(Almost) Ask Me a Question: Predator & Action Jackson

We're just over a week away from Carl Weathers night at The Egyptian Theatre where we'll be getting a double dose of 80's macho madness with Predator and Action Jackson on the big screen.  Mr. Weathers recently met with the wonderful Susan King from the L.A. Times for a piece which should be hitting early next week.  In addition to the usual pre-movie trivia, prizes and custom tee shirt giveaway customary to Dammaged Goods nights, I'm excited to announce that Predator Second Unit Director/Stunt Coordinator and Director of Action Jackson, Mr. Craig R. Baxley will be joining us to help introduce the films!  A third-generation filmmaker, Baxley has worked since 1971 as a Stunt Man, Driver, Coordinator and Director with such talents as Walter Hill and Warren Beatty on films ranging from The Warriors to Reds.

Before embarking on the tough, Mexican jungle location shoot of Predator, Baxley worked on long running action series The A-Team for it's 97 episode duration.  His first feature film credit as Director would be 1988's Action Jackson, the story of Detroit's Jericho Jackson, a police lieutenant who got busted down the ladder after nearly tearing the arm off a sexual offender whose dad just happens to be a high ranking automotive executive rubbing out the competition.  The flick starts off with some truly impressive stunts like a guy being set on fire, thrown through a window and falling from the top of an office building.  It's not only about the physical though as the flick is pretty funny and has a terrific supporting cast like Robert Davi as a strung out old friend, Sharon Stone as a trophy wife, singer Vanity as a drugged up singer, Back to the Future's Thomas F. Wilson as a smartass street cop, Bill Duke as Jackson's stern yet never shouting Captain and a surprisingly menacing Craig T. Nelson as villain Peter Dellaplane to make for a crazy and fun action flick when a hero could do a standing somersault over a speeding car.  Action fans will also spot familiar Asian dudes Al Leong and James Lew crashing into and kicking things.

Baxley's next directorial effort was 1990's cult hit I Come In Peace aka Dark Angel starring Dolph Lundgren, which is one of my all time favorite films.  How can you not love a flick about an alien drug dealer in Houston who gets people high on heroin then sucks endorphins out of their brains?!  Dolph plays a tough cop who does things his own way teamed up with a square, rule abiding FBI agent.  Together they mix it up with former decathlete Matthias Hues as the alien drug dealer through karate, gunplay, car chases and lots and lots of explosions set to Jan Hammer's awesome synth score.

After director Bruce Malmuth burned through half the budget of football star Brian Bosworth's film debut, Stone Cold, in just weeks, Baxley was called into finish the shoot.  What started as an attempt to be more than the typical one man army action flicks of the day, Heart of Stone was the story of a family man forced into going undercover to bring down the biker gang that killed his father.  There was a wife and kids and Malmuth spent 4 weeks shooting character scenes.  When said scenes weren't matching up and the budget dwindling, production was halted, Malmuth got the boot and Baxley came in to shoot stunts and explosions.  Already over budget and behind schedule, the family subplot was cut out and Stone Cold, a ridiculously fun if not intellectually challenging action cult classic, was born.  In the flick, Bosworth plays a macho yet funny cop who has a pet lizard and goes up against sneering and scary biker baddies Lance Henriksen and William Forsythe.  The flick struggled upon release but ended up one of the top selling titles on VHS for the year.

Also in my VHS collection is Deep Red, a made for TV sci-fi/noir/action flick from 1994.  Michael Biehn stars as burnt out private investigator Joe Keyes who gets caught up protecting a young girl infected with Deep Red, an alien substance that may or may not grant immortality, from an obsessed scientist.  It's reminiscent of The Terminator but given a moody and more sci-fi attitude as Baxley delivers a cool little flick that blends genres, complete with aliens fighting space prologue, Michael Biehn introspectively questioning the meaning of life and then using a flame thrower. 

From there, Baxley has directed volumes of television episodes, movies and mini-series including several based on the works of Stephen King.  Looking forward to hearing about his incredible career and working with Carl.

