First Blood (1982): My First Ultimate Action Movie
Whether it’s your first word, first step, first kiss, first job, first date, etc., life is about milestones. Why are high school reunions fairly well-attended? People are nostalgic. They want to remember life way back when. They wax poetic about their younger days when life was simpler.
But this site is The Ultimate Action Movie Club. You didn’t come here to wax poetic; the only waxing we do here is waxing on and off — so we can make our way through a gauntlet of better-trained Kobra Kai bullies. But I’m getting off topic.
The First of Many Ultimate Action Movies
Allow me to me re-focus and get back to today’s topic: What was the first ultimate action movie that you can remember seeing? For me, this is an easy question to answer. I was approaching my eighth birthday in October 1982, when First Blood was released nationwide in theaters. I can recall how excited I was when my dad (a Vietnam veteran himself) told me he was going to take me to see the movie. As an Italian guy who idolized Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky saga, this was a special treat to see him in another role, albeit an action one.
Simply put, the experience would change my life, particularly how I consumed movies. As cool as I thought the animated world of G.I. Joe was at the time, it was minor league compared to the offerings of the then-modern cinema.
Rambo’s First Blood
With three sequels and several spoofs of the franchise already publicly released, it’s easy to forget First Blood’s humble beginnings. In the 1970s, David Morrell was a professor at Penn State in State College, Pa. Some students enrolled in his class were veterans of the American conflict in Vietnam and repeatedly challenged his classroom authority. Why should they do what a college prof told them to do after what they had seen and done? Morrell would use that emotion and pen a novel about a Vietnam veteran pushed a little too far by a small-town sheriff, himself a Korean War vet. With no wife, kids or real family to speak of, lead character John Rambo viewed Col. Samuel Trautman, his commanding officer in Vietnam, as a father figure. He recruited and trained him, and it was proven countless times that he was the only person whom Rambo trusted.
Getting the novel made into a movie proved quite difficult, as its rights were bought and sold in Hollywood several times. Actors became attached and unattached, but Sylvester Stallone had the foresight to see gold among coal. He rewrote a lot of the movie’s script to make Rambo a more sympathetic character; his kill count for the movie is one, and even that was incidental. Richard Crenna was literally a last-minute casting choice for Trautman after Kirk Douglas quit the project over a script debate. He and Brian Dennehy (cast as Will Teasle, the town’s sheriff and the movie’s antagonist) were all brilliantly cast. While it doesn’t get credit as a cast member, the physical setting of the movie — the cold, damp, wet forestry of Hope, British Columbia, Canada — is like a character unto itself. Rambo has to combat it as much as an army of National Guard soldiers and the town’s small police department.
All because he wasn’t allowed to eat in the town.
My Ultimate Hope
TANGENT TIME: A) My father has never had a flashback or suffered any PTSD as a result of his combat experiences (that I know of). I never appreciated him taking me to this movie until years later. B) Before I married my wife, she and I discussed where we planned to honeymoon. She was born in Canada, and was determined we honeymoon there. I really didn’t want to go there, but proposed a compromise: If she agreed to visit Hope, the town where First Blood was filmed, I’d book a honeymoon in Canada. In 2002, the 20th anniversary of the film, we toured all its filming locations. The film is quite nuanced for an action movie. It’s not mindless; character motivations develop, the plot thickens, and you genuinely root for the protagonist. As great as I think it is, I genuinely don’t feel it gets nearly the credit it deserves.
Well, I guess you could say I drew “first blood” with this post. Now, I ask thee: What was your first ultimate action movie that you remember watching?
Let us know what you what you think in the comments!
The Death Wish movies hold a special place in my heart. My all time favorite action franchise in my all time favorite action sub genre, “the vigilante”, this is the series that defined Charles Bronson as one of the greatest action stars of all time, let alone the 80s.
Bronson became an action movie legend as mild mannered architect turned badass vigilante Paul Kersey, who after the death of his wife and rape of his daughter at the hands of muggers, turns to a life a vigilantism to deal with his grief. Now that the remake is upon us, starring fellow action movie legend Bruce Willis, I want to take a look at the entire series, and share with you my thoughts on it and how I rank them. BONUS: review of Death Wish (6) included at the end of the article!
I know I’m gonna have my detractors, but hey, that’s what opinions are for, right??
After the brutal rape and death of his daughter, Paul Kersey arms up to prowl the streets again, this time in seedy LA, in search of vengeance.
I can just imagine your shock. “Death Wish 2 ranked last??” “You ranked 5 over 2??” Yes I did. And I’ll tell you why: Although there is a multitude of badassery in this, it is the least fun of the series. Yes, Bronson is the ultimate badass here, with some of my favorite moments of his career contained in this. But after practically opening up the film with back to back rapes (director Michael Winner went all out), it’s hard to feel good after that, even as Kersey blows away all the scum involved. Really. Those rape scenes are hard to stomach, and afterwards and you just feel… dirty. It hangs over the remainder of the proceedings and really puts a damper in the entertainment factor. Still badass, though…
After the death of his fiancee at the hands of her mob boss ex-husband, Kersey this time takes on the mob in his quest for revenge.
Yes, I rank this above part 2. Why? Because it’s fun! Seriously, I don’t know why people rag on this one so much. It’s not the greatest but at least its directed with some sense of style and flair. And I like that Kersey goes the more sadistic route with his vigilantism, and actually takes pride in his kills. To see him smile as he takes down the creeps who murdered his (5th) love is actually kind of endearing.
Especially when you think about all he’s gone through in this series. Also, I love how creative the kills were in here. Cyanide Cannolis. Exploding Soccer balls. Pools filled with acid. Fun stuff. And it has the late, great Michael Parks as an Irish mob boss. C’mon… Michael Parks, man. That automatically gives it the edge of part 2.
MOST ULTIMATE MOMENT:
“Hey Freddy, I’m gonna take care of your dandruff problem for you…”
After the death of his girlfriend’s daughter due to drug use, Kersey arms up once again, with his sights set on the crack/cocaine trade.
Kersey basically becomes an assassin in this, and I love it! After 3 movies of just shooting random creeps, Kersey takes on the drug trade, going on stealth missions to gather up intel before blowing all the drug pushers away. Sweet! Definitely the glossiest Death Wish of the bunch (although the low budget gives itself away a few times), this is arguably also the best directed film of the series, as Bronson reteams with frequent collaborator J. Lee Thompson to give new life and vibrancy into a series that should have worn out its welcome by now. And we have Cannon regulars John P. Ryan, Soon-Tek Oh, and Machete himself Danny Trejo in a small role. How badass is that??
MOST ULTIMATE MOMENT:
“How many…”
“How many what?”
“How many children have you killed with this s***!”
After the death of his wife and brutal rape of his daughter, mild mannered architect Paul Kersey becomes judge, jury and executioner as he takes down muggers on the mean streets of New York.
