Rating: 
Summary: I loved it
Review: I saw this in the theater when it came out and anxiously awaited the sequels. This is one movie where the sequel would have probably been a much better movie if for no other reason than actors and director would get into The Destroyer legend.I loved the books at least up until Richard Sapir passed away. The books were fun, funny and contained much social satire. They were gems of wit and wisdom. Basically it is about a cop recruited to be a supersecret agent for the government for an agency called CURE. The theory being that the President needed a tool to combat evil that could be fought only by violating the Constitution. Of course Presidents now boast about violating the constitution but these stories are from a more innocent age. In the movie Fred Ward is perfectly cast as Remo Williams named in a very amusing way - "We put a lot of thought into it."
Joel Gray does a marvelous job of Chiun the Master of Sinanju the latest in a line of assasins dating back a millenia or two. Sinanju being the "sun source of all martial arts". Wilford Brimly is probably the biggest departure from the books cast as Harold Smith. In the series Smith was a much more interesting character and the interplay between him and Remo is always entertaining. Overall the plot was weak. Iw ould have rather had them adapt one of the many stories from the book series. I just never felt that Grove was that evil a guy worthy of accelerating Remo's mission. Patrick Kilpatrick was a great villan - muscle man "Stone". I particularly enjoyed the scene where Remo uses Stone's special feature to escape from a gas chamber. The film was well structured I thought with equal amounts of Remo's training and mission, Joel Gray doing a wonderful Chiun, soap operas and all. I thought it was a good first effort. Had they kept it up I am sure they would have gotten the hang of it and the movies gotten better and better. I downrated the DVD mainly because of the format. so-called "fullscreen" is really only a half a screen. I did not buy the DVD just for that reason. I have an old copy on Betamax that I still watch twice a year or so. There are no significant bonus features on the disk as was pointed out by a previous reviewer. This is just about inexcusable these days. If my Beta tape ever weasr out I may be forced to buy a disk, but until then maybe MGM will get their heads out of you know where and re-release this movie properly.
Rating:
Summary: Depends on if you're a fan of the book or not.
Review: This film gets a lot of bad commentary by people who did not read the book series that it was based on. The.......... review has this problem as well. This movie was based on a series that currently has 123+ books in it. If you are a fan of the books, the character acting by Joel Grey and Fred Ward is pretty right on, not a political correctness faux pas as the review suggests. It was not stereotypical acting, but a near perfect depiction of a character whose personality has developed over the course of a 100+ books. Yes, the action scenes are a little lukewarm primarily because it was not really possible to depict the capabilities of the book characters with the technology of the time. If you are a Destroyer fan, you will most likely love this movie and the life it brings to Chuin and Remo, and even Harold Smith (although Wilford Brimley is a little too portly to be the gaunt, perfectly groomed Smith, although he accomplishes the lemonyness perfectly).
Rating: 
Summary: The greatest
Review: Yes, this is the greatest. I have a list of my favorite 30 or 40 movies and TV shows ever and this is at the very, very, very top. I have a good memory too, for movies and toons. I would remember if I had EVER seen something better. First, note that it is based on a series of novels called "The Destroyer" by Sapir and Murphy. It has an active website, www.sianju.com (I believe... I may have misspelled it). This movie may be 20 years old and the first destroyer books older, but they are STILL MAKING THEM! Over 130 books, each one averaging maybe 200 or 250 pages... the story of Remo may in fact be the longest story ever told. Now, that said, you will either agree or disagree with me. You may or may not be impressed with the special effects, or the story, or the humor. The ending is the greatest, though. Sure, you can see the 6 or 8 foot wide platform under the water and make out its edges also from the way the waves ricochet along the surface of the water, but the IDEA is brilliant and terribly funny. Here are these military guys who have lived their whole lives in the real world, shooting with real guns and understanding power on those terms, and suddenly, out of the blue, they bear witness to something that maybe... no ordinary mortal is meant to see. I also like the bullet dodging. It's really irritating how they slow things down and make it look fake like in The Matrix and other recent things. This is REAL bullet dodging, dagnammit. The character Chiun surely inspired so many other characters from other movies (Pat Morita's character in Karate kid, for instance), Japanese animation (Kamesennin from Dragonball for instance), and well, all sorts of other things (well, plenty of video games for sure), it is hard to even imagine. He is the very-old-man-invincible-martial-arts-master who says arcane, silly all the time, that has almost become a stereotype over the years. Joel Grey does an amazing job as this humorous, incredibly arrogant and insulting old man who one would say to have a superiority complex if he were not in fact superior, and you just know that things will turn out all right when he's around. Some may say this movie oozes with testosterone, and to that I say, YES! But in a good way. The DVD's only special feature, unfortunately, is the preview to the movie. That's because this was made in 1985, on analog technology, and before the era of keeping around extra features for use in later releases (such as outtakes, behind the scenes looks, etcetera).
