia’s Ferrari has a counterfeit number plate arouses suspicions.
Indeed, Xenia was an ex-Soviet fighter pilot whose trip to Monte Carlo was not for tourism. She is there to steal an EMP-resistant Tiger helicopter to be shown on a French warship the next day. Upon investigating, Bond realizes that the fall of Communism has led to bigger dangers coming from the new Russia, which would seriously compromise Great Britain’s financial future sending it “back to the Stone Age”, as the film’s villain says.
The villain in question was, in fact, a former friend: Alec Trevelyan, known as MI6 agent number 006 before he was killed in action during the Archangel mission. Now, he operates under the name of Janus and his activities in Russia involve arms dealing, notoriously the restocking of the Iraqis after the Gulf War. The man who shares the name with the Roman god of two faces has only two objectives: moneymaking and revenge.
Trevelyan was the son of two Cossacks, part of a bloc of the Cossack army that during World War II was led by General Piotr Krasnov and joined the side of Adolf Hitler against the Soviet Union. Eventually, they were outnumbered and went into the Italian Alps and then to the city of Lienz in Austria, where they came across British soldiers and high ranking officers. They hoped to reach a deal with the Allies, but Winston Churchill heard from Stalin’s mouth on the Yalta conference that the Cossacks “fought with savagery and ferocity” for the Nazis. That was enough for Churchill to deport them back to the Soviet Union and into the hands of Stalin. Krasnov, the leader, was sentenced to death by hanging along with other members of the group. Some of them, like Alec Trevelyan’s parents, committed suicide after escaping from the death row but unable to tolerate the guilt.
“MI6 figured I was too young to remember. And in one of life’s little ironies, the son went to work for the government whose betrayal caused the father to kill himself and his wife,” tells Janus to an astonished Bond, not believing that his friend, the one he saw dying nine years ago in an operation and has felt a pinch of guilt about it, has been actually behind it all and holds an enormous grudge against the nation he has sworn to protect.
Not accidentally, this encounter between James Bond and Alec Trevelyan takes place on an abandoned park in St. Petersburg, surrounded by debris and remains of Soviet statues torn down. The location, recreated by production designer Peter Lamont on the improvised Leavesden Studios (former Rolls Royce factory), underlines the fact that ideologies are dead and patriotism is an antiquated fashion. Moneymaking and free-market economy is above it all and it brings old enemies together and places old friends on different sides. Throughout GoldenEye, the patriotism of James Bond is thoroughly questioned by many characters, namely Trevelyan and Valentin Zukovsky, once a KGB nemesis of 007 and now a Janus rival on the arms dealing business who could become a potential ally if he appeals to “his wallet” instead of his heart. “Still working for MI6 or have you joined the 21st century?” hissings the bulky Russian gangster when Bond –risking his life– comes for help. In the same way that for Trevelyan moneymaking comes above the codes of patriotism and honour, Zukovsky has “joined the 21st century” by doing illegal business after the identity of the cause the KGB was made to protect has crumbled along with the Berlin wall.
While Alec Trevelyan and Valentin Zukovsky have focused their main interest in money and don’t share Bond’s idealistic vision of justice and ethics, General Ourumov does in a way. The Russian officer who pulled the trigger of his Makarov handgun over Trevelyan’s head in 1986 firing a blank (most likely) has been severely affected by the new world order. In the words of Gottfried John, who played the role: “He tries to re-establish the old system while using the new Russian mafia to do so.” After the events of 1986 that concluded with Bond blowing away the Archangel facility, Ourumov hasn’t lost his job and was promoted from Colonel to General during Mikhail Gorbachev’s government, given the command of the Space Division.
Gorbachev’s glasnost policies in 1991 have worried a couple of fervent Soviet politicians and officers who by the end of August have staged a “State of Emergency” that was actually a covert coupled by Vice-President Gennady Yanayev as the Russian leader was taking holidays on his Crimean dacha. Eventually, the coup failed by the intervention of the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin and thousands of citizens who resisted this unelected and unconstitutional new government. The Soviet Union was dissolved and Gorbachev resigned. Meanwhile, Yanayev and other conspirators were arrested, while others committed suicide. One of those who took their lives away was a close associate of Ourumov, who is believed to have taken part in this coup but nothing could be proved after the suicide of this co-conspirator and the inquiries against him were dropped.