The one that started it all. The debut of Paul Kersey, and the film that shot Bronson into superstardom is in my opinion technically the best film of the series from a storytelling standpoint, as it’s not really an action film, but more a gritty drama about a man who becomes addicted to vigilantism. The film is an allegory about addiction, it’s just Paul’s addiction is shooting muggers. While critics have gone on record claiming Bronson was miscast in the role compared to how it was written in the original novel by Brian Garfield, I think Bronson asserts himself well, and gives one of his best performances ever. And I like how Vigilantism is seen from both sides. 1. As a solution to crime. And 2. in Kersey’s case, a deeper, psychological problem…
MOST ULTIMATE MOMENT:
[No dialogue, just Bronson wasting some street punks]
After the death of his old war buddy, Kersey wages war on a violent gang of creeps who terrorize the inhabitants of the local neighborhood.
You just had to have known this would be #1. This is pinnacle of not only Bronson’s career, but also 80s action. You can’t talk about 80s action movies without bringing up Death Wish 3. Oh no, siree! Definitely 80s action movie Mount Rushmore. Bar none. I remember I was once accused of watching Death Wish 3 too much. Seriously, how can you watch Death Wish 3too much?? Not even possible. This movie is such an Iconic symbol of the awesome 80s. And so many great characters. Every character in this movie is memorable: The Giggler, Bennett, The Kaprovs, Rodriguez and his lovely wife Maria. And leading the way is Bronson, at his most badass. Kersey basically becomes urban Rambo in this entry, leaving leaving piles of dead creeps in his path of destruction. Kersey, and his friend Wildey.
Ah yes, the .475 Wildey Magnum. A gun as awesome and iconic as the .44 Magnum from Dirty Harry, that bad boy helped Kersey turn the entire creep population into splattered cherry pie all over those London streets (No, Winner. You didn’t fool anyone into thinking that was New York). As this was the final entry in the series to be directed by Winner, I think we can all say he saved the best for last.
MOST ULTIMATE MOMENT:
“We’re stealing the f***ing car, what’s it to you?”
Surprisingly… I enjoyed it. A very competently made re-imagining of the original, the flick was a lot more serious than that godawful first trailer led us to believe. I like how it posed serious questions about vigilantism. It made some good points from both sides of the argument. The action bits are very well handled, although one sequence devolved into routine as it went along. It also seemed to be more comfortable with bursts of action rather than extended sequences. And that’s ok. Also, being that this is an Eli Roth movie, the bloodletting is maximized considerably. Blood, brains and guts go flying everywhere in here. Complete carnage candy.
The film does have major issues though, the main one being Bruce Willis himself. During the dramatic scenes, the man is so completely devoid of life at times that I began to laugh. He just seemed sooo bored. Sure, he sheds some tears and gets loud, but it’s obvious the man could care less.
EMOTE, DAMNIT! It was during these moments that I wished Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays Paul’s brother Frank, had played the lead role instead. Willis is a lot more believable during the action scenes, unsurprisingly. But, other than that, I enjoyed this. It moves fast, makes you think a bit, and has some real badass moments. Just wished Bruce Willis still gave a crap about his roles.
MOST ULTIMATE MOMENT:
“Are you the ice cream man?
“Who the f**k are you??”
“Your last customer..”
Well, that’s my rankings of the Death Wish series (don’t shoot me). A series I hold as near and dear to my heart as my own father and mother. I can only hope the legacy of the original series lives on. Otherwise Charles Bronson may be forced to come back from the dead to hunt us down one-by-one, and none of us want that. (But that’d make a pretty ultimate action movie, so maybe one day!)
Let us know what you think about the article in the comments!
Arguing about which Martial Arts style would win in a fight to the death was an essential part of my childhood. Kung Fu was the obvious choice if Bruce Lee flicks were anything to go by, but Mike Tyson was a veritable killing machine so Boxing couldn’t be discounted.
Chuck Norris proved that Karate was nothing to be trifled with and there was also that weird Aikido thing Steven Seagal was known for. Realistically though, it wasn’t until I was in my early teens and I came across tapes of the original no-holds-barred UFC I realised I was completely off track (the dude in the pyjamas won again?).
Until that time, my source of knowledge for which was the ultimate martial arts style came from B-grade action flicks. The 90’s had no shortage of movies featuring different styles battling it out but few were quite as gruesome or entertaining as Patrick Alan’s 1993 gem, Shootfighter: Fight to the Death.
No-Holds-Barred Martial Arts
The filmopens in Hong Kong with two fighters duking it out in an underground fighting den. This is shootfighting, a no-holds-barred martial art where honor and respect amongst fighters is paramount. Everyone is there for one thing – to prove their worth for a chance to fight shootfighting legend Shingo (Bolo Yeung). As Shingo and the crowd watches on, one of the combatants gets a little too excited and defeats his opponent… by tearing his throat out (there’s that gruesomeness I was talking about). This act of disrespect displeases Shingo and the shootfighting gods so the offender, Mr. Lee (Martin Kove, although you’ll probably recognise him as the evil Cobra Kai Sensei from Karate Kid), is promptly disqualified and disgraced. But that’s not all. He’s also banned from ever fighting in Hong Kong again, and as a result, from fighting Shingo.
The Karate Kids
Some years go by and Shingo, no longer a hulking cage fighter, is now a hulking martial arts instructor in America. His most promising student is Reuban, a young and naïve Karate school owner played by none other than William Zabka (Karate Kid’s resident badass Johnny Lawrence). But Reuban’s in a pickle.
He owes money to some loan sharks and he’s having trouble paying it back. Cue the return of Mr Lee. After being banned from shootfighting in Japan he did what any budding entrepreneur would: set up a rival shootfighting league in Mexico. He recruits Reuban and his pal Nick to fight in the league under the pretext of earning big bucks, but really, Lee is using the boys to lure Shingo back to the ring for one final fight.
Reuban readily accepts the offer, thrilled to be able to pay his debt back and get a bit of an adrenaline rush at the same time. At first it’s all rosy. Reuban and Nick win a few fights, earn some money and have a good time. Soon enough however Nick realizes something’s amiss and bails. Reuban sticks around and reaches the finals where the true nature of shootfighting emerges. Not only must he now use weapons in the ring, but instead of just defeating his opponent, he’s required to kill them. Luckily for Reuban, Nick has spilled the beans to Shingo and now it’s a race against time for him to rescue the boys and return to the ring to face his arch rival one last time.
Shootfighter: UnCut
In the years since its release Shootfighter has become a cult classic amongst martial arts fans, and for good reason. First and foremost, the film in its uncut form (if you’re lucky enough to find it) has enough bloodshed to rival splatter films of the 80’s. Bones are broken, throats are slashed and blood is spilt in earnest. It’s not quite at Riki-Oh levels, but it’s certainly not something you regularly see in a martial arts film.