Dolph Lundgren: Train Like An Action Star - Be Fit Forever

Dolph Lundgren has always been a motivation in my work out methods.  While I'm not nearly as tall as the guy, he's always been an impressive mix of size, definition and flexibility in flicks like Rocky IV, Masters of the Universe, Red Scorpion and especially Showdown In Little Tokyo.  His 1986 workout tape Maximum Potential has found it's way into my routine more than a few times and it's still frigging hard to keep up with.  Coupled with consuming copious amounts of interviews, making-of's, documentaries and the like over the last at least 20 years, his new book was still a breath of fresh air.

In a way, it's kind of like Maximum Potential, just expanded.  That one hour video went over warming up, stretching, body sculpting, meditation and nutrition.  Fit Forever was a very quick read as I devoured it in just a couple of sessions.  Not strictly a workout manual, the book gives you some brief yet in depth essays from the man himself where he talks surprisingly candidly about his abusive father, his struggles as a sickly youth, getting into trouble, growing stronger and finding solace in fitness and sports.  Not solely a meathead, Lundgren achieved his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering and studied abroad in places like Australia and the States, all while continuing his hardcore, old school karate training and becoming a champion. 

His workouts are split up into various sections that range from quick, no equipment, no excuses routines to full on split workouts for the gym.  It's comprehensive yet not too dense so it shouldn't scare anyone away.  Lundgren also gives reader a look at some of his movie workouts utilized for Rocky IV and The Expendables and his reasoning to why it would help build his character.  This is a big improvement on pal Stallone's book, Sly Moves, which was a total disappointment with nary a movie preparation routine and we get Stallone telling us to do incline presses.  Bro, you did not get in Rambo shape by doing solely incline presses...

The book itself is gorgeous, hardcover with thick pages and lots of photos.  Lundgren gives shout outs to sports and fitness legends like Muhammad Ali, Stallone, Steve Reeves, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terry Crews.  No mention of frequent co-star Jean-Claude Van Damme though.  That's one thing about the book, I wish it were longer and given Dolph's quick memories on some of his awesome movies like Universal Soldier, I Come In Peace, The Punisher, etc and how his he trained for those iconic roles.  There's also several sections on self defense where you can learn to take people out with palms to the face and knees to the balls if necessary.

The big man is actually holding a signing this weekend in beautiful Huntington Beach in Orange County at Barnes & Noble.  If you're local, get there!

Van Dammage: Leg Meat Perfection

In honor of the huge success of Dolph night, today's Van Dammage is a double pump of Jean-Claude Van Damme reflections and wisdom from the Universal Soldier experience:

"I was surprised by the power of his legs, he has powerful legs 

cause he's got big meat.  He's got long legs."

Being 6'5", Dolph Lundgren has always seemed larger than life on the big screen.  Throw in the muscles and athletic prowess and you have a comic book style superhero who doesn't need a costume.  I've always loved some of his signature moves like the step in sidekick we saw in flicks like Showdown In Little Tokyo and Universal Soldier where you feel like he could send some poor goon through a frigging wall.  I Come In Peace features a beautifully thrown and cringe inducing spinning back kick as Lundgren's Houston detective stops an armed robbery with his feet.  Apparently it looks so good because the actor missed his mark and Dolph slipped coming in so the kick made contact and knocked the guy down.

"When you make a film as a director, you do the best you can. Because time is in the issue.  

So you do the best you can.  But then you will always feel sorry.  

Something is missing always because perfection exists.  Somewhere."

That sentiment sums up my experience with Dolph Night and part of my life philosophy in general.  Guys like Arnold, Van Damme and Dolph showed me that self belief comes from self improvement so whether that's changing yourself physically or learning a new skill, we can only move forward when we challenge ourselves and know what we are capable of.  While things can always be worse they can also always be better.  I have to work on simply enjoying the moment as the days and weeks leading up to Dolph Night were tiring and filled with frustration due to my day job.  I tried my best to keep my mind clear and focus on what was arguably one of my life's most successful personal accomplishments but it was hard for me to relax as I kept thinking everything could fall apart at any moment.  Of course it didn't and a great time was had by all but I couldn't help but see all of the flaws of the evening instead of all of the great things that were happening.  Now that I've had a few days to reflect, I can learn from the evening and come back stronger for next time while giving myself a little credit.  Onto Live Event # 3!

