Back in Action (1993)

Tagline:

One cop. One Vigilante. One Mission. One Chance.

Back of DVD:

An undercover drug bust in L.A. goes badly wrong. The most notorious drug smuggling ring in Los Angeles, the Kasanjian gang, is duped into making a deal with the undercover cops. When the ruse goes astray, an out and out gunfight ensues. Los Angeles Police Detective Rossi (Roddy Piper) witnesses his partner brutally murdered in the melee as the gangsters escape. Rossi isn't the only man determined to destroy the gang. Bill (Billy Blanks), an ex-member of Special Forces and a martial arts expert, is also after the gang when his sister disappears after getting embroiled in the gang's affairs. The stage is set for an all-out confrontation...

Movie Review:

What a fantastic duo - Billy Blanks, the inventor of Tae-bo martial arts and star of Bloodfist, Wrong Bet/Lionheart and King of the Kickboxers, and Rowdy Roddy Piper, an 80's WWF wrestler and star of John Carpenter's They Live. With those two on the cover you can expect some arse-kicking action. This can't possibly go wrong.

Piper is going undercover at a drug deal with his partner and backup. As Roddy Piper bluffs his way through the deal Billy Blanks shows up in his cab (he's a cab driver, and his name in this is, creatively, Billy. They wanted to call him Ernie but Blanks tae-bo'd the Producer to the head. Probably.) His sister, Tara, is in one of the gang member's cars quietly minding her own business but Billy wants to save her (she's in with the wrong crowd, etc.). He upsets a thug in the way by beating him senseless and accidentally firing his machine gun. "Setup!" cries the lead bad guy in sunglasses (we learn later his name is Chakka) and it's on for young and old. There's a huge gun fight and in the process a barrel gets drilled with holes and water leaks out of it. Also Piper's partner gets shot. Not only shot but Chakka - after ensuring that Piper is watching - slits his throat. Cold, man. Later the escaped gang members get to a boat and Chakka kills one of his wounded men. Real cold.

Blanks escapes with his sister. A reporter, Helen (Bobbie Phillips, who went on to star as a cyborg in a Die Hard ripoff called Chameleon, and its two sequels. Must track those down!) starts asking Piper questions but he avoids her. He's sleeping with her later; not sure how that happened, I must have blinked and missed it. Anyway the escaped gang members hand over the drugs and money to their boss Kasajian who orders Billys sister killed because they assume she was the snitch. When Blanks turns up at a bar looking for his sister he ends up getting in a three way fight with her sisters boyfriend and gang associates as well as Piper who is at the same bar with Helen. It's pretty funny seeing a tae-bo vs. wrestling punch-up. Piper says he "hate's that karate shit" and tries to take Blanks in. Instead tables and chairs get thrown around and Blanks escapes. Then Piper buys Helen a cactus which she says is "sweet". Sorry but I found that hilarious.

I know some movies write up that you are about to see some "non-stop action" but in this case it's actually completely accurate. Whenever Blanks is on the screen he is beating somebody senseless. Piper gets his share of the action as well but it's really Billy Blanks' martial arts prowess on display here and the director knows this and focuses on it. Twin henchmen in matching blue wrestling singlets, matching zebra pants and matching Freddie Mercury moustaches come to Billy's place to kill his sister, to which he thrashes them in his white denim shorts with an ironing board. I rewound this scene and watched it again.

All the best fights are played in slow motion so you can see Billys' foot connect with some chumps face in clear detail. Blanks goes to a drag race to find the henchman and beats up a guy pissing on a wall and steals his hoody. He immediately fits in with the crowd in that hoody, but Chakka who is at the race doesn't buy it and another fight ensues. Blanks gut-punches a massive dude to the ground and Piper shows up, let's Billy into his car and they both get caught up in a mad car chase that ends in explosions when Piper blows the pursuers car up.

The action really just doesn't stop. Billy goes to all the Kasajian fronts (a car chop shop, and some sort of Japanese tea house/brothel?) and messes the places and occupants right up. He always tags 'Tara' on the wall before he leaves, a nice note for Kasajian. Blanks justifies it all by saying he is "protecting home and family". Blanks and Piper keep crossing paths, one saving the other one's arse, until finally they agree that their reasons are the same - revenge - and work together to take down Kasajian.