It also has the honour of being one of the few films to feature Bolo Yeung as a good guy, and despite having few lines in the film the big fella has a definite presence. As already mentioned, it also reunites the original Karate Kid antagonist William Zabka with his evil Cobra Kai sensei John Kreese which helps up the nostalgia factor. Both give good performances and it’s interesting to note that Zabka kept up with his martial arts training since Karate Kid and it’s evident in his fights. Overall the fight scenes come thick and fast and most are enjoyable if a bit on the bloody side. There’s also an obligatory training montage or two to keep you interested.
Finally, eagle-eyed viewers will also notice a familiar face in the opening fight scene, none other than Joe Son. For the uninitiated, Joe Son is a former MMA fighter, most notable for losing his first UFC match to Keith ‘The Giant Slayer’ Hackney after copping a series of eye watering punches right in the crown jewels. Unfortunately, outside the ring Joe wasn’t exactly a model citizen, I won’t go into details but if you’re up for it his Wikipedia page makes for an interesting and disturbing read.
All up, Shootfighter: Fight to the Death definitely deserves its place as an Ultimate Action Movie. It didn’t help 13 year old me determine which was the ultimate martial arts style but it certainly got a workout in my VCR. Best of all, there’s a sequel!
What’s in a name? A lot, especially when it comes to action heroes. When you think about it, action movie lead character names follow their own unofficial guidelines: first and last names shouldn’t exceed two syllables; they almost hearken back to Westerns; and they have more than a slight tinge of machismo to them.
For this piece, I tried to answer the question: Which character name was the coolest in an actor’s filmography?
UAMC Hero Name Rules
Here are some rules I established:
No actor could have more than one entry. It made it tough for someone like Chuck Norris who has a lot of macho protagonist names, but I worked through it for you people.
If a character was played by two separate actors (“Matt Hunter” was played by both Norris and Michael Dudikoff), it had to be eliminated.
Bonus points were given for a name if it was the lead in a series. For example, as awesome as “Chato” is for a name, it was dwarfed by another Charles Bronson character name because of legacy.
How cool did it sound?
No names from “The Expendables” series could be used. I’m absolutely certain they were written to be intentionally ridiculous: Barney Ross, Lee Christmas, Yin Yang, Toll Road, Hale Caeser, Billy the Kid, Jean Vilain, Booker, Drummer, Trench, Stonebanks, Doc, Bonaparte, Galgo, Mars … (It’s like Sylvester Stallone wanted to make the most over-the-top action cinematic trilogy of all time, and I’d argue he succeeded.)
Because this is the internet, either someone will think I omitted someone (I purposefully left out many Asian martial artists, because most of their movie characters were given ethnic names and not really Westernized ones), or someone will disagree with one or more of my suggestions. So, have at it. Let me know your thoughts, opinions, suggestions or disagreements.
Let us know what you what you think in the comments!
Well, here we are. The final chapter to this rip roaring saga of mind boggling action! The screaming spartan warrior known as Nicolas Cage gives us this sprawling epic conclusion to the greatest action trilogy known to movie lovers everywhere. THE BEIGE VOLVO TRILOGY comes to an end! And The Cage Man brings a friend, our old buddy John Travolta with him in the 1997 classic FACE/OFF! Let’s dig in.
But you’re still not having any fun!
After testing out the action waters with enormous success, Cage decided to join forces with arguably the greatest action director of our time: John Woo! A team up only the action movie gods could make possible, the sultan of shout combined awesomenesses (I just made up a word) with the king of two fisted gunfire himself. A dynamic match made in action movie heaven! That’s right. What better way to cap off your epic trilogy of supreme badassness than to be directed by the man who turned action into an art form. His operatic bullet ballets are sheer perfection. He directs like the reincarnation of Sam Peckinpah with a dose of Michelangelo and Fred Astaire. As you can see, I worship John Woo movies. And It all started with a little film called Hard Target…
From John Woo…
You see, Jean-Claude Van Damme was my favorite action star when I was a kid, so I was always hyped up when one of his movies came out. I remember almost having a heart attack when I first saw the trailer for Double Impact. “What?? Two Van Dammes?? This is the best thing ever!” my 7 year old self thought. So when Hard Target came out, I was begging my dad to take me to see it. And it did not disappoint. 9 year old me was completely blown away. But what’s crazy is… even at that age, I knew the action in it was different than other movies. Just in the way it was handled. Extremely precise. Practically surgical precision. The editing. The cinematography. The staging. Sublime in its execution. Next, I saw Hard Boiled. Good lord! Watching Woo in his element is like listening to Queen for the first time. It was like I had never seen action before. Then Broken Arrow, The Killer, and A Better Tomorrow, etc…
I became hooked on his movies. His output became my drug. So when I heard his next movie was going to star the Cage Man, as well as John Travolta, another one of my favorite actors, I became the rocket man and shot straight to the moon! (Pun intended) This was going to be an event like no other. And during June of ‘97, after the awesome fun ride that was Con Air, but also the incredible let down that was Batman & Robin, I was ready for some slam bang action goodness again. And I sure as hell got it! But first, let’s dive into what this sucker’s about…
Wheeee! What a predicament!
Cage plays Castor Troy, a very “eccentric” terrorist who is put into a coma during a confrontation in an airplane hangar with FBI agent Sean Archer, played by Travolta. However, unbeknownst to Archer, Troy has planted a bomb somewhere in LA which is set to go off in a few days. The only person who may have information regarding the bomb is Troy’s imprisoned brother Pollux, who will only speak to his brother Castor. So Archer decides to undergo a procedure that will place Troy’s face upon his, in a covert undercover operation in a state of the art prison to extract the information from Pollux.
Unfortunately, Troy wakes up from his coma, and realizing the situation, has the same procedure done to him with Archer’s face. He also destroys all evidence of who is who, and pretends to be Archer to the FBI and Archer’s estranged family. Now with no way to prove who he really is, Archer must find a way to escape the prison, so he can stop Troy and save his family…
Plan B: Let’s just kill each other
The acting from the two leads here is a scrumptious buffet of phenomenal acting. Cage and Travolta put on an acting masterclass of emotional conveyance. And they are obviously having the time of their lives while at it. This is top notch performing here, ladies and gentlemen. The way they mimic each other’s mannerisms is damn near flawless. Travolta actually goes full Hard Rock Cage here. But the Cage Man is not to be outdone. No no no. Cage shatters the ground and leaves the earth in a mighty superman leap of a performance! Words like amazing can’t do him justice. I get the feeling Cage and Travolta were in a acting duel to the death the way they seem to be constantly trying to one up each other. This is what a battle of performers looks like, people. Acting majors, take notes and pay homage.
But, I would also like to shine some light onto two of the actors supporting them: Joan Allen and Alessandro Nivola. These two back up our leads considerably. Allen gives an incredible performance as Archer’s wife. And she proves why she is one of our generation’s most underrated performers. And Nivola. How did I miss how great you were in this? I guess when you’re a kid you don’t pay attention to stuff like that, but Nivola is amazing. The way he sells Cage as both Troy and Archer and Travolta as Troy is so great, I actually feel bad now for never noticing his performance when I originally saw this. My sincerest apologies to Alessandro Nivola. You were fantastic in this.