Rating: 
Summary: Just the Worst drivel that anyone with a camera can put out
Review: Never have a seen a movie go nowhere in such a long drawn out dtoryline such as this one. The acting is simply pathetic and that doesn't help a plot that is about as dense as a patch of grass. It blows me away that actual human beings took time out of their busy schedule of breathing, eating and sleeping to actually make this movie in the first place and then follow up and put out a DVD. I do have some good news however. This movie did make a top 10 list of mine. Actually maybe even top 3 when it comes to wasting money that could easily have been spent on much more worthwile things such as wigs, polyester suits and root canals. Listen if you are thinking of buying this movie DON'T!!! Instead send me half the money for the cost of the DVD as I will summarize the movie for you right here. SUMMARY: Movie Begins, you will fall in and out of slumber for the next 90+ minutes and when you wake up you will be surprised that you are still at the same point the movie began.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally! A Hero for the '80's--and new millenium...
Review: This is a great adventure movie full of the dry wit of the James Bond series (credit former Bond director Guy Hamilton) with the working-class grit of a Sidney Lumet film. I first saw this film when I was 14, in the theater, and couldn't wait for the sequel that, sadly, never came. After seeing the film, I became a fan of the novels on which it was based. Coming as it did at the height of Reagan-era paranoia and secretiveness (is that a word?), it has a great new, and maybe even more prescient, value in today's Bush-Ashcroft shadow government/civil liberty strangling shenanigans. As a film, regardless of culteral context, it is very entertaining. Fred Ward is superb as the cop whose life is taken and transformed into the secret killing machine under the tutelage of Sinanju master Chuin, played by a sublime Joel Grey (the make-up is so convincing my parents, fans of Grey since "Cabaret!", didn't recognize him. At the end of the film, they asked, "Where was Joel Grey?") I fell in love with Kate Mulgrew as Major Fleming and have been a fan ever since. There are great action sequences and tender moments between the characters that elevate this above the usual bump and grind (then explosion and gunplay) fare of the time. It's a pity this didn't make it as a film series (an attempt at a TV series was also made). It would have made a great antidote to the high testosterone foolishness that passed as action films in the late '80's. The chase on the Statue of Liberty has to be seen to be believed. I'd love to see a DVD with commentary by Ward, Joel, and/or Hamilton. But the film gets 4 stars.
Rating:
Summary: Ahead of it's time . . . and then some
Review: Okay . . . when I was a kid, I loved this movie. Then, completely by accident, I chanced upon the 'Destroyer' series of action novels (Think 'Mack Bolan, the Executioner', only written by smart people) and I came to love this movie so much more. Nowadays, when superpowerful martial artists are uncommonly common in the cinema, this movie may seem like old news. But consider this: since the 1960's the characters and situations adapted for this flick have inspired more ripoffs than anything else EVER, and when this movie was made, these ideas were still fresh. The Destroyer novels have concepts that have later been seen in 'Terminator', 'Matrix', Japanimation, 'Karate Kid', and many spy flicks, just to name a few. The movie takes major liberties with the basics of Remo's origins, but the essential characters and situations remain unaltered, especially the dysfunctional father-son dynamic between Remo and his mentor, the gifted but insensitive and arrogant Chiun, masterfully portrayed by dancer Joel Grey.
If this movie had been made today, the special effects would finally have caught up with the ideas and storyline. As it is, they do the best they can with the limited techniques, budget, and imagination of action movies of the time.
Bottom line: this movie has heart. You can't help but love Remo, and especially Chiun, as they bicker their way thru events that could shatter the nation (and by extension, the world). The action could be better by today's standards, but the faithfulness to a pop cultural icon must be applauded. This film is funny, frisky, and just plain entertaining from start to finish.