As well as kicking arse the movie has some pretty funny moments. Piper busts into Kasajian's house while he is having acupuncture done. Piper silently takes over the acupuncture from the doctor at gun point and rams a needle into Kasajian. When asked who he is, he responds with "I'm the apprentice". Blanks busts up a card game by shooting blindly through the wall and demanding "I want Tara back. One of you will live! One of you will live!", so the quickest guy blows the other players away to ensure his own safety. Then Blanks knocks him out anyway. Blank's 'action face' is hysterical too (see last screenshot).

Blanks really can't act but it doesn't matter, Piper can get by okay. This movie is so much fun and keeps giving and giving, never once being let down by too much plot exposition or dull drama. Lots of slow-mo fights, lots of explosions and LOTS of shootouts. It even has a fantastic final climax with Blanks and Piper in separate fights; Piper with his fists and Blanks with twin machine guns. This IS the movie you want to watch tonight with other aficionados of bad action. They don't get much better than this. Bring the popcorn and enjoy the ride.

The Video:

I reviewed the fullscreen R2 disc put out by Boulevard Entertainment. The video and audio are perfectly fine; the picture isn't that sharp or detailed but the colours are nice and the appearance overall is pleasing. The audio is clear and the gunfire and explosions dynamic. IMDB lists this as filmed in 1.85:1 ratio; if that is correct then I didn't notice any footage obviously missing off the side of the screen, and I don't think there is any DVD release in that scope available.

The only thing letting down the presentation is the god-awful menu they used on the DVD. It looks like it was made with some sort of My First DVD program, with a bad animated sky background, jerky-motion preview of the movie in the centre and soothing elevator music playing in the background. There is even a menu option for watching the trailer but it is not selectable! Just lazy. Runtime 88 minutes.

Sourced From:

eBay UK for $5 + shipping.

Trailer:

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Action Jackson (1988)

Tagline:

NAME: Jericho Jackson
NICKNAME: "Action"
HOME: Detroit
PROFESSION: Cop
EDUCATION: Harvard Law
HOBBY: Fighting Crime
WEAPON: You're looking at 'em.

Back of DVD:

Like a blast from a .44 magnum, Carl Weathers (Predator, Rocky) makes Action Jackson a hero who delivers the goods in charisma and excitement.

He plays Detroit Police Sgt. Jericho Jackson, pitted against the brutal thugs of ruthless auto tycoon Peter Dellaplane (Craig T. Nelson), who's out to murder his way to political power. Jackon's also involved with Dellaplane's beautiful wife Patrice (Sharon Stone) - and his exotic mistress Sydney (singer Vanity). Framed up and hunted down by his fellow officers, Jackson sets up a desperate showdown that hurls Action Jackson toward a heart-stopping climax.

Movie Review:

How the hell have I missed this movie before now? How did I see all those Schwarzenegger movies and Lethal Weapons but somehow have never heard of this gem? This movie defines 80's cop action movies, without a doubt. It is similar to Beverly Hills cop but with less joking around and more explosions. And that is what it is all about.

Frank Stringer, the bad guy from Schwarzenegger's 'Red Heat', is taking a memo with his secretary. Out of nowhere a bunch of masked guys rope in through the window and Frank shoots wildly at them, missing them all. He tries to escape but gets blown out of the highrise office building window in a ball of flames. In typical 80's action fashion the opening credits flash around the urban city streets to the music of The Pointer Sisters while demonstrating to us the bad clothes of the time.

Two cops see a young punk kid try to rob a large woman, obviously a man in a dress. He fails and gets beaten by her handbag for his efforts. The cops drag him into the station and put the fear of god into him by telling the kid he will have to meet with Action Jackson, a cop so bad they don't let him out of his cage. The kid shits himself and tries to escape, breaking half the office in the process, and runs straight into Jackson's desk spilling his coffee. Jackson simply says "Mellow out" and the kid faints. Haha!

There's quite a few Schwarzenegger regulars in this, it's a shame that Arnie himself doesn't show up - but this is Carl Weather's vehicle. Obviously Carl Weathers is from Predator and there's the aforementioned Russian from Red Heat, but there is also Billy from Predator again, Robert Davi from Raw Deal (and Die Hard) as well as Jackson's police captain being Mac from Predator (and Cooke from Commando). It's an 80's sidekick circus. Al Leong even shows up as a chauffeur (he's the Asian bad-guy from every 80's action movie, ever... and Genghis Khan from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure!). I'm gonna make a point of tagging him in any movie I review because the guy just kicks arse.

Sergeant Jackson was formerly Lieutenant Jackson but lost his title due to previously ripping the arm off Dellaplane's son ("So? He had a spare."). We get that Jericho "Action" Jackson is one of those cops that doesn't go by the book and he has an equally cliched Captain (who never says he has to fill out mountains of paperwork because of Jackson's antics, or that he is just one day from retirement, but let's assume he is). Peter Dellaplane (Craig T. Nelson, Poltergeist) is a car dealer who is about to be given the Man of the Year award, and Jackson has been ordered to attend. This isn't so bad because he gets to meet Sharon Stone (It's funny, they put her on the cover of the DVD but she's only in it for the first act). Meanwhile the same guys who blew the Russian from Red Heat out of the window are now stabbing guys with spearfishing rods on a boat, handcuffing them to suitcases filled with explosives and blowing their boat up. Something bad is going on, if you couldn't tell yet.

Jackson gets a call from his buddy Tony who says its a 'matter of life or death'. Tony's gone a little nuts but Jackson gets out of him that Dellaplane is killing off the members of the Auto Workers Alliance so that he can consolidate their power, and that he is next. He tells Jackson to talk to Dellaplane's wife (Sharon Stone) about it, which he does, and Tony gets blasted by a fake delivery guy. Sharon Stone blabs about what she knows to Jackson in a cafe. As they leave she asks him "Why do they call you Action?" and not a second later a cab tries to run them down. Jackson says he 'has to catch a cab' - on foot, mind you - then propels himself onto the roof of the cab that is crashing around the streets and exploding tanker trucks!

Dellaplane kills poor Sharon Stone (....spoiler) and leaves her body in Jackson's flat, all nice and staged for the cops to immediately blame Jackson. He hears about the warrant out for him on the police radio and takes refuge with Dellaplane's mistress, some 80's singer called Vanity (I guess you had to be there). She sings half her repertoire in this movie at a bad flashing-neon-sign type club; I hated 80's pop singing then and I still hate it now! Vanity helps Jackson both track down Dellaplane and his associates as well as constructing a plan to clear his name.

The movie definitely lives up to its title. There is a hell of a lot of action in the movie. There's a hell of a lot of one-liners as well, though I have to say they don't always hit the mark. "Chill Out" then hitting a guy with a torch flame? "Hello, I'm Mr. Ed" as Vanity's bouncer drops from the ceiling? I did like "Barbeque? How do you like your ribs?" before shooting a grenade at close range into a guys chest. That one was sweet. There's quite a few funny secondary characters as well to keep an eye out for. The mugger kid from the beginning turns up a few times more, each time seeing Jackson and running in the other direction. There is also a cute scene with a well spoken, well-informed lady hairdresser who give Jackson a few leads.

Carl Weathers is a pretty good action hero and I am surprised there wasn't a sequel to Action Jackson: Jackson on Patrol (okay maybe not). There are enough explosions and the plot is interesting enough to keep you thoroughly entertained throughout. As well as that, all the 1980 action movie requirements are here - goons in suits with mullets, guys with machine guns in helicopters, car chases with cars flipping out through windows, assassination attempt at a dinner party, a fight in an old refinery.. the list just goes on. Action Jackson is not quite A+ material but it certainly tries damn hard to score a solid A.

The Video:

Video is reasonably sharp for the age of the movie. In fact this is the perfect 80's action transfer. Grainy enough and the colours not overly saturated (except the neon lights and flaming cars), it really reinforces that you are watching a film that is a product of its time. The sound is nice and crisp in general and the explosions meaty. Runtime 92 minutes.

Update: I just realised I forgot to mention that this edition is widescreen 16:9 enhanced, and apparently that is a rarity with this title as there is no R2 release and the R1 is fullscreen pan & scan. Definitely get the Australian R4!

Sourced From:

$10 from MYER

Trailer:

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Body Parts (1991)

Tagline:

The transplant was a success. Then the donor came to take it back.

Back of Video:

Bill Chrushank (Jeff Fahey) is a criminal psychologist who loses his arm and nearly his life in a grisly car accident. A daring medical operation follows in which a donor's arm is successfully grafted onto Bill's body. But after the operation, the arm starts to take on a violent life of its own, striking out against Bill's wife and children.

Consumed by fears about his dangerous behaviour, Bill is driven to learn the donor's identity - a horrifying discovery that delivers him into a world of unimaginable terror.

Movie Review:

This movie is a guilty pleasure of mine. I saw it on the video shop shelves when it came out (I was 12 at the time) and wanted to rent it, but being rated R I wasn't allowed to. Somewhere along the way I finally did get to see it (kids always have ways to see R rated horror) and I damn well loved it. I picked up an ex-rental VHS about six years ago and although it has been released on R1 DVD since, it is unfortunately deleted and doesn't show up cheap often. I wanted to review a horror movie on the blog as well and although it's not action-packed (it has a few good scenes) it's definitely worth watching.

Body Parts stars Jeff Fahey, the Lawnmower Man, as typical hard working family man Bill Chrushank. He works as a criminal psychologist and teacher and he starts the movie interviewing an insane prisoner who just killed his cellmate. Burnt out from having to justify dealing with these psychopaths he goes home to his wife for a cuddle. The next day he sets off to work again but while taking a dictaphone recording in his car he notices the tyre of the car in front of him is coming loose. It comes off and he manages to swerve it, but a truck coming from behind fails to break in time, smashing into Fahey's car and sending him through the windshield.

You know how some movies, no matter how small or cult they are, have scenes that stick in your head from years past? This movie has two for me. The first is when Fahey wakes up in hospital on a gurney in theatre. Looking around the room there are doctors with shotguns and one with a bible reading a prayer to another patient. He sees a computer screen with a human form on it and the words 'seperation in progress'. The sound of a bonesaw whirs up and Doctor Webb (Lindsay Duncan) cuts off the head of the other patient! Fahey is gassed and falls asleep. Awesome scene.

He wakes up with tubes protuding from him everywhere and a new arm all bandaged up. Things go swimmingly at first; through a training montage Fahey gets his strength back and can fully utilise his new arm. It has a few teething problems, like massive apparent spasms, but otherwise it's fine - he can play ball with his son and fiddle around with his wife (no boobs, sadly).

Fahey resumes his teaching job but in the middle of a lecture starts getting strange visions. The next day he cuts himself shaving and lashes out at his son. Later on he even strangles his wife. Fahey goes to see his criminal patient who notices a tattoo on Fahey's arm that is apparently only given to death row inmates. Concerned as to whose arm he has, Fahey gets his fingerprints run by a cop friend and the results are shocking; he has the arm of Charley Fletcher, a multiple murderer serial killer. Pissed off he talks to Doctor Webb who dismisses his worries, but determined to find out more he finds out the names of the other donor recipients and has a chat with them.

The recipient of the other arm is Remo Lacey (horror alumni Brad Douriff, otherwise known as the voice of Chucky and The Gemini Killer from Exorcist III). Before the operation he was a crap painter but with his new arm he paints works of art, albeit disturbing visions that Fahey says are from the mind of Charley Fletcher. Like the Doctor, he dismisses Fahey as an idiot. The other recipient is a guy who lost both his legs (Mark Draper, played by Peter Mumik), but thanks to Charley's generous donation he can now play basketball a tad better. He also dismisses Fahey's worries, but he really shouldn't have because the next day he gets his legs ripped off. Could Charley Fletcher still be alive and wanting his limbs back?

This is a great movie. I loved it when I was younger and I still love it now but sadly no-one I know remembers this movie. I'm not even sure if it went to cinema, at least here in Australia. It moves at a fast pace and is a really interesting plot for a film, has a few minor police procedural scenes and restrained amount of gore - the really good 'science' kind, not the Fulci kind (though I love that kind as well). Fahey plays this role well and even has a few action scenes when he gets in a car chase (with explosions) and blows away a guy with a shotgun. This kind of movie could be really silly but Body Parts isn't silly in the slightest, there aren't even any jokes cracked. Great acting all round.

I mentioned two memorable scenes. The other is near the end when Fahey returns to the medical clinic to see the Doctor but what he finds is not what he expected. The films poster is a dead giveaway. There is a tank in the clinic with arms, legs and a torso all hooked up to machines and pipes feeding them blood. The torso even quivers as presumably it's heart is still beating. Fahey is sickened by it all and blows the parts away with a shotgun. Fantastic scene with more of that restrained medical gore.

Seek this one out. The DVD is hard to get but the VHS goes for a few cents. Hopefully the DVD gets reissued or maybe we will get treated to a bluray one day.

The Video:

Despite being a VHS (C&C Video PAL ex-rental), the picture quality was pretty sharp and the sound in Dolby Surround and clear as a DVD. The picture was re-formatted from its native 2.35:1 aspect ratio as the majority of VHS were, and for the most part the reformatting works well, but there are a few obvious scenes where important characters are out of the viewing boundaries when they shouldn't be. The out-of-print DVD is in the native aspect ratio. Runtime 85 minutes.

Sourced From:

50c ex-rental from a local video library.

Trailer:

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