We’ll blow some stuff up, it’s more fun!
But it’s time to talk about the action. And in the words of my ex-girlfriend Alex (RIP) after I showed her this for the first time, “They don’t make them like this anymore!” Oh nooo, they do not. Woo had been held back on his two earlier American movies, but after the success of Broken Arrow, he was allowed a lot more freedom to do whatever he wanted. And he did not waste it! Woo imbues his action with such style and grace like no other director before or after him. A greatest action director of all time conversation shouldn’t even be had if his name isn’t brought up in the discussion. And that’s just being perfectly honest. The action in this movie is some of the best action ever shot. The over the rainbow shootout should be shown on replay all day every day in a art museum.
Seriously, it belongs in The Louvre. Also, the opening shootout in the hangar. The prison escape. The church shootout. The speedboat chase. And the explosions. Good God! How beautiful are the explosions in this movie? If the explosions were a woman, they’d be the cover model for sports illustrated swimsuit every year for 10 years straight. This is the pinnacle of action filmmaking. I can go on and on, man. But there are just not enough words in the english language to help me describe just how awesome the action scenes in Face/Off are. Sheer greatness, I tell ya. Sheer greatness.
Cage is King…
Well, my friends. This is it. The end of our journey. This has been a fun ride down memory lane recounting how the Cage Man became the 90s greatest action hero. It has been fun, but kind of sad all the same. Sad because, if you think about it, this was the last great decade of action movies. And The Beige Volvo trilogy represented the last hurrah for great action in the 90s. Nowadays, we do get great action movies like John Wick, The Raidand Mad Max: Fury Road, but those unfortunately are rare occasions.
Now, we get overproduced CG vomit fests or quick cut, shaky cam crap polluting our screens everywhere. Ugh. What I wouldn’t give to go back to those times of crystal clear action. Ah well, at least we have The Beige Volvo trilogy to remind us what real action movies are supposed to look like. So I would like to give a hearty thank you to Nicolas Cage, for giving us 3 movies that truly defined a decade of great action. You were the action hero we never knew we needed, but you were definitely the action hero we deserved.
What ‘Brawl’ means for the future of ultimate action.
If you’re unfamiliar, a new actioner is on the scene. Brawl in Cell Block 99, starring Vince Vaughn and directed by S. Craig Zahler, has slowly been burning a name for itself in the modern action movie conversation. So, after a little research and watching Brawl in Cell Block 99 for a second time, I have some thoughts on the flick – and how it came to exist – and what it means for both its makers and the future of ultimate action movies.
UAMC Review
From an ultimate action movie perspective, it’s about as good as you’re going to get by modern (post 2010ish) action movie standards. It’s not classic in any sense, it’s postmodern, it’s genre-bending, it has a star who shouldn’t be an action star. However, it does have fights and violence and one-liners even – and, it’s raw. It’s hyper violent, disturbing and is a slow burn that lasts long after your viewing ends.
If it came out in 1988, it might be considered an avant garde cult classic, but I’d argue not with action movie fans, rather with horror aficionados. If you like action heroes who you can count on to deliver the action movie goods, like Arnold, Chuck, JCVD, Stallone, etc…, you’d be rightfully confused to see them star in a movie like this in their heydays.
The Ultimate Action Movie Club was originally founded by a group of buddies simply looking to get together on Friday nights to watch something awesome, funny, fun and ultimate. Brawl in Cell Block 99 is hardly any of those – but only because it’s simply too great of a modern film. It’s more Taxi Driver than Commando, and for UAMC fans, you should be warned of as much before you dive in.
Vince Vaughn Does Stone Cold
Brawl in Cell Block 99 was both written and directed by S. Craig Zahler (more on him below) and produced by Dallas Sonnier and his production company Cinestate. Sonnier is the lightning rod in the room in this case as his background, if you just look at his IMDB filmography, has a heavy dose of Stone Cold Steve Austin flicks. In case you don’t know who Stone Cold is (maybe read up on pro-wrestlers and action movies here), Austin turned a highly successful pro-wrestling career into a middling successful movie career of straight to DVD releases which – one would assume – at least bring back some return on from his fanbase or else they wouldn’t have made so many of them.
Zahler, who is currently on a meteoric rise following his first feature, Bone Tomahawk, which was met with smashing success (also produced by Cinestate). And now with Brawl’s accolades, seems to have written the ultimate Stone Cold wrestler pic. It stars a hunkering giant skinhead who’s primary scenes center around him smashing skulls, bones, and cars with clubbed fists. Except, it’s not Stone Cold delivering vengeance; it’s the usually fast-mouthed Vince Vaughn, drastically against type, doing his best mono-syllabic wrestler impression.
Having read up on Sonnier, Cinestate and Zahler after an early screening, when I sat down to watch the flick again on Amazon Prime, I simply couldn’t unsee the movie as a badass Stone Cold wrestler vehicle. It has a strong lead character with middle American values (he proudly flies a flag above his front door), fastidious moral compass, an unbreakable marital bond with his wife and a heartbreaking yearning for a fully realized ideal family.
The movie also has very set fight scenes, which may take awhile to get to from the flick’s slow burn pacing, but when they hit, they’re about as gritty, real and even a little bit classic as they come. The camera doesn’t bounce around and move. Cuts don’t hide impacts and blaring lens flares don’t sugar coat good ol’ fashioned beat downs, which Stone Cold (er, Vince Vaughn) delivers with a heavy-handedness which looks as lumbering as the knocks are devastating.
Vaughn is not the fighter he portrays. While Stone Cold paid his dues in the ring for years (a line quipped by Vaughn’s character), Vaughn was popping snide remarks in the 90s in comedies like Swingers and Old School. However, after a largely forgettable attempt to go against type in True Detective Season 2 ultimately failed, Vaughn might have just found the step-in role where he could deliver the goods with a better hand.
Steve Austin’s punches might have landed a little harder in Brawl, but Vaughn’s performance was much better than anything Stone Cold could have mustered. From his expressions to his hunched movements to his well-earned one liners, Vaughn was able to critically recover from any True Detective backlash by putting himself in a cinematic situation where literally the least was expected.
Hyper Violence As High Art
Which brings us to the expectations for this movie. From a financial play, if it was indeed viewed as a wrestler flick at one time or another, the loss of a name wrestling/action brand like Stone Cold would be at best a lateral move to cast an against type comedy actor like Vince Vaughn.
However, this wasn’t just any wrestling pic, it was one written and directed by Zahler, who’s adept genre-re-defining skills were recently displayed in Bone Tomhawk where even the New York Times took notice of the man’s talent. It’s also important to note that Zahler did not write, direct or have anything to do with any Stone Cold flicks or Cinestate projects before Bone Tomahawk.
If Cinestate can be commended for anything (not to say they can’t be commended for a lot), it’s worth applauding the foresight to put resources behind such an up-and-coming commodity which Zahler has returned in spades. Brawl, a movie which would best be expected to return money on its minimal budget (and give safe harbor to a stricken Hollywood name), wound up being certifiably enshrined as a modern art classic.