Van Dammage: Boz Killer

"People still #$&* me.  It's very difficult to become...ah...invincible.  Stallone, Arnold and all those guys were screwed on the way up.  Oh my God!  Stories you wouldn't believe.  Me, too."
     Jean-Claude Van Damme

While digging through some items in storage I came across a couple press kits for JCVD flicks like Double Impact and Maximum Risk.  Double Impact was Van Damme's first decent budgeted flick but got short changed when fellow Stone Group Pictures production Stone Cold, featuring football player and wannabe movie star Brian Bosworth, went over budget.  While DI cost around $15 million, SC started at $10 then ended up costing around $25 million after original director Bruce Mulmuth (Steven Seagal's Hard to Kill) was fired weeks into production and replaced by Craig R. Baxley ( I COME IN PEACE!). 

Bosworth's football career had already stalled out after 3 years of injuries and more exciting trash talk than field stats.  After turning down small roles in Stallone pictures, The Boz was only interested in leading man status and was named Action Star of Tomorrow by The National Association of Theater Owners.  Articles compared him to established action icons Arnold, Stallone, Clint Eastwood, Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal while Van Damme's name is nowhere to be seen.  But like his gridiron days, Stone Cold quickly faded into obscurity as DI grossed a healthy $30 million while SC could only muster a take of $9 million.  Van Damme went on to star in his 2nd most successful movie, Universal Soldier while cementing his position as a challenger and usurper to Arnold Schwarzenegger while Bosworth wouldn't pop up in a movie for another 5 years.

It's not quite Cobra but still pretty Damme entertaining:

Summer Cinema: Armageddon

Everything goes in waves and cycles, right?  The ocean, fame, sports teams, relationships, training and eating plans, good luck, misfortunes.  Nothing gold can stay yet it can't rain all the time.

Same thing with movie programming around Los Angeles.  Recently, The New Beverly Cinema just didn't seem like it had things together.  Programs were only announced the week prior, special events and speakers seemed few and far in between and many of the films playing just plain didn't interest me.  Cut to last week and the triple threat of Last Action Hero, Armageddon and The Right Stuff reeled me right back in.  Unfortunately, seeing The Right Stuff on the big screen just wasn't meant to be as work, life and a hangover kept me from attending.

Not so for Michael Bay's 1998 recruiting ad for Nasa and so much more, Armageddon.  After chips, tacos and margaritas at El Coyote down the street (I really should take more pictures, I happy hour as frequently as I see movies!), it was time to take a trip back to the good ol' 90's.  I remember going to Driver's Ed and letting a friend borrow the soundtrack to Armageddon that summer.  I'm sure the members of Aerosmith remember that summer well, their "Don't Want To Miss A Thing" was everywhere and that album sold something like 3 million copies.

It was surprisingly yet not surprisingly kind of empty inside.  Say what you want about Michael Bay but Bad Boys, The Rock (Michael Biehn as a Navy Seal alert!) and Armageddon are all top notch examples of why we go to the movies.  Big, glossy, filled with movie stars, explosions, jokes and thrills.  As he would showcase the Air Force in Transformers in the 2000's, here, Bay puts the slick, smart and determined spotlight on The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  The members of NASA, led by Billy Bob Thornton, are the good guys of Armageddon.  They discover, assess and react to the threat of an asteroid heading towards Earth.  Meanwhile, the military is shown as a bunch of macho posers who do nothing but bark, come up with shitty ideas and get their asses killed dead.

I was surprised at how much of the flick works, it's a disaster movie from the 70's on PED's (Performance Enhancing Drugs, steroids is too general a term used by uneducated low foreheads) with a large, memorable cast of characters played by wonderful actors (Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Owen Wilson, Steve Buscemi, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare...).  On some level you know it's all impossibly implausible (oil drillers sent to space to drop a nuke into a potentially world ending asteroid...actually it sounds less ludicrous than trying to explain the plot of I Come In Peace...)but it's also incredibly fun and exciting.  Strangely, the scenes that fall flattest are the emotional anchor types with Affleck and love interest Liv Tyler.  The stakes continue to rise and saving the world is far from a cake walk.  Plus, if you don't feel a little something at the end during the Affleck/Willis or Willis/Tyler scenes, well, you're just too cool for this school.