The dossier of Ourumov can be briefly glimpsed on a monitor as M briefs James Bond and it indicates his presumed involvement on the 1991 coup. While he was unaffected of suspicion, it is very likely that he has had a part on it considering that he shares the same patriotic codes of Bond. Moreover, it is noticeable throughout the story that he isn’t happy with the new wave of politicians and civilians running the country as it can be seen during his encounter with Defence Minister Dimitri Mishkin, thought to be part of Boris Yeltsin government if we consider the film is set in 1995. On the film’s novelization, published by Boulevard Books and written by John Gardner, it is established that Mishkin felt completely uncomfortable with Ourumov arriving 10 minutes late to a meeting after the Severnaya attacks. It is understood that, while Alec Trevelyan has no ideology and is more primarily interested in revenge and money, General Ourumov teams with Janus perhaps to gain power and reinstate a military government in Russia and most likely reinstating the Soviet Union with him being the leader (“The next Iron Man of Russia”, as he sees himself according to M).
Interestingly, Bond plays his card later by telling Ourumov that Trevelyan “is a Lienz Cossack” that “will betray him just like everyone else”, trying to pit one against the other when his love interest Natalya is held at gunpoint by the General. The events from 1945 come back in a short but very intense scene held on a train carriage where Bond tries to remind Ourumov that in the first place the Lienz Cossacks have betrayed the Russians in the first place and that Janus would most likely betray him just as his parents did to Stalin, aiming to the Soviet pride heart of the General.
Bond and Ourumov seem like the only ones in the film to care about a nation and ideology, while characters like Zukovsky and Trevelyan are more interested in their own business and making a life in the new Russia, now laden of technology and the vices of the West. Ironically, the pressure that General Ourumov feels from the politicians in Russia is almost the same pressure James Bond feels at the MI6 headquarters in London with the new M, a female senior analyst who calls him “a relic of the Cold War” and is far from the style of the old Admiral Sir Miles Messervy that decorated his room with paintings of naval battles. These two characters are constructed as anachronisms that are trying to find their place in a post-Cold War setting, though Ourumov finds it under the tentacles of the evil Janus Syndicate.
By the early days of 1990 there was much ado about how James Bond would survive the new decade after the end of the Cold War. Although not all the movies had plots focused on the Cold War (namely On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Live And Let Die, Moonraker and Licence To Kill), the fact that James Bond had its inception in 1953 when he was sent to a casino in the South of France to beat a Soviet agent on a baccarat table in Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale has established him as a public enemy of the Soviet Union. Not in vain in nearly all the Fleming novels he confronts agents of SMERSH, the execution branch from the Russians. In the film, this was toned down during the hot political climate of the 1960s by having the USSR not directly being the enemy (and used for fools by the apolitical SPECTRE) or the enemy being the Red China, in association with villains like Dr. No or Auric Goldfinger.
Either way, GoldenEye served as a farewell and a last trip to nostalgia from the days Bond battled the Russians and this was emphasized by the story, which relied very much on the current times and took notice of that archetypal image of James Bond as the number one enemy of Russia. Future Bond films with Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig would focus on other interesting aspects of their times, like mass media used as a weapon, the hoarding of natural sources or, more recently in 2015’s SPECTRE, the control of spy networks.
GoldenEye set the foundations for what Ian Fleming’s character should be in a post-Cold War era, on the road to the new Millennium and with new threats coming after the 9-11 attacks. It also proved that the character could keep reinventing itself and still be relevant while retaining its essence. In the words of screenwriter Bruce Feirstein: the world changed, but Bond didn’t. This was the formula for a film that expounded in the script what every moviegoer and film critic was wondering by the time: “Is James Bond still relevant?” GoldenEye not only proved that he was, but instead of jumping from an era to another it showed how much the world has changed and how much we still needed Bond every time a new geopolitical map is configured.
Double Impact, which was originally released three years after Van Damme’s breakout performance in Bloodsport in 1991 (which was written by Lettich as well), was the first of a trend of action movies to feature Van Damme playing himself twice – as twins Chad & Alex Wagner.
While Lettich was showing off a 35mm restoration of Double Impact, as well as promoting a new Double Impact Collector’s Edition Blu-ray (which you can purchase here), he took the time to answer questions from the audience about working with Van Damme on Double Impact, the movie’s origins, and even Van Damme’s desires for a ‘Triple Impact’ sequel.