While the MoMA in New York actually has a pretty full film calendar throughout the year, the sheer thought of an action, horrory, genre flick being even discussed in the circles of high art seems insane. It’s much more ludicrous to see that Brawl was not only discussed, but also screened and even added to a permanent collection.
Which leaves me a little confused, yet very much excited. As the managing editor of the Ultimate Action Movie Club, I’ve devoted a great deal of my adult life to the study of a genre of movies which can fairly be described as mindless. But in a good way, I’d be quick to argue, because it’s part of a rich history of mindless entertainment which is wholly redeeming for the enjoyment, the comradery and the comfort such mindlessness provides.
The UAMC, founded by friends buying bargain VHSs from Blockbuster Video stores before they closed, has always been about those golden years of ultimate action movie classics where the hero kicks butt, usually gets a girl, and saves the world (or at least just America) in the process. It follows political tides, propping Reaganism with machismo while usually lampooning itself in the process enough to always make the message about action, not consequence.
Something was lost for the genre post 9/11 (and with the subsequent rise of self-aware internet culture). Modern action movies now seem to fall into 3 categories: 1) hyper-violent thrill rides like John Wick, 2) campy send-ups like Kung Fury (or the ultimate looking new project Commando Ninja), 3) or these hybrid genre-flicks like Brawl where you can only get your action at the price of something more disturbing.
Gone are the days where ultimate action movie classics like Cobra, Die Hardand Commando could be simply enjoyed for their butt-kicking awesomeness. Although, we’ll stay hopeful that as long as Chuck Norris facts and Van Damme dancing GIFs stay bouncing around on the internet, and pages like the UAMC keep the community alive, ultimate action movies can make a comeback in their most pure, and ultimate, form one day.
And as always, let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Much can be said of Liam Neeson’s late-career resurgence from a traditional thespian into a full-blown, grade A, American action hero (albeit one with a suspiciously strong Irish accent). Nobody could have predicted the way male audiences would embrace him decades later in the action genre if you saw a sampling of his early filmography.
That same could be said of a young Patrick Swayze. Yes, he co-starred in Red Dawn (really an ensemble piece) and had bit parts here and there, but for Pete’s sake, he was recognized as an accomplished dancer through and through. Music video? Check (4:24 mark). Music-based movies, successful and not so successful? Check. Legend has it that his mother ran the best dance studio in Texas. She named him “Patrick Swayze” when he was born because she thought it would look good on a movie marquee.
I hope someone bought that woman a beer for that foresight.
After turning down a co-starring role in Tango and Cash with Sylvester Stallone, Swayze accepted the lead role in Road House — which no man I have ever met claims to dislike. This timeless movie, quite frankly, has no peer. Think about it: It’s about a bouncer (aka “cooler”) who cleans up a corrupt bar run by an even more corrupt sleaze.
How does he do this, you ask? He lives by three simple rules: One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it’s absolutely necessary. And three, be nice.
I have been with my wife for 17 years, as of this writing. She doesn’t understand my complete adoration of this movie. I suspect most women don’t. They will never appreciate the level of nirvana men feel during and after watching this movie. Swayze’s Dalton (his last name is never uttered, but that’s just one more reason that the movie is awesome) is a man who men want to be and women want to be with.
He elegantly spouts philosophy, a direct result of his NYU degree in philosophy. And, oh yeah, he’s as honest as a Boy Scout, smokes like a chimney, does Tai Chi, has a physique with less than 4% body fat, and gets to date Kelly Lynch in all of her 80s-ness. His bro-mance with Sam Elliott’s Wade Garrett is nothing to sneeze at, either.
How much do I love this movie? I WANTED TO NAME MY FIRST-BORN SON “DALTON.”
These are actual lines of dialogue from this epic:
Cody, Band Singer at Double Deuce: Man, this toilet is worse than the one that we worked in Dayton.
Dalton: Really?
Cody, Band Singer at Double Deuce: Oh man, it’s a mean scene around here, man. There’s blood on the floor of this joint every night.
It doesn’t take an NYU degree to break down that a blind man is describing the scene to the viewer. (By the way, I wonder which bar in Dayton he was referring to. I only ask because I work in Dayton.)
On a scale of awesomeness from 1 to 10, this movie ranks about a 92.
Want more? Dalton brings his medical charts to the emergency room after getting injured in a fight. Why? “Saves time.” When the doctor, played by Kelly Lynch, wants to give him anesthesia, he declines. Why? “Pain don’t hurt.”
TANGENT TIME: Two years ago, I had to be rushed to an E.R. My hand was ripped open, I was bleeding profusely, and I obviously needed stitches. The surgeon took one look at my open wound and hurriedly asked me, “Are you in pain?” With all the cool I could muster, I looked her in the eye and said, “Pain don’t hurt.” I’m pretty sure they waived my co-pay.
Dear reader, I don’t know who you are; I’ve never met you. I can’t ascertain your age, where you live, or any vital statistics associated with you. I only know few details that I can glean based upon context: A) If you’re a guy who has seen Road House you love it. B) If you are anyone else who has not seen Road House (for whatever reason I won’t hold against you), you NEED to see this movie.
The movie’s trailer is less than two minutes long, but I am certain it contains more fantastic content in it than anything on television or in any movie currently playing.
I know for a fact I will sit my kids down one day and watch Road Housewith them. Why? It is my firm belief that it should be standard viewing for any American male entering adulthood. Why? It answers any question he may have. Topics such as fighting, women, philosophy and others are covered in Road House.
Even how to respond when someone tells you, “I thought you’d be bigger.”
Let us know what you what you think in the comments!
For UAMC fans, an ultimate action movie really only needs two things. One, an ultimate action movie star. And two, an ultimately villainous bad guy’s butt to kick. The badder the bad guy, the better the butt kicking and the more ultimate the action. Even those that we love to hate deserve to be kicked around a bit before they meet their ultimate demise. So, let’s look at 10 of the baddest of the bad from some of of the most ultimate action movies known to mankind.
Sylvester Stallone’sMarion Cobretti represents everything we love in an ultimate action movie hero. He’s an idealistic lone wolf cop whose lip curls at the mere thought of any unruly punk stepping out of line.
In Cobra, citizens are terrorized by a supremacist group of strung out wackos looking to bring about a new world order. The Night Slasher (played by Brian Thompson), is the craziest, stringiest, mouth-foaming bad guy in the bunch.
As far as final showdowns go, the Night Slasher’s inevitable fate impaled on a meat hook drawn through a furnace is about as ultimate as they come. And great justice for any creep bold enough to torment Brigitte Nielsen in Cobra’s town.
Like Cobra, action movies in the late 80s thrived on terrifying movie-goers with strung out, yet well manicured junk heads who snapped like hounds at any man, woman or child they saw on the streets. Clarence Boddicker, though, was of a different level.
Played by Kurtwood Smith (perhaps best known as Red Forman on That ‘70s Show), Boddicker seamless blends between his manic street thug gang and the corporate aristocracy which RoboCop equally lampoon’s throughout.
