Steele Justice (1987)

Tagline:

You don’t recruit John Steele. You unleash him.

Movie Review:

I like to think I have seen most of the ‘bigger’ 80’s American cop/vigilante action films. You know, Cobra and everything in its wake. So how the hell did I miss Steele Justice? Well it turns out this film has languished in VHS-land until this year when Kino Lobber rescued it and put it on DVD and Blu-ray (the print looks great by the way) and I guess I just missed the video back in the rental days. I’m not even sure if it had cinema release out here in Australia.

It’s 1975 and John Steele (Martin Kove) is a soldier in the Vietnam War. The first shot of the film is Steele, standing on the back of a hovercraft holding a machine gun. I knew instantly this film would be 90 minutes of awesome. Sometimes you just know. Anyway, along with his fellow soldier Lee (Robert Kim), Steele gets double-crossed on a mission by General Kwan (Soon-Tek Oh, seemingly promoted from Colonel since his similar role in Missing in Action II). Kwan laid booby traps that involved hand grenades attached to rats. That is the most creative booby trap I think I’ve ever seen. Both shot by Kwan but not out, Steele hits back shortly after by throwing a knife into Kwan’s chest - that doesn’t kill him! Steele and his team escape, but Kwan promises he will get his revenge.

Jump forward to “now” (that is, 1987) and Steele is a disgraced cop-come-truck driver. After making an arse of himself and getting arrested, he’s bailed out by old friend Lee who now heads up the Asian Crime Task Force, particularly focused on the increasing problem in the area with - yup, you guessed it - Vietnamese crime gangs. The gang, lead by Kwan’s son Pham (Peter Kwong) kills Lee and his wife in an explosive and over the top display to which Steele takes personal offence to. His focus now is to revenge Lee, find out who is behind the gang (I totally spoiled that bit in the previous sentence, but you could work it out) and take them out in.. well I certainly won’t spoil the brilliant few end scenes for you. You’ll be satisfied. But I will say that he drives his truck into the middle of a pool hall straight through the window.

Reese: “It’ll take an army to stop him!”
Steele: “That’s why I’m here." 

Steele Justice is ten kinds of awesome. I had so much fun with it, and it begs the question - why wasn’t Martin Kove in more action hero films? He obviously acquitted himself in his roles in Rambo: First Blood Part II and The Karate Kid series but then he went to lower-budget action films like Shadowchaser, Judge and Jury and Shootfighter. He was certainly prolific and is a joy to watch in these films, but I think there was a missed opportunity after Steele Justice in not expanding this franchise Death Wish style, or giving Kove other lead action hero roles. Kove even managed to pull a few lines, the best ripping on Predator’s “Knock Knock” *boom* with “Good Morning!” *bang*.

Much of the fun in the film comes with the little added extras that make you go ‘huh?’. Lee’s daughter has a noticeable lisp. In the bar Steele frequents, there is a midget cowboy. Soon-Tek Oh in what I can only assume is a purple floral dress. Kove even added little eccentricities to enhance his character, like his pet snake he wears as a scarf during AND after the war (why?!) and a brilliant scene where he creeps through the pot plants in the mall just like he did in the Vietnam jungle. The music to the film is also top notch and there’s even a music video featuring aerobics being filmed within the movie that get’s blown to shit by Al Leong’s machine gun gang in their black . Just awesome.

The role call for Steele Justice kept me smiling and waving my invisible Go Team flag. First Soon-Tek Oh shows up, then I got a face full of Chief Ronny Cox, or rather Chief Bennett! I think he might even be wearing the same detective’s jacket he wore in One Man Force! He’s a bit more restrained here, similar to Beverly Hills Cop, and less like his excitable Dick Jones in Robocop. And who else do I spy but Bernie Casey (Under Siege, Another 48 Hours) as Detective Reese! His role is minor but provides the middle-ground between Bennett and Steele, and allows for Steele’s prison break to exact his final revenge on Kwan.

And did I mention Al “That Guy” Leong yet? He makes TWO appearances and even speaks once! That’s gotta be a record outside of Bill & Ted. It’s always the mark of great action with Al shows up, as I have mentioned in previous reviews he is in. Man I love that guy. He rocks the skullet hair and could give two shits what you think. Machine gun sprays aplenty when Al is on screen.

Director Robert Boris hasn’t directed much, but he appears to be an adept writer with credits including minor action films like Extreme Justice (with Lou Diamond Phillips) and Diplomatic Siege (starring Peter Weller). He did a great job capturing the fast-paced action of the film, and as writer on it as well has delivered a script that is all killer no filler. Steele rarely takes a break and there is very little in the way of slowdown. Honestly, I can’t really fault this film. It has everything an explosive action fan like me wants: guns, car chases, Asian gangs, sword fights, a bazooka, Al Leong, aerobics, weapons preparation montage, coke deals in a warehouse... Actually hold that - at no point did Steele visit a titty bar. I better dock half a point off for that.

FEEL THE STEELE!

Highlight:

This may be a spoiler so stop reading if you don’t want to know, but the best part by far is Steele’s glorious entrance into the coke warehouse on an armoured vehicle with a roof mounted minigun. Devastating! 