During the Q&As after the film, when a fan jokingly asked if there were plans for a “Triple Impact”, Lettich responded that “Jean-Claude wanted to do that.”
However Lettich would go on to explain that while “a sequel was discussed for years,” that perhaps the biggest reason one didn’t happen was in fact due to the film’s success.
After being sold for distribution around the world it became difficult for all the different international rights to be worked out for another film.
While a script was never written by Lettich and Van Damme, Lettich revealed that a story was discussed and was being hammered out where “Chad is back in Los Angeles and he gets into trouble with the Chinese Triads.”
From there, “Alex would have to come back from Hong Kong” and would basically be the emblematic “bull in a China shop” reteaming up with his brother to wreak havoc on the Chinese underworld much like they did in the original Double Impact.
The duo would eventually find a way to bring another project to completion together however when they collaborated on Legionnaire in 1998, which Lettich and Van Damme share writing credits on, as well as The Order in 2001 which Lettich directed.
What would you have liked to see in a Triple Impact? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
How Pierce Brosnan’s ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ performance might have been his most on point.
Tomorrow Never Dies was definitely an event film. It was also a highly popular video game at the time too. Both the film and the game had the biggest challenge: following up on the success of GoldenEye, which not only impressed critics and audiences but made a ton of money at the box office. For Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the only producers of the film following the death of their stepfather and father, respectively, Albert Broccoli, who passed after GoldenEye’s release, it was a great challenge to the follow up on the success of the previous film. Not only were Wilson and Broccoli surrounded with challenges but Kirk Kerkorian, the new owner of MGM and a billionaire in his own right, was seeking to release it on the day of the company’s initial public stock offering.
While the producers sought to get GoldenEye director Martin Campbell, who would later go onto direct Casino Royale starring Daniel Craig, Wilson and Broccoli were not able to secure his leadership for this new outing. Campbell’s agent stated that the director simply did not wish to make two Bond films in a row. Left with no Campbell, the producers turned to Roger Spottiswoode, who alleged he was previously offered a directing job on a Bond film starring Timothy Dalton, who proceeded Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Various writers, including Richard Smith and Donald E. Westlake, a novelist, worked on the project with Westlake providing two different story treatments in working with Wilson.
Both of the stories featured a villain that sought to destroy Hong Kong with explosives on the eve of the transfer of sovereignty to China from the United Kingdom. The novelist would go on to use some of his ideas for a novel that would be published in 2017. Eventually, Bruce Feirstein, who worked on GoldenEye, would write the first script with rewrites coming from Dan Petrie, Jr., David Campbell Wilson, and Nicholas Meyer. Feirstein came back in for a final polish of the script.
The primary villain, Elliot Carver, is based on Robert Maxwell, a British media mogul, while he was compared to Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch. Jonathan Pryce was cast as the villain while Teri Hatcher was brought on to play Paris Carver, the wife of Carver and former girlfriend of Bond. Michelle Yeoh joined the cast in the lead role of Colonel Wai Lin, who was a Chinese spy and an ally of Bond throughout the events of the film. Pryce and Hatcher were both involved to an extent with the rewriting of the script since they were not happy with how their characters were written initially.
Filming would begin in the French Pyrenees, continue to Portsmouth, England, and continue to Bangkok, Thailand. This film marked David Arnold’s first adventure in the Bond universe. He came as a result of John Barry, the legendary Bond composer, recommending him after the latter sought to negotiate a deal to return to the Bond films. As the stage set, the story of a worldwide media baron seeking to control the events of the globe unfolded.
Bond is sent to stop a terrorist arms bazaar. Despite being sent in, British Admiral Roebuck tells the HMS Chester Frigate to fire a missile at the bazaar. Bond finds two nuclear torpedoes on the L-39 Albatros and has to fly the L-39 away mere seconds before the destruction of the bazaar. As an opening sequence for a Bond film, it’s quite exciting to see. After the opening of GoldenEye, which is incredibly legendary, this was quite good. With another explosion before the opening credits, it actually resembled the one in GoldenEye a little bit. For Bond, one of his greatest challenges was about to present itself.