Oh, and just to cover some questions raised by other reviews: even if you have an all-powerful septuagenarian, Korean killer on your hands, if you want an effective SECRET agant, you'd need an 'Everyman'. You know, a guy who can blend in to a crowd (don't think I'm sexist by saying 'guy'. Sinanju is sexist by only training men. In the film, Chiun suggests that "Women should stay home and make babies. Preferably manchild.") Remo is that Everyman, and so much more. Check this one out. The DVD itself could be better, but considering how old this flick is, it's understood that there would be a limit to what could be put together for it. The film's a B+, the DVD is a C, but only because this is a film from the decline of cinema, before CGI and a burgeoning home video market revitalized the action genre.
FLAWS: they don't kill enough. I'm not one for gratuitous violence, but this is a film about an ancient society of superpowerful assassins, and you'd expect more deaths. In fact, there are scenes depicting what are OBVIOUSLY deaths that then have extraneous footage afterwards to show that no one has died (Watch the scene on the industrial elevator, Statue of Liberty footage, and tell me if that guy was HUNG, or just hung UP).
WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Memorable '80's actioner
Review: Ah, I would give anything to return to the halcyon days when movies like "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" played on cable. It seemed movies like this one played on a perpetual loop back in the comforting days of Reagan, the Cold War, the Iran-Contra Affair, and nuclear winter. Things were simpler when you faced the seemingly real possibility of dying in an atomic conflagration at any moment, didn't they? Heck, the year when "Remo Williams" opened on movie screens across the country, Bill Clinton was just some hick wannabe rambling around the backwoods of Arkansas. Apparently, this movie's inspiration is a series of books called "The Destroyer," but I don't know anything about that. What I do know is "Remo Williams" is an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours. The best thing going for the film is the presence of Fred Ward in the title role. Remember Fred Ward? We don't get to see him as much as we would like to nowadays. He's probably best remembered not for this movie but for his turn as a creature fighting hero in "Tremors," a movie that came out a few years after this one. I have always liked Ward in nearly any role he decides to take on, and "Remo Williams" only confirms that opinion. Ward plays a beefy but lazy cop who runs into a world of hurt when he witnesses a couple of thugs beating up some guy along a deserted riverfront property. A very bloody fistfight breaks out as Ward's character steps in to make the arrest, as both the two thugs and the victim turn on the cop with a vengeance. Our hero beats all three ruffians senseless, climbs into his car to lick his wounds, and promptly finds himself dumped into the river by some nut driving a bulldozer. When Ward's character wakes up, he is in a hospital room with a rather witty chap named Conn MacCleary. This guy tells the recovering police officer he is no longer on the force. In fact, he is no longer considered among the living since a government agency named CURE has recruited Ward's character as an agent. An incredulous Ward cannot believe such nonsense, and is even more shocked to discover he now has a new name and face thanks to this enigmatic government agency. Rechristened Remo Williams, an inspired choice on the part of Conn with the help of a bedpan, our hero will soon discover what CURE does and what part the agency expects him to play. Crime stinks, especially in a country like America with its Carter appointed judges and sleazy defense lawyers always willing to help turn the criminals loose. The government decided to do something about these constitutional failings by creating CURE, an agency led by Harold Smith (Wilford Brimley). CURE has access to massive supercomputers that monitor events around the globe, fields a couple of highly trained operatives, and helps take out the trash when things get too crazy. Williams will play the role of one of these garbage men once his training is complete. Unfortunately for Remo, a big shot corporate criminal named Grove needs attention from CURE immediately, so the training must necessarily be a rushed affair. This is where Chiun (Joel Grey) comes in, a most remarkable Korean gentleman who possesses intimate knowledge of every martial art known to mankind along with a few that aren't. After a highly amusing initial encounter between Chiun and Remo, the training begins in earnest. Within a period of a month or so (yeah, right), Williams can run on wet cement without leaving footprints, burrow through a mound of sand with his bare hands, dodge bullets, and do a whole host of other astonishing feats thanks to the inimitable Chiun. What follows is a series of fancy stunt heavy scenes, with Remo fighting some goons on the