His volatile temper shoots from zero to a million in an instant, and his dangerous and creepy demeanor makes his death (not executive Dick Jones’) RoboCop’s greatest triumph.
Before American audiences were fed a fear of hopped up street punks, the biggest foes in early 80s action movies were those who could only be defined as ambiguously foreign.
With Blade Runner’s blend of action and science fiction mind games, Roy Batty (played by Dutch actor Rutger Hauer) fits the bill for a perfectly generic looking android who has an accent. Unlike other android villains, Batty’s sophistication and clear blue eyes somehow makes him that much more sinister.
While his end is met as sort of an anti-climax by action movie standards, Batty stands as a tentpole for what a non-American, non-human bad guy can be.
It’s a well-established fact that Steven Seagal is the toughest tough guy in action movie history. His no bull crap demeanor and supreme confidence in himself and his abilities is rarely challenged throughout his movie career.
So, it takes a certain anti-tough guy presence to counter Seagal’s impermeability. That guy is Richie Madano in Out for Justice, played by the equally celebrated tough guy bad guy William Forsythe who basically plays some version of the same character in everything he does. But in Out of Justice, it’s his best performance by far. Take this scene for example where Madano, at the height of his gangster inner-city power, point blankly shoots a woman driver in the face because she honks at him in broad daylight.
Forsythe’s performance powers the entire flick, which gives Seagal ample opportunity to bust heads and tough guy it up when he goes looking for Richie.
An unlikely classic from Cannon Films‘ heyday of ultimate 80s action, Albert Pyun’s early Jean Claude Van Damme vehicle stands out for its ultimately awful cyborg bad guy Fender Tremolo.
Played by Vincent Klyn (who also has a notable bad guy role in Point Break – albeit a minor one at that), Tremolo cuts quite a figure up against Van Damme in one of the most ultimate (and probably longest) final showdowns of all time.
Tremolo’s ferocity and maniacal fighting ability pairs well with his vampire bat looking features and animalistic grunts and screams. Plus he just keeps. popping. up. again. Van Damme has to conjure every split kick roundhouse he has just to get Tremolo down again and again.
The American drug epidemic of the 80s found a new form to fear in action movies with the shadowy, menacing drug lords. From this vein of evil-doers we have Ramon Cota up against Chuck Norris in Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection, a merciless dictator and drug peddler from the “NOT Colombia” South American country San Carlos.
Ramon (played by Billy Drago) has an aura of sleaze and ruthlessness that is a rare sight to see. One dark example of his personality is when he catches one of the female workers in the cocaine fields tending to her child instead of toiling away.
He immediately has her husband and baby murdered and we later find that he, of course, used the dead child’s body as a method to smuggle drugs into the United States.
What. to. Say. about. Bennett. In a movie where Arnold is an indestructible force as they come, he’s pitted up against a tubby, whiney chainmail mall cop who has a face his own parents would love to slap around.
Throughout 80 plus minutes of Commando, Bennett (played by Vernon Wells) does absolutely nothing to warrant any fear, respect or intrigue, yet as far as ultimate final battles go, there’s none more memorable and awesome. Maybe that’s what’s so endearing about Bennett.
It’s a huge suspension of disbelief that he could match strength with Arnold’s arm cannons, so when he does meet his end, it’s to the thankful relief of everyone (probably himself included) that it can be delivered with the greatest one-liner of all time.
We actually have a tie here at number 3. It’s hard to disconnect Arnold the Terminator from his role in the original Terminator, with the nurturing protector Terminator he becomes in T2.
Luckily, Robert Patrick’s performance as the T-1000 is such an demonstratively refined killing machine, that we can reach a draw. While the Terminator kills with a curt and monotone manner which seems unstoppable by his sheer size and strength, the T-1000 is equal parts terrifying with his intense and resolute demeanor.
You know that both these guys will quite literally stop at nothing to accomplish their missions, and even when they do, you kinda doubt that another one won’t just be sent again tomorrow.
Early in his career, Van Damme forged his superstar career by showcasing his martial arts prowess in these tournament style flicks like Bloodsport. We could just as easily talk about his matchup against Tong Po (Michel Qissi) in Kickboxer, but here at the UAMC, we just love Bloodsport so much!
It also has Bolo Yeung as Chong Li, who is as ultimate as they come. Not only does he put Ray Dux’s buddy Ray Jackson in the hospital, Li’s dangerous pecs and utter lack of respect for everything the Kumite stands makes for an epic final battle for the ages.
Bolo Yeung, an accomplish martial artist in his own right, made quite a career based off of this performance and even got a rematch against JCVD in Double Impact (spoiler: he loses. again.)
Ah, now finally we can talk about an action movie villain with class. Die Hard is more than your average action flick. It’s a classic. It’s a holiday staple. And it has an elegance to it which is 100% delivered by Alan Rickman’s performance as the sophisticated, well-spoken and ultimately deadly Hans Gruber.
A role so deftly delivered that all action movie villains after will aspire to match. Bruce Willis, for all his boyish likability and ingenuity, feels like hardly a deserving foe matching speeches like Gruber’s ‘Alexander Wept’ with cowboy quotes like ‘yippie-ki-yay’.
Yet, when Gruber meets his end, like all villains do, we’re left with a resolute ending that’s both glorious as it is disappointing that we can’t see Gruber live so that we can all buy stock in his splinter cell organization and wait for him to eventually take over the world.
Honorable Mentions:
For the amount of ultimately awesome action movies out there, narrowing a list down to a top 10 means there are many ultimate bad guys who barely didn’t make the cut.
Whoa, baby. This is it. The Nicolas Cage masterpiece we’ve been waiting for. Although there is one more film in TheBeige Volvo trilogy, this is the apex of the entire saga. The mecca. The holy grail of not only Cage Action, but all of 90s action. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am talking about…CON AIR! A Jerry Bruckheimer production (his first without longtime co-producing partner Don Simpson, who died during production of The Rock), and directed by former commercial director Simon West, Con Air is a movie so jacked up on testosterone and so gloriously over the top that it double backs on itself.
You could literally feel the dude sweat pouring off the screen. If this movie were a gymnast, it would win all the gold medals at the Olympics. It so perfectly encapsulates everything that was great about 80s action and 90s action. There are just so many good things I can say about this movie. I might make this article a two-parter. Just kidding, but not really. The love I have for this movie is immeasurable. But I know what you’re thinking. Why?? What is it about this movie that makes you love it so much?? Well, let me start at the beginning…
“This Spring, Buckle Up!”
It was 1996. The Rock was just released on VHS after a successful theatrical run. Ahhhh… The good old days of VHS. After popping it in the VCR, the usual stuff occurs: FBI warnings, logos, etc. Then, a trailer came on. But it wasn’t just any trailer. It was the teaser trailer for Con Air. And… my god, was it a thing of beauty. The great Hal Douglas narrating an epic 90 second montage of fire and fury. Cars Crashing. Guns blazing. Fireballs raging. And in the midst of it all, the Cage Man himself. All chiseled and cut up as fiercely as 80s Action Mount Rushmore member Sylvester Stallone was in Rambo III.