Elliot Carver is not a man who should be described as an ordinary media baron. He is a sociopath who seeks to undermine the political and geographical forces of the world. He wants to control everything people do and think. His plan is to start a war between the United Kingdom and China using an encoder his cyberterrorist henchman, Henry Gupta, was able to obtain. Gupta is able to send the HMS Devonshire into Chinese waters off-course. Carver’s stealth ship is there, waiting with Mr. Stamper, another of Carver’s henchmen, who sinks the ship and steals one of their missiles. Stamper is also able to shoot down a Chinese J-7 fighter jet, which kills off the survivors of the Devonshire with weaponry from the Chinese. Britain’s Defense Minister tells Roebuck to send the fleet to go after the frigate and retaliate potentially. This leaves 007 and M 48 hours to investigate. The suspense begins to build as the events unfold before the audience.
While 007 is known for his relationships with various women, he is nonetheless unprepared for something out of the past to come his way. As Bond is sent following Elliot Carver’s release of articles about the crisis unfolding in the South China Sea, the former has to convince Paris, Carver’s wife, to give him the information he needs. In righteous action, Bond is able to stop three of Stamper’s men, stop Carver on his first satellite network broadcast, and gets the GPS encoder back. Soon enough, Bond realizes that he has put his former girlfriend in danger, something which causes pause within him and freezes the action of the plot for a brief second. It is her death that seems to make Bond evermore determined to hunt down Carver and stop his media plans. It’s soon Bond meets another woman who will define his life in new and interesting ways.
Bond finds out that the encoder was tampered with at the US Air Force base in Okinawa, Japan, and finds himself teaming up with a Chinese spy: Wai Lin. They explore the sunken ship to find one of the cruise missiles is missing. Soon captured by Stamper, they are taken to the Carver building in Saigon. The action unfolds once more as they escape to contact the Royal Navy and People’s Liberation Army Air Force to explain Carver’s scheme: destroy the government of China with the stolen missile, let a Chinese general stop the war, and allow an attack to occur between the two sides. Carver plans to have exclusive broadcasting rights in China over the next century but Bond and Wai Lin plan to stop him. The action really picks up here and pushes us to an exciting finale.
With Wai Lin captured, this forces Bond to devise a second plan, where he captures Gupta as a hostage but Carver kills the cyberterrorist who was in his employ. Bond causes an explosion, damaging the ship when he detonates an explosive. The ship becomes visible to British and Chinese forces via navy radar. Wai Lin is again captured by Stamper when she disables the engines. Using Carver’s own sea drill, Bond kills the media baron and uses detonators to eliminate the warhead. Wai Lin goes into the water as Stamper attacks Bond. With Stamper trapped in the missile firing mechanism, Wai Lin is saved while the explosion of the missile occurs. Stamper is killed within the action and Bond and Wai Lin are left to share a romantic time together.
This was the first James Bond film I ever saw. I remember it because it was a special occasion, having the chance to see the real Pierce Brosnan in action for the first time. For that reason, it carries a great deal of love on this writer’s part. To see Bond and Wai Lin amid signal system technology and in the middle of a South China Sea conflict, it seems this film was before its time on many things. Not only have relations intensified between the West and China in recent years but the media has grown into something that has never been seen before.
It has been used by foreign powers to influence elections and change the course of human events. This was what Elliot Carver had been planning on doing throughout this 1997 film. While it did not open number one at the box office because of Titanic, it nonetheless is an impressive feat of filmmaking that not only honors the legacy of James Bond but proves to be a smart action thriller that causes the mind to think as the eyes see our favorite spy do battle with different villains threatening the world before him.
About the author: Tommy Zimmer is a writer whose work has appeared online and in print. His work covers a variety of topics, including politics, economics, health and wellness, the entertainment industry, and a signal system.
Tom Cruise doesn’t have anything on the great Brendan Fraser.
Without a doubt, the 1999 remake of The Mummy is the best-known version of the story to modern audiences, though I would say it’s more a riff on the story of the original 1932 horror classic than it is a remake. In fact, The Mummy isn’t really much of a horror movie at all, though I continue to see it categorized as such over the years. At heart, it’s every inch an action movie.
The Mummy takes place in 1926 and follows the adventures of Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser), an American adventurer, and Evelyn “Evie” Carnahan (Rachel Weisz), a British librarian and would-be Egyptologist. Evie wants to prove her mettle by finding the lost Egyptian city of Hamunaptura. O’Connell saw during a doomed stint with the French Foreign Legion three years previous, making him a precious source of information for Evie.