Trailer:

One Man Force (1989)

Tagline:

Jake Swan. Narcotics Detective. 6' 8" - 280 lbs. 21" biceps, 55" chest. No one enforces the law... like he does!

Back of DVD:

Detective Jake Swan does things by the book - his book. But when a drug bust he plans results in his partner's death, Jake goes on a rampage that ends in his suspension from the force and a quick slide into booze and guilty depression. Trying to hold himself and his partner's family together, Jake turns to private investigation, taking on the bizarre case of a kidnapped rock star. The trail descends into an underworld of drug smuggling, money laundering and international corruption, putting Jake against the same people responsible for his partner's murder. Only this time Jake uses maximum force to guarrantee that justice is served.

Movie Review:

Now this is Explosive Action! This movie is fantastic! John Matuszak is hilarious as the renegade cop that won't do things by the book, and that supporting cast: Sam J. Jones, Richard Lynch, Charles Napier, Ronny Cox! They even got an authentic, one-hit-wonder 80's pop tartlet to play.. an 80's pop tartlet (Stacey Q)! Amazing stuff indeed.

Pete (Sam J. Jones, Flash Gordon!) and Jack (John Matuszak, "Sloth" from The Goonies!) are buddy cops trying to bust an illegal Mexican drug operation. With tips provided by snitch drug dealer Chico, Pete and Jack go to their Lieutenant (Ronny Cox, Robocop) to get a search warrant but he denies it due to lack of hard evidence; the man wants FACTS! The two disregard Ronny Cox and go to the warehouse anyway, stopping by first to threaten Cico the snitch that if his intelligence was bad, Jack would "blow off your head and shit down your neck". They sneak into the warehouse and as the deal is about to proceed announce their presence, which of course results in a mass shoot-out.

Pete gets shot and in a fit of blind rage Jack absolutely loses his shit, picks up a GOD DAMN REFRIGERATOR and crushes the shooter into a pylon! See the animation to your right, it never gets old. The Mexican boss flees in his Rolls Royce and Jack carries Pete into the sunset. Action gold.

Some time later and Jake still pissed, he find Chico in his van and beats the crap out of him, smashing his van to pieces in the process. Jack gets arrested, chewed out by Ronny Cox and then suspended from duty to which he simply yells "Fuck you!" and pushes his stationary off his desk. It takes an angry man to yell at Ronny Cox. I saw what Cox did to the last guy that did that; sent Clarence Boddicker around to his house to kneecap him.

Meanwhile there is a new report on television about a pop singer (Stacey Q, lol's) who was kidnapped at gunpoint during a concert. That night a guy who says he is the girls manager comes to see Jack about some private investigation work in locating her and he agrees to help out. Getting a lead from the station evidence room Jack checks out a local nightclub which, like all 80's action movie nightclubs, is a hive of bad fashion and bad music. This one takes the cake though with some total freaks on display including a guy on a leash. The Mexican guys from the drug deal gone bad see him and attack which then turns into a total stacks on with transvestites piling on top of him! Jack breaks free and (this is awesome) grabs the guy on the leash and swings him around like a helicopter propeller, knocking everyone into the walls and the ground! This is the best movie ever.

The next day Jack goes to see his manager client at his house but finds him dead in his bath. Initially arrested for murder, good ol' Ronny Cox bails him out after Jack explains that he thinks the kidnappers are the same people that killed his partner Pete. Cox tells him to stay away but of course he doesn't listen, it wouldn't be a bad action movie if he did. This is when we finally see Charles Napier and Richard Lynch make their appearance as the men behind an investment firm who are dealing with the Mexican drug dealers on the side. It would seem the drug dealers are holding Stacey Q as in lieu of payment due by Lynch and co. The only real negative I have to say in this movie is that Charles Napier is sorely underused and Sam Jones dies too early. Napier only has a few lines and Lynch doesn't do much until the end, but he gets a good speech in at least.

There's just so much more gold in this movie. Jack has a car chase with Chino, shoots his windows out and drives him off a ramp and into a boat, which explodes. Jack gets captured, put into a packing crate and like the Hulk bursts out of it, on the back of a moving truck, strangles the driver and causes the car to drive off a cliff; all the while yelling "You killed my partner!" The car explodes and Jack cooly says: "Damn. I forgot to bring my marshmellows." Jack not content with throwing a fridge at a guy in the beginning throws a Pepsi machine at a guy at the end. And then there's the awesome final shootout that sees one of the bad guys (guess which one) hanging from a rope upside down swinging in and out of a blazing fire.

One Man Force is one damned fine bad-action movie. All the boxes are ticked. A loose cannon cop? A hard-arse captain? Car chases with explosions? Mexican drug dealers? Pick this one up and enjoy with friends; it's a riot.

The Video:

A nice, grainy 80's movie picture that fits the movie perfectly. The audio was a little treble-y and clipped occasionally when John Matuszak kept screaming but otherwise fine. IMDb lists the movie as originally being filmed widescreen and there are scenes that would agree with this statement, but all the DVDs released seem to be fullscreen. Runtime 87 minutes.

Thanks to McCabe for the screenshots (my computer wouldn't read the DVD) and animated fridge-throwing image!

Sourced From:

eBay UK seller for a pound.

Trailer:

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