Now, if someone could just screen The Rock.  Until then, enjoy this clip of a Russian Astronaut.

Workout of the Day: Dolph Lundgren's Maximum Potential

It's been a Dolph-centric week around here with viewings of I Come In Peace and Masters of the Universe; posts on their significance and contribution to humanity coming soon.  Today was not about Dolph Lundgren the movie star but Dolph Lundgren the fitness enthusiast.

Hot off the success of Rocky IV, Swedish karate champion and chemical engineer turned big screen icon Lundgren put together a workout video for the ages.  In Dolph Lundgren's Maximum Potential, Ivan Drago designed a comprehensive wellness routine to school you in the ways of getting swole in the privacy of your own living room.  Throughout the 52 minute running time, Mr. Lundgren puts you through mental, physical and spiritual training set to a rocking synth soundtrack.

The video opens with Dolph working as a lifeguard reflecting on the importance of keeping fit in order to reach our full or Maximum Potential.  His workout is broken into five parts:

1)  Warm Up - Let's get hot and loose.  This consists of Dolph on a rotating platform looking buff and tan in tight short shorts stretching.  As a heterosexual man you feel a little weird watching but inspired at the same time.
2)  Cardiovascular - Because the best things for your heart are pumping and humping.  2 minute rounds of running in place or outside sprinting, jump roping or shadow boxing.  Today you could do jumping jacks, mountain climbers, burpees, etc.


3)  Body Sculpting - Being yoked is strength perceived which is strength achieved.  Dolph does 15 reps of squats with different feet placement with little rest between sets followed by lunges then push ups with five different hand positions.  Abs and lower back are worked with a variety of crunches, leg lifts, twists and hyper extensions.
4)  Stretching - Get that lactic acid, outta my muscles!  AKA Dolph in a white leotard with a bunch of chicks stretching.  Allegedly the park they're in was the site of Quentin Tarantino's first Production Assistant job.  Legend has it the director frequented the video store QT worked at and offered him the gig.  Further myth recites that his job was to clean up dog poo and he quit.
5)  Stress Management - Putting the hit on the silent killer.  Dolph helps you chill out.

This was probably a very popular video at the time with many demographics.  There's a lot of shirtless, tanned and toned Dolph stretching and bending over for the boys and girls while the workout itself is pretty intense for any nay-saying gym rats.  Today I found myself spontaneously jumping into the lower and upper body workouts as well as abs.  The moves are basic but worthy; squats and lunges for legs, push ups using five hand positions for chest and several crunch and leg lift exercises for abs.  The pace is pretty fast so the burn builds quick.  The soundtrack is also that great 80's rock synth so you just feel like moving.

Since the video only has you doing push ups to cut down on need for equipment, I threw in 4 sets of chin ups with 10 seconds rest between sets to work the back, biceps and shoulders.  Wow, my biceps and lats started to spasm a couple sets in!  Then it was 3 sets of bench dips for triceps with 10 seconds rest in between followed by 3 sets of face pulls to work the bi's.

15 minutes of jump rope and I called it a day.  A little stretching and cool down followed and my Sunday workout with Dolph was complete.  Like the big man himself, I took a few minutes to run through my mantra, find positive affirmations and center myself for the start of a new week.

Getting in shape may seem like a daunting task but if you educate yourself, experiment with workouts and make fitness a habit, it will happen, I guarantee.  Jean-Claude Van Damme wasn't built in a day and neither will you be.

Until then, keep pouring apple juice on your cereal and training hard.

24 Hours: Tango & Cash (24th and 3rd) Anniversary

Movies.  Anniversaries.  Movie anniversaries.  Movies as anniversaries.  That's how this crazy weekend got started.  A weekend that would include 5 movies at 3 venues in 24 hours.

12:01 AM, Saturday, 5.18...

You see, three years ago a local Los Angeles theater played a Sylvester Stallone triple feature of Cobra, Tango & Cash and Cliffhanger.  Randomly, I met a fellow Stallone fan and her friend at the event.  Cut to today, we're all still seeing movies together and celebrated our anniversary at a midnight screening of 1989's Tango & Cash at The Cinefamily's Heavy Hitter Midnites series.