Accompanied by Evie’s bumbling brother Jonathan (John Hannah) and competing against a group of treasure-hungry American explorers, the two set out to find the city. However, they get more than they bargained for when they accidentally awaken the cursed high priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) from his undead slumber.
Imhotep was buried alive thousands of years ago for high treason. Now, he seeks to resurrect his lover and co-conspirator Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velasquez) by ritually sacrificing Evie, as well as restoring his former power.
Critics have been calling this movie loud and dumb for twenty years now. Well, I can’t say it’s not dumb or loud, but it’s certainly more enjoyable than your standard Michael Bay explosion-fest. I will admit the plot is your standard “save the world from the Big Bad” we’ve seen in about a million blockbuster movies since Star Wars, but even this ultimately isn’t a problem.
Why? It’s all in the characters, whose personalities, humor, and charm make The Mummy as beloved a film as it is. Brendan Fraser and especially Rachel Weisz are extremely charismatic leads. Fraser’s O’Connell is both a clown and a competent fighter. Weisz is silk hiding steel as Evie the librarian, definitely as much a force to be reckoned with as any of the gun-toting men around her. The supporting characters all have their own comic flaws as well.
Arnold Vosloo also leaves a big impression as Imhotep. Among all the goofy characters, he’s the only one playing things straight and this is very much to the benefit of the movie. By not endowing the villain with as much camp as everyone else, Imhoetp is a credible threat, leaving the audience in suspense even though the movie is otherwise a light-hearted affair.
This is why I say the movie is not a proper horror film. It has way more in common with action movies like Raiders of the Lost Ark than it does, say, the Evil Dead trilogy, because even though those scarab beetles are terrifying and there is a healthy sense of gothic atmosphere when the characters are navigating the interior of an ancient tomb, The Mummy is way more interested in high adventure in an exotic location– swords and chases and explosions and chaotic crowd scenes, not so much terror and dread.
The excitement tends to come from the action, not the scares, which are often so over-the-top that they veer into comic territory anyway. For example, the ambush on the ship is shot like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, relying on stunt work and kinetic energy. Same with the final battle against Imhotep. It’s not really a horror movie climax when you look at it, focusing more on combat and adrenaline.
The Mummy came out in 1999, a big year in the history of special effects. Movies like The Phantom Menace and The Matrix were huge steps in the evolution of CG. The Mummy also uses a great deal of CG, though most of it hasn’t aged as well as the other two movies listed. However, some of it is still quite impressive, like the part where a scarab beetle crawls into a CG hole in Imhotep’s face and then he starts eating it.
The Mummy remains a well-loved movie with a healthy cult following. A recent reboot starring Tom Cruise tried to amp up the action and the horror, but crashed and burned, lacking the fun characters or light touch that made the 1999 movie such a hit. Despite the advancement of special effects in the last twenty years, The Mummy has so much more going for it than that, and remains an entertaining action-adventure.
How do you remember Brendan Fraser and The Mummy (1999)? Let us know in the comments!
From Vampires to Zombies, the Snipester slays them all.
Wesley Snipes has battled everything from a blood-sucking Stephen Dorff to a locked and loaded Sylvester Stallone, but the Passenger 57 star has got his work cut out for him in his latest movie.
The Blade actor has just signed on to star in Outbreak Z, a brand-new zombie-led action movie that will see Snipes thrown in at the bloody deep end.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Snipes will play one of two SWAT officers on a desperate hunt through a zombie-infested college campus for a man who holds the vaccine to the flesh-eating bugs.
Outbreak Zis shaping up nicely with fight choreographer and stunt performer Chris Brewster directing, based on a script by Hamid Torabpour, Clint Narramore and Andrew Kightlinger.
Brewster comes to the project with plenty of action movie credit in the bank, having overseen the fight and stunt work on Netflix’s excellent Daredevil series as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp and Black Panther.
He won widespread acclaim and several awards for his work on those Marvel movies including a Taurus Award for the Ant-Man sequel and a SAG Award for Black Panther in the category of best fight choreography.
Something of an expert in the world of stunt film work, his expertise will prove invaluable to work on Snipes’ film, which could serve as something as a comeback for the once-incarcerated star.
Snipes has a number of new films in the work, include Dolemite Is My Name! alongside Eddie Murphy and the RZA-directed thriller Cut Throat City.
What are your thoughts on this new Snipes / Brewster action zombie vehicle? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page!
