Between The Expendables, Stranger Things, barcades, endless Transformers and Alien sequels and synthwave soundtracks everywhere, the 2010's have been very 80's centric. VHS remains a collector's niche and Cannon Film fans were treated to terrific documentary Electric Boogaloo. Cannon and Nu Image staple Sam Firstenberg is now the subject of proposed book Stories From the Trenches that will dig into his colorful history of breaking into the film business, working with independent film luminaries and genre stars. Firstenberg directed American Ninja, sequel The Confrontation as well as Breakin' 2, Avenging Force, Revenge of the Ninja, Ninja III and many more. His films were filled with the likes of Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, Kirstie Alley, Sho Kosugi, John Rhys-Davies, David Bradley, Mark Dacascos, Eric Roberts, Michael Madsen and Robert Vaughn.
Spearheaded by Marco Siedelmann, a journalist and author who has conducted hours of interviews with Firstenberg and his colleagues. Siedelmann has already provided genre fans with The Untold, In-Depth, Outrageously True Story about Shapiro Glickenhaus Entertainment, a deep dive into the foreign pre-sale, VHS fueled exploitation fun of the 80's and 90's that gave us Maniac Cop, Frankenhooker, Shakedown and other favorites. I'm currently halfway through that entertaining and educational tome of a bygone, go-go era and am looking forward to tales from some of my youth shaping flicks.
Stories From the Trenches has nearly reached it's Kickstarter fund raising goal so donate if you can before Monday, May 15th!
Did you miss it? I sure did. Tuesday, March 10th was the 75th birthday of one Carlos Ray aka Chuck Norris! The Air Force veteran turned martial arts expert and champion turned movie and TV star turned internet sensation spends his days living in rural Texas, working out on his Total Gym and speaking at conservative events. We know and love him for his awesome 70's and 80's action flicks so let's dive into 1988's Hero and the Terror. This puts us on the tail end of his go-go years with Cannon Films following hits like Missing In Action, Invasion U.S.A. and The Delta Force.
Hero is a weird one, more of a thriller than an action flick as we meet Danny O'Brien (Norris) as he's tracked down the man-brute-child Simon Moon aka The Terror (Jack O'Halloran) and fighting for his life under a pier. Moon nearly chokes and drowns O'Brien to death but trips and dazes himself, which makes arriving back up think The Chuck managed to put the big man down. Thus becoming a hero and a trauma survivor at the same time. Cut to three years later, O'Brien is slowly getting his confidence back and moving in with his pregnant lady Kay (Brynn Thayer). There's an awesomely ludicrous workout scene where Chuck is bench pressing while having flashbacks of Moon's hands wrapped around his throat, intense! American Ninja's Steve James shows up as one of his cop buddies and with another friend scream at O'Brien to complete his reps and joke he's prepping for the Olympics. I should mention that Norris is really pumped up in this one with a smooth hairless chest and a 80's style spaghetti strapped tank top. Competing with Stallone and Arnold perhaps? He rocks sweet sweaters and blazers while tooling around in his Corvette.
Thought dead for the last three years, Moon returns, killing women with his bare hands. His once abandoned lair has been remodeled and scheduled to open as The Wiltern Theatre. Hiding in unmapped cubbies, Moon eludes O'Brien and the police until they figure out there's more to the joint than thought. Alone, O'Brien finds the secret compartment Moon has been bringing his victims back to and faces off against The Terror one last time. Like I said, this was kind of a weird one but very watchable, Chuck doesn't have a ton of fight scenes, just one against some thugs on a bust and the final confrontation with Moon. His usual odd charm and humor is put on display in his scenes with Kay and one where he burns toast, etc. It was nice to see Steve James pop up for a few scenes even if he spoke with a kind of strange nasally, hero voice in this. There's one scene where James is on a stakeout in the theater and decides to get a work out in by running laps listening to Mozart!
After making his name in martial arts and action fare to big box office but few critical accolades, Norris hit both with 1985's Code of Silence. Follow ups Invasion U.S.A., The Delta Force, Firewalker and Missing in Action III would see diminishing returns and be viewed as less challenging and more exploitative fare. Hero and the Terror, based on the novel by Michael Blodgett, adapted by Dennis Shryack and directed by William Tannen was an attempt to broaden Norris' range. His character isn't the silent badass, he's got fears and even sees a therapist. Throw in the pregnant ladyfriend and some delivery room humor and you've got yourself a character similar to but also very departed from Lone Wolf McQuade, Invasion U.S.A. and The Delta Force where it was more about revenge or taking down scumbags cold, hard and fast. After so many years of that, it was time to be strong yet vulnerable. While the flick is easily a Saturday afternoon repeater, it did little to broaden Norris' fanbase. Opening on August 26th, 1988, Hero and the Terror grossed an anemic $1.8 million for the weekend coming in 12th place behind long released fare like A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Die Hard, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Young Guns and Coming to America on it's way to a $5.3 million total.
Hero and the Terror's weak performance was Norris' worst showing in years. A proposed team up with Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Cowboy and The Cossack was planned but never materialized. A Delta Force sequel would do little to turn the tide and 1991's The Hitman would fare even worse. Norris himself deemed the picture OK and not one of his favorites. Director William Tannen would reteam with Norris nearly 20 years later on entertaining DTV flick The Cutter. Novelist Michael Blodgett would have more success on the cop-canine comedy Turner & Hooch the next year before passing away in 2007. Screenwriter Dennis Shryack had previously written Clint Eastwood vehicles The Gauntlet and Pale Rider as well as Norris' Code of Silence (originally meant for Clint) and would go on to co-write Turner & Hooch and the Peter Weller actioner Fifty/Fifty.