Who programs movies like this?  Why, the same action movie connoisseur who programmed it three years ago!  He's a huge fan of action movies and absolutely loves Tango & Cash in a passionate, non-ironic way.  Which is the best way to love anything because it's real.  I actually overheard some clowns (at another theater) talking about paying to see Star Trek Into Darkness just so they could rip it apart ((This is why people still make fun of genre and pop culture fans because some of them are self haters.) You know what's really cool?  Being cool with yourself.)

Apparently, Warner Brothers does not have a copy of T&C in their vault so tonight's 35mm print was provided by a private collector within The Academy Film Archive.  Surprisingly there were at least a dozen members in the audience who had never seen the flick before.  Get ready for a surprise!

If you haven't seen this movie by now, I'm not going to try to convince you to.  Just know that it's awesome and ridiculous at the same time.  It concerns two of Los Angeles' top cops, Detective Ray "Armani with a badge" Tango and Gabriel "eats burritos and wears boots that fire bullets" Cash played by messrs Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell.  They're set up by a powerful crime syndicate headed by mice lover/sniffer Jack Palance (You.  Are.  My number one...Guy!) and James Hong (Lo-Pan!).  The duo have to escape a corrupt prison, fight the clock and blow up a warehouse to clear their names.  Hilarious, homo erotic, big haired, cross dressing, car chasing, back seat humping, gun shooting, fist fighting, RV from Hell-ing, 80's synth-scored hijinks ensues.

I forgot how many familiar faces line the cast.  Beyond Stallone, Russell, Palance and Hong you get pre-Lois and Clark Teri Hatcher, Brion James (Steel Dawn), Geoffrey Lewis (Double Impact, JCVD as twins alert!), Philip Tan (Surf Ninjas), Michael J. Pollard (I Come In Peace), Edward Bunker (cameos in Best of the Best I & II), Michael Jeter (The Green Mile) and the Face himself, Robert Z'Dar!

The chemistry between Stallone and Russell is great and they both look like they're having a good time between the constant ribbing and unrelenting action.  Stallone wasn't bromantic with Arnold yet so there's a few zingers tossed at the Austrian Oak.

It would be interesting to hear some of the stories behind this weirdly funny action movie as credited director Andrei Konchalavskiy was replaced towards the end of production by Albert Magnoli (Nash Bridges!) as the producers didn't like the serious tone he was going for.  It's said that Patrick Swayze was originally set to play Cash but dropped out to headline 80's "philosophical karate bouncer" classic Road House.  Stallone had original Director of Photography Barry Sonnenfeld fired because he wasn't being lit to satisfaction.  The budget swelled as production problems arose and is said to have hit $55 million.

Nevertheless, the movie ended up being a Top 20 grosser in 1989, Russell's biggest hit behind Backdraft and Stargate and a top 10 for Stallone.

It was a fun night and start to my crazy Saturday.  So how about that sequel?

Until then, check out some of the best programming in Los Angeles (Van Damme Triple Feature, come on!) at http://www.cinefamily.org/films/heavy-hitter-midnites/

Check out this great "bad cop, worse cop" bit:

The Way We Weren't: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Sgt. Rock

When you go to as many conventions as I do, you start to look for certain things.  For me, there's nothing better than digging through a tub of old pins and buttons or finding a postcard with art or photos from one of your favorite movies.  In this case, it's San Diego Comic-Con 2012 and one bad ass booth gave me two pop culture nuggets.

The first was a white button with simple text in red, I Come In Peace from Vision International.  You know, I Come In Peace?  The late 1980's sci-fi-action thriller starring Dolph Lundgren as a cop who takes on a mullet haired alien who shoots up victims full of heroin then knife-spikes their brains to extract endorphins to sell on his planet?  Remember?  The alien says, "I come in peace" and Dolph retorts, "Go in pieces, asshole" then explodes the shit out of him?  ... Oh you might know it as Dark Angel instead.

Number two was from a movie that only exists in Hollywood offices and maybe a few peoples dreams; the Joel Silver produced, World War II action-adventure flick Sgt. Rock starