Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985)

Sadly Over-hyped

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Best movie ever!

Absolutely the worst movie.

Remo Williams had the potential to be a good action flick, or a good campy outing. It didn't quite reach either.Although there were a few light laughs, the pacing didn't support it being an action-comedy. Unlike movies like Big Trouble, Little China, a lot of the potential laughs were held back, and the timing was awkward on others.The action sequences are few and far between - even these are mostly muted. The movie had some choice locations, decent acting, and more potential than was realized.

With a title like that its gotta be an 80's action flick, you just don't get titles like that anymore huh. Based around some popular pulp stories which are themselves quite dated now (early 70's), this film was apparently meant to be the first part in a franchise which never came to be. I remember watching this as a kid and loving it, had it recorded on VHS and used to rewatch it over and over. Looking back now I'm not really sure why, despite the fact the film was released in 85 you'd think it was 75 because my God its so quaint and dated looking! The whole gist of the thing is pretty much your light-hearted James Bond angle mixed with a dash of 'The Karate Kid' really. A top NY cop has his death faked unwillingly so this undercover government agency can recruit and train him to be a killing machine. The funny bit is he is trained up by this 'Mr Miyagi' type character which you may think is me just using that cliché...but I'm totally not. Only difference is this Mr Miyagi is from Korea and is played by an American in heavy, yet very good makeup...racial issues cast aside!The film isn't a violent film at all despite the assassination theme at the core of the films story. Remo is a highly skilled ex-Marine and thusly was chosen to be an undercover agent, but like some Bond flicks the violence is minimal and what there is has been edited so you don't see much. In this sense it almost feels like a spy movie for kids or young teens, that along with the cringeworthy humour that has been injected into the film for whatever reason. Most of that humour comes from Mr Miyagi (yes that's what I'm gonna call him) as he behaves in the same uber spiritual, disciplined way with little dialog but lots of cheeky philosophical quips. That is countered by Remo, played with much swagger by Fed Ward, who at first is of course cocky, loud mouthed and rebellious to his instructions...whilst being clumsy accident prone and the butt of many Miyagi quickfire put downs and movements. Together they make a cute couple and it is amusing watching the absurd techniques used to train Remo...which he manages to conquer quite quickly. Dodging bullets huh we don't actually see how he is trained for that but he manages to do it in the end, ditto running on liquid or soft material.Its a strange action film truth be told because it never really feels like an action film. Most of what we see is dialog between characters, either the good guys who are always snooping around and planning, or the bad guys who are always driving around in black limos and also planning. The action we get is very tepid and short lived, the only real thrill is seeing Remo fight against some construction workers atop the Statue of Liberty (did the bad guys actually just pay some blue collar workers to kill someone they don't know by booting them off the top of the Statue of Liberty?? who would accept that? surely you'd get the sack for gross misconduct lol!). The stunts are very good throughout the film I can't deny, its all very Bond-ish as said, but the film does rely on those stunts to get it through the run time, not much else going on.The whole final act set within this forested military base is very dull, more dull than the rest of the film! Again there are stunts here and there which are reasonably impressive but its hardly epic, what the hell was that log on a cable thing? what was that?!. We never really see Remo using any of his special skills until right at the very end, we never really understand who and what CURE are suppose to be or do accept eliminate people they think are bad, plus there are only three members of CURE including Remo?!I can't complain about how unbelievably old this looks (it is really really dated!), but I can moan about how boring and daft it is. I'm not really sure if it was meant to be an adult franchise, I don't know anything about the books but I'm kinda guessing its more for the older person? really can't tell with this film though. It swings from sweaty palm thrills (no don't even go there) to a sniff of actual possible visible violence to complete childish tomfoolery, all this set around some of the most mundane looking sets and locations you've ever seen (apart from Liberty Island). Plus points for Ward who is good fun as the bent nosed tough guy Remo, Grey as Mr Miyagi and a very early role for Kate 'Captain Janeway' Mulgrew who actually looks quite tasty. Man I tried to enjoy this, believe me I did, it was a part of my childhood...but the rose tinted lenses have been sat on by a popcorn scoffing troglodyte.5/10

A "dead" police officer finds himself recruited into a tiny and secretive organisation which seeks to fight the criminals that the justice system cannot reach. Renamed Remo Williams, the officer is trained in ancient martial arts by master Chiun while Harold Smith using his impressively connected computer system to track the actions of George Grove – a connected and powerful man in the military but also incredibly corrupt. With Remo still in training, Grove's men start to get close to Smith's operation, forcing Williams to move quickly to bring down Smith before he can get to them.Recently a colleague of mine was watching some old 80's movies and asked for some DVD's if I had any. My contribution was Breakin' and the sequel (Electric Boogaloo) because he suggested he wanted cheesy and "bad" films. In return he lent me Remo Williams – a film that rang bells because I can dimly recall seeing it about 15 years ago on a Friday night on BBC1. I watched it again of course but I did so preparing myself for a "bad" film. Sure, the internet is full of praise for it but I assumed that was on the basis of it being a "cult" film – fans of any "cult film" generally not being the best people to get advice from in regards the actual quality of the film. The knowledge that this didn't lead to any film sequel and that a TV pilot flopped as well didn't change my mind either.What a great surprise then to find that, while not being a really good film, it is certainly not a bad one either. "Solid" perhaps doesn't do it justice either but it is a robust piece of fun entertainment for viewers happy to just go with it and get the entertainment value from it. Indeed I did enjoy it – and not just in a "this is so silly" way that I expected to (although parts were) – I actually enjoyed it for what it did. The majority of the film is the introduction and the training sections and the final third is Remo's first target. The first two parts of the film really set it up well. It produces one great set piece that was actually shot on the Statue of Liberty and serves as a well-shot and exciting section but also a nice nod to Hitchcock in its use of monuments. It also has a great sense of fun – nobody is taking it too seriously and it allows some of the sillier stuff to work for what it is without it detracting from the material; hence, for example, guard dogs managing to keep up with Remo is "funny" rather than "dumb".The final third of the film is not quite as good but only because the plot is a bit clunky and it does lose a certain amount of its energy. It is still good but it is carried a little bit by the superior first two thirds. The film benefits greatly from several good pieces of casting. Fred Ward is a tough and likable character who works best in b-movie hero type role (see also Tremors for future proof). His square jaw, good looks and charisma hold him in good stead here. Wilford Brimley does the role he has done for decades now (while looking more or less the same) and he is a crotchety good support. Grey's character could maybe be seen as non-PC but it is such a comic turn that it is easy to ignore this. His master personae is so wonderfully clichéd and filled with nonsense (the constant posing, the daytime soaps etc) that he contributes to the sense of fun in the film. The problems in the cast are part of the ending being weaker. Mulgrew is unnecessary while Cioffi is not at all what was required – he never seems to be a threat and he is only made to look worse by the presence of the ever-menacing Patrick Kilpatrick. Outside of the cast direction is actually pretty good. OK some scenes play very wooden and a bit daft but the set pieces look great and are well filmed. Likewise the theme music is great fun.Overall Remo Williams is not what you have heard – mainly because you have probably either heard it is brilliant or that it is rubbish and, in some cases, may have heard both at the same time from the same viewer. The truth is that it is actually a pretty solid movie produced with good set-pieces, a great sense of fun, solid performances in key places and an engagingly rough charm that matches that of Ward. It is nonsense but it is fun and quite thrilling nonsense and I really enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. Oh, and retrospectively now I can bore people by saying that this did "bullet time" decades before The Matrix did.

Screen writer Christopher Wood (who wrote the Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) and director Guy Hamilton (who helmed the Bond films Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun) join forces for this amusing and wholly improbable adventure flick. Based on the "Destroyer" series by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy, there's a very real sense that this was to be the first in a series of films… but for one reason or another none of the proposed sequels were ever made. It could be assumed that the film isn't very good, hence the decision not to go ahead with any of the follow-ups - but that wouldn't be fair. Despite a degree of goofiness and some hammy performances, Remo Williams – The Adventure Begins is likable enough.Tough New York cop Samuel Makin (Fred Ward) is almost killed in an attack one evening. When he comes round in hospital he is bewildered to discover he has a new face, new fingerprints and new identity. He learns that he has been recruited into an ultra secret organisation dedicated to fighting crime. Makin is renamed "Remo Williams" and a Korean martial arts master named Chiun (Joel Grey) is entrusted with training him until he is skilled enough to be an agent. Chiun teaches Remo various strategies to improve his strength, speed and agility. Soon enough Remo is ready for action. He is sent by his boss Harold Smith (Wilford Brimley) to investigate a series of suspicious accidents involving army weaponry that have left a number of American soldiers dead. A shady company called Grove Industries, fronted by George Grove (Charles Cioffi), has been cutting corners in their production of military weaponry, making millions of dollars from inadequate products while placing everyday soldiers' lives in jeopardy. Grove will stop at nothing – including murder – to keep his affairs secret. But Remo has been assigned to bring Grove's organisation to its knees and, with his new martial arts skills and lightning agility, he means to do just that….Ward is a suitably abrasive, tough presence as the film's hero, while Grey has considerable fun hamming it up as his Korean trainer. Neither performance is a shining example of screen acting, but both men nonetheless bounce off each other with good-natured enthusiasm that upholds the spirit of the film. Particularly memorable highlights of the film include a dizzying action sequence on the Statue Of Liberty, which contains some hair-raising stunt work, and a fast-paced climax in the forests of the American Northwest. There are, it must be added, some ridiculously silly moments during the film. It's all good and well saying it is meant to be treated as light-hearted fun, but scenes of Remo running across sand and cement without leaving footprints, or dodging bullets fired at point blank range, topple into a realm of absurdity that is hard to accept. Also the very half-hearted attempts to create an element of romance between the hero and a hard-nosed lady army officer, played by Kate Mulgrew, are a woeful failure. Remo Williams – The Adventure Begins is no masterpiece, but if you're after a couple of hours of easy-going entertainment you could do a lot worse.