This past Tuesday night consisted of the following: burgers and fries from Five Guys, whiskey and ginger ale, watching Michael Dudikoff and Steve James in American Ninja 2: The Confrontation with a buddy as in tuned to the glorious 80's as I am. American Ninja and The Confrontation were seemingly always on TBS or My 43 as a kid and you can bet your ass I watched them both. A lot. Then I picked them up on VHS before some genius finally put them on DVD. American Ninja 2 finds Army Rangers Joe Armstrong (Dudikoff) and Curtis Jackson (James) investigating a rash of missing Marines on some Bahamas-like island paradise. Rumors of giants dressed head to toe in black suits prompts the Army to send Armstrong and Jackson as they had already taken down a weapons dealer with a Ninja training facility in part I. Army VS Marine jokes, bar brawls, Levi jeans tucked into boots, wrist bands, sparky 80's soundtrack with steel drums, karate, genetically modified ninja, bright pastel shorts, Body Glove wetsuits, ninja laddering up rocks and ninja using a sawed off shotgun antics ensue.
Maybe it's because I've seen The Confrontation more times than American Ninja but I always liked it better. It just moves faster and is a lot of fun. By now, the story sees Dudikoff and James as buddies and their chemistry onscreen is palpable. So it's a shock to learn that the two didn't get along overly well over the first two films they were paired up in, Ninja and Avenging Force. James thinks it has something to do with Michael Dudikoff being a model turned actor thrown into an action role with no prior training. The fact that James was a stuntman and martial arts enthusiast complete with natural onscreen charisma and a muscular build too boot would probably unnerve many a co-star. While it was clear that Dudikoff was the star, James had some reservations and demands to be met if he was going to return. Basically he wanted more action, more humor and at least one scene with a female costar. All of those criteria were met and added to the fun of the picture. As Jackson, James gets to mix it up with ninjas on the beach, locals in a bar and more ninjas at the end while armed with an auto shotgun and huge butterfly knives clad in what looked like a leather vest. James' crazed/macho posturing, eagerness to scrap, dry sense of humor and wooing of a woman at a party give the movie plenty of memorable moments and helps make it more than just a low-budget, throwaway genre flick.
Released just under 2 years after American Ninja, The Confrontation would open on fewer screens to less box office, raking in $4 million on a rumored $350,000 dollar budget compared to the originals $10.4 million on a $1 million production. James would return to the franchise in American Ninja 3: Blood Hunt in 1989 before taking control of his own destiny and creating projects for himself. Sadly, at only 41 years old, Steve James passed away in 1994. Originally thought to have pancreatic cancer, his family believes that may have not been the case.
A buddy alerted me that MGM has their own channel and yesterday programmed a doozy of a daytime double feature with American Dragons and American Ninja IV: The Annihilation. AD stars Michael Biehn while AN has Michael Dudikoff. You SHOULD know Biehn's work from The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Navy Seals, Tombstone, The Rock, Grindhouse: Planet Terror and many more but I'm here to talk about those lesser known titles, the VHS tapes I packed into my luggage when I moved out west.
American Dragons, titled Double Edge on my VHS copy, is a great direct to video action/crime thriller from the 90's. Remember those? Genre flicks of varied quality made on a budget in Los Angeles, Canada or Europe starring familiar (or familiar to genre fans) faces who had their moment but never quite broke through? Sure you do. Trimark, Live Entertainment, Imperial, Dimension, New World... No? Starring the likes of Eric Roberts, Lorenzo Lamas, Lance Henriksen, Shannon Tweed and Joan Severance? Still no? Find yourself another online diary!
(Ahem, in gravelly narrator voice) A maniacal renegade enforcer and a shadowy, cold-blooded assassin have teamed up to start a gang war between the mafia and Yakuza in a bid to take control. It's up to mismatched partners Detective Tony Luca (Biehn) and Seoul Police Department Inspector Kim (Joong-Hoon Park) to stop them! East meets West in a furious flurry of bullets and blades, fists and fights, racism (all Asians are Bruce Lee, right?), stereotypes (greasy/douchy Italians alert!), bonding through booze and karaoke, pizza, ramen and slow-motion work out montages! Get ready to feel the Double Edge! Or, here comes the American Dragons!
Like I said, AD is a great piece of 90's DTV filmmaking. TV director Ralph Hemecker acquits himself nicely in one of his few feature credits. It's well made (in Canada) with great production values, exciting action (gun fights, fisticuffs), pulsing music and a solid cast. Joining Biehn and Park are Don Stark (That 70's Show) as traitorous evil mob henchman Rocco, Byron Mann (Ryu in Van Damme's 1993 Street Fighter movie) as hyper efficient, knife and sword wielding assassin Shadow and Tsang Shung himself, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as a Yakuza boss.
The Biehn showcases a bit of his sensitive action hero side as well as being kind of a dick. In a funny, "prove me wrong" kind of way. Definitely one of my favorite performances from him in an utterly enjoyable and re-watchable flick.