And with a beautiful mane of hair swaying so elegantly in the background like Superman’s cape. It was unbelievable. My 12 year old eyes couldn’t believe all the awesomeness they were seeing. As an all American kid in love with all things action, I was in love. I must’ve watched that trailer about 200 times after that. Hell, I’d pop in the VHS just to watch the trailer. To hell with The Rock. And this is coming from someone who loves that movie. But until June 6th 1997, I watched that trailer over and over, practically every day until the movie came out. And when it finally came out?? It was a revelation! A cinematic seminar of bodacious badassness! I was in complete awe in that theater. But that was 1997. It’s 20 years later. Does it still hold up?
Welcome to Con Air
Cage plays Cameron Poe, a former army ranger recently paroled after serving 8 years in prison for killing a man in self defense. How did he kill him you ask? By SHOVING HIS NOSE INTO HIS BRAIN! Nice! He is scheduled to take a flight on The Jailbird, a prisoner transfer plane overseen by US Marshal Vince Larkin (John Cusack). Also scheduled to take this flight is his friend/cellmate Baby O (Mykelti Williamson), as well as dangerous convicts William “Billy Bedlam” Bedford (Nick Chinlund), Nathan “Diamond Dog” Jones (Ving Rhames), John “Johnny 23″ Baca (Danny Trejo), and Cyrus “The Virus” Grissom (John Malkovich), who are being flown to a new supermax prison. During the flight, Grissom and Jones manage to hijack the plane, and plan on meeting up with drug lord Francisco Cindino (Jesse Borrego) at another transfer, who has conspired with them to escape from custody and flee the country on another plane at a different location.
At that transfer, they acquire pilot Earl “Swamp Thing” Williams (M.C. Gainey) and notorious mass murderer Garland “The Marietta Mangler” Greene (Steve Buscemi) in the process. Having the chance to get off and finally reunite with his wife Trisha and daughter Casey, Poe decides to stay on the plane as to watch over Baby O, who is a diabetic and in desperate need of insulin, and guard Sally Bishop (Rachel Ticotin), who after being taken hostage during the hijacking, is being harassed by Johnny 23, a serial rapist. While on board, he finds “creative” ways to correspond with Larkin, forming an unusual partnership in the process. Poe thought his ranger days were over, but he’s about to find out he still has one day left to be a hero. And today… just happens to be that day.
Love your work!
One of the defining things about Con Air is not just the action, but the cast. I mean, how could it not be? Cage. Cusack. Malkovich. Buscemi. Rhames. Trejo. Chinlund. Hell, even a young Dave Chappelle shows up! This is quality casting here! In my opinion, this is the last great action movie cast until Expendables 2 15 years later, which was also directed by Simon West (Why did I skip the first Expendables? Because the cast in part 2 is better. Sue me.) And leading them is Cage, an all American he-man with a hilariously thick southern drawl. And an amazing mullet. Seriously. His mullet is top 5 movie mullets of all time. I’d put it at number 2, second only to The Boz’s ultra-pelt from Stone Cold. Cage’s Poe is a man’s man. Tough, but caring. Strong, yet sensitive. A man who would just as diligently walk an old lady across the street as he would break a guy’s neck. Justifiably, of course. He isn’t someone who takes pleasure in killing, and after offing a bad guy, is visibly upset. But, if push comes to shove, he will do what he has to do.
Such an interesting contrast to the cold blooded killing machines of the 80s. Just a hard man with a conscience. I like that. Going against him is Malkovich’s Cyrus, a borderline brilliant guy, but sociopathic all the same. Malkovich kinda portrays Cyrus almost like a demented Dennis Miller. Exacting, methodical, and coldhearted, Cyrus is a bad guy’s bad guy. And Malkovich as Cyrus is a blast to watch. A really fun character. Even though he is incredibly evil. Rounding out the leads is Cusack, who seems to be having no fun. Seriously, he walks around with a “why am I here?” expression throughout the entire movie. It’s obvious he did this purely for the check. And while he doesn’t completely sandbag his performance, he is clearly phoning it in. The rest of the cast back them up ably, particularly Buscemi as Greene, a wholly insane murderer that’s, oddly enough, played for laughs. Yeah, we were still in that weird time when murderers could be considered funny, i.e. Freddy Krueger. But it is what it is, and Buscemi is the true standout of the cast.
Put… the bunny… back… in the box
But enough of that, let’s get to why we’re really here: ACTION!!! Now, I must say… this movie isn’t brimming with wall to wall action. But it feels like it is. And I think that’s because it’s shot, edited and directed with such frenetic energy that the whole thing feels like one long action sequence. It’s as if the movie was coated in nitroglycerin and if it didn’t throw in a thousand pounds of awesome per minute before the end, it would explode. And when the action does come, it is exquisite. Fisticuffs. Epic gun battles. Chases. Crashes. This movie was actually unique in that it combined 80s action movie aesthetics with 90s action movie characteristics, particularly the disaster movie. See, back in the mid to late 90s, disaster movies were all the rage. Twister. Independence Day. Daylight. Dante’s Peak. Just to name a few. Big destruction scenes were really popular, and that seems to have been incorporated in Con Air, much to our pleasure.
Things blow up really big and really good. Debris flies past people only inches away from their heads. And fireballs. Fireballs everywhere. Fireballs engulf so many scenes in this I think this actually started out as a sequel to The Towering Inferno. Irwin Allen would be proud. Do I have a favorite sequence? Gotta be between the epic gun battle at the airfield and the plane crash on the Las Vegas strip. Awe Inspiring stuff here. Simon West really steers this ship confidently, stylishly and assuredly. I thought he was going to give Michael Bay a run for his money after this, but that turned out to not be the case. He did a few things here and there (The General’s Daughter, Tomb Raider) but nothing came close to the peaks he reached with Con Air until Expendables 2. And after watching that, I believe he still has it. He just needs the right projects.
Make a move and the bunny gets it
Any nitpicks? Aside from the aforementioned phoned in performance from Cusack, I have a problem with SPOILER ALERT!!!: the deaths of the villains at the climax. Now, I don’t mean Cyrus. He has an epically badass death. See, I am a firm believer in that an action movie is only as great as its main villain, and a great villain deserves a great death. And by god, does Cyrus get one! No, that’s not it. Actually, my problem is with the deaths of Nathan and Swamp Thing. You see, after the plane crashes in Las Vegas, Cyrus, Nathan and Swamp Thing escape and steal a fire truck as Poe and Larkin give chase on motorcycles. And while trying to jump onto the fire truck, Poe sends his bike crashing into Nathan, killing him. And… it’s such a cop out of a death.