scaffolding surrounding the Statue of Liberty (remember the restoration project in the 1980s?), chasing down Grove on an army base, and generally wiping out the baddies left and right. "Remo Williams" is a B-movie extravaganza with lots of explosions, gunfire, a guy with a diamond in his tooth, and witty dialogue to spare. The performances, unlike many films of this caliber, are rock solid. It goes without saying Fred Ward always does a good job. Wilford Brimley is believable as the heartless bureaucrat with both eyes firmly on the mission at hand. It is Joel Grey, however, who steals the movie with his incredible portrayal of the brutal yet humorous martial arts prodigy Chiun. I've seen a few reviews knocking this character as politically incorrect, but that's just anachronistic grumbling. Grey completely disappears into his character in a believable and respectful way. There aren't any gags about ancient Chinese secrets or similar nonsense seen anywhere. Grey and Ward possess great onscreen chemistry; thankfully, the script calls for the two to interact quite frequently. I did have a few problems with the movie. I think it runs slightly longer than it should have, especially as the pace slows to a crawl towards the end. Moreover, Kate Mulgrew as Army Major Rayner Fleming is largely wasted in the movie, reduced to looking confused and slightly more womanish than an Army officer is likely to be in real life. More difficulties emerge with the DVD edition of the film. Releasing the movie in a fullscreen only option is a big mistake considering the expansive stunt work in the movie. Couple this failing with a trailer as the only extra and you have a mediocre disc at best. Don't get me wrong; it is still great to see this film again after all these years; I just wish it had a better DVD release. Action fans won't want to miss this one.
Rating:
Summary: Veteran Character Actors in a Journeyman Effort
Review: First off, this isn't a great movie - it's a B-movie. It's not even a great B-movie, like Tremors (also starring Fred Ward), but it still gets a B for effort. The film's plot centers around a Star Chamber-esque group and their new hit-man recruit, Remo Williams (Ward), who they set on the trail of a corrupt government contractor (Charles "Section Chief Blevins on the X-Files" Cioffi). Williams receives training from a nationalistic, misogynistic and heavily made-up Chiun (Joel Grey). Kate Mulgrew plays Army Major Fleming, who is conducting a separate investigation of the government contractor and, after a moment's hesitation, teams up with Remo. None of the actors in this movie are quite brand-name, but nobody phones in their performance, either. As is the case with Charles Cioffi, you'll spend a lot of time picking out familiar faces and asking "Where have I seen him before?" Sure you can frequently see Ward's harness rig during his stuntwork, but that's not his fault: I certainly wouldn't get on that ferris wheel without a wire, so it's unfortunate that a little more time and money weren't spent in post-production (the stuntwork throughout the movie suffers from inadequate post-production work). Problems aside, this is a good rainy-day, kill-two-hours popcorn movie. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end; there's character development; and plenty of things explode. If you approach it with the viewpoint of "this is a school play of a film that others have done better," you'll find this movie enjoyable, because really that's what it is.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible, just horrible
Review: I ordered this movie because I love the Destoyer series of books. I thought that it would be great to see the books come to life. Wrong. The acting is probably the worst I have ever seen. Special effects are laughable. Reasons why I gave it two stars instead of one, I finally learned the correct way to say Chiun. Seeing a young Kate Mulgrew was an added bonus too. But not even these two things could pull this movie from the bottom of the barrel.
Rating:
Summary: No Widescreen Version? Boo!
Review: This is a classic 80s film that I enjoyed greatly when I was much younger. I only buy DVDs these days because of their superior features and longevity compared to VHS. So I was happy to learn Remo Williams was finally coming out on DVD so I could add it to my collection. Alas, my hopes were shattered when I went to my local video store to pick up a copy. The movie only comes in FULL SCREEN. I am so disappointed. One of the best reasons to own a feature in DVD is to see it in widescreen, without the sides of the movie cut off to fit TVs with a 4:3 aspect ratio. But for some ungodly reason the studio has released Remo Williams in full screen. This is a very entertaining flick I want to see again in all it's silly, nostalgic, widescreen glory. I cannot forgive the people responsible for leaving it visually incomplete. Unless of course 4:3 IS the original format the movie was filmed in, which I seriously doubt. I give 4 stars for the movie, 1 for the format.
|