It’s as if the screenwriter could not think of a creative way to get rid of Nathan, so he just wrote “The bike crashes into him… for some reason.” Same thing with Swamp Thing. Larkin jumps on top of the truck and pumps water into it (how he manages to accomplish this as the truck is in motion and therefore cannot pump water is beyond me), and when the truck crashes into a car, Swamp Thing goes flying through the windshield… because?? I know that can actually happen, but the truck was still in motion! It was going full speed ahead! How does he go flying through the windshield?? Ugh! Look at me, looking for logic in Con Air. I should know better. END OF SPOILERS!!!
Cy… Onara
All in all, in my opinion, Con Air still holds up 20 years after its release. One of, if not the, quintessential 90s action movies. It takes what we loved about our action movies in the 80s and blended it with what we liked in our action in the 90s. And with Cage kicking ass as only he can, makes it even better. With this one, he went from Nic Cage to Nicolas MuthaF**kin Cage in a millisecond. He could do no wrong in my eyes. He was 2 for 2, baby. Back to back grand slams out the park. But, like all good things… Yep, we are now up to the final chapter in The Beige Volvo trilogy. The swan song. The epic conclusion known as… Face/Off. But that is another tale.
My daddy taught me that
Side note: I can understand if you’re not convinced as to why I love this movie so much. So let me leave you with this little tidbit. Back when this came out, The Lost World: Jurassic Park had come out a month prior. Me and my dad had seen it and enjoyed it. The weekend Con Air was released, my father had some business to attend to. So we most likely wouldn’t see it until Sunday. My cousin was over that weekend, so I hung out with him in the meantime. Then, out of nowhere, my older cousin’s husband (who also lived in the same building with me and my family) walked up to us and invited only my cousin to go with him to see Lost World. I wasn’t invited because he said I already saw it. Mind you, he didn’t know that. He just said I couldn’t come because I’d seen it.
So, they left and I dejectedly went back upstairs to my apartment. When my father heard about this, he told me to grab my stuff and get in the car. He must’ve been so tired from working, but he said “Nobody is gonna leave my son stranded like that!” So we went to a theater with the biggest screen I had ever seen in my life. Got me a huge bucket of popcorn with some Twizzlers and a big soda, and we enjoyed the hell out of that movie. And when we got home? “Hey man, where’d you go? You went to see Con Air? Why didn’t you tell us? We would’ve went with you guys instead of Lost World!” And I said… “It’s ok. I already saw that with my dad.” HA! I was petty! But that’s why I love that movie so much. Not just because of how awesome it is, but because it’s a reminder of how awesome my dad is. Just thought I’d close out with that. Until next time…
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If you were to ask me who was the first action hero I wanted to be when I was a kid, I’d know the answer in a heartbeat: Snake-Eyes from G.I. Joe. Between his all-black action figure and the Marvel comic book run of the 80s (the TV show barely used him, strongly favoring Duke instead), he was the guy who encapsulated all that being an action hero was to me. And, two words associated with him were purely epic: “commando” and “ninja”.
As one of the “original” (I use that word in quotes because the G.I. Joe toy line of the 80s was in itself a reboot on the 1960s line) G.I. Joe soldiers, his character description was listed simply as “Commando.” It was his job to infiltrate enemy territory and complete his mission — but do so in as clandestine manner as possible. He could accomplish such a feat because he was trained by the Arashikage clan in Japan, i.e., he was an American ninja.
But when push came to shove, and circumstances dictated that he use his trusted Uzi or katana sword, no number of enemy combatants were safe from his wrath.
Throw in the facts that A) he couldn’t speak because his vocal cords were damaged when he saved Scarlett (the unit’s incredibly attractive redhead intelligence agent) from flaming helicopter wreckage, and B) he wore a mask to keep his identity a secret at all times, and you had the perfect action hero to a young me.
A few months ago, I stumbled upon an upcoming Kickstarter campaign for an independent film from Ben Combes called Commando Ninja. Based on the trailer below and my undying affinity for Snake-Eyes and all that he stands for, I knew I had to get in touch with Ben to learn more about the project.
UAMC Interview: ‘Commando Ninja’ Creator
John Acquavita: Ever since I heard of your Kickstarter campaign, I’ve been salivating to watch this movie. I’ll try to help promote it in any way I can, and I think this is a good start. So, how did you come up with the idea for Commando Ninja?
Ben Combes: First, thank you very much for salivating over our movie! I’m an independent filmmaker and a lover of 80s action hero movies. I first dreamt of making my own movie five years ago, set in the 80s. When I saw the success of Kung Fury and the 80s revival wave, I thought it was now or never. At first, I hit a stumbling block because I couldn’t find the perfect “American hero,” but when I met Eric Carlesi, we immediately started the project.
JA: What films influenced you for the project? BC: The project is more than influenced; it’s a tribute to my favorite 80s action movies, and you’ll be able to recognize each of them in different scenes. The main influences are:
Commando
Predator
Terminator
American Ninja
Rambo: First Blood Part II
3 Ninjas
Mad Max
Of course, there are a lot more…
Funding an Ultimate Action Movie
JA: What are your funding goals for the project? Ideally, how much would you like to raise? BC: Our funding goal is $30,000. If we raise that, we’ll be able to properly finish the movie. The good news is that the movie is already half-way finished. This money is intended to shoot the most expensive scenes, do the post-production and create the physical rewards.
JA: Kickstarter is rife with projects that never get off the ground. What incentives can people look forward to receiving if they decide to fund your film? BC: First, with this movie, people will receive a love letter to their favorite 80s action movies, full of nostalgia: action, muscles, crude language, humor, violence — without limitations.
Of course, there will be rewards: a Blu-ray with behind-the-scenes footage and commentaries, T-shirts, posters, and if we get more money than expected, action figures!
JA: Is this your first major film funded through Kickstarter? If not, can you tell us a little about the previous one(s)? BC: Yes, it is! I don’t know if “major film” would be the correct term, as our project is a 45-minute short film, independently self-produced.
JA: The trailer for Commando Ninja is beyond epic! When are you hoping to release the film? BC: Thank you! We hope to be able to release it before this summer.
JA: In the event the film is well received by the audience (which I highly suspect it will, based solely on the trailer), will you consider filming a sequel? BC: This is a major question. You have to realize that the film (due to various economic and personal reasons) is only the first part of the story. Our idea is to tell the other part in a top-down shooter video game. Producing a 45-minute independent action movie was already a huge challenge! But of course, if the movie succeeds beyond expectations, and we are solicited, we will think about that!
Capturing 80s Action Movie Nostalgia
JA: Any final words you’d like to say about the project? BC: While I was making this project, I re-watched again all my favorite action movies starring the likes of: Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Seagal, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, and Dudikoff. I watched them all again and thought, “My god, this is the thirtieth time I’ve watched this movie and I can’t get tired of it. How is that possible? What are the details in those movies that make them tireless to watch?” As a lot of people hate those movies, but I think this is all about growing up with them and growing up with real heroes, not super heroes. I hope my project, at this independent movie level, will be able to bring you the nostalgia and the envy to plunge you back into 80s action movies.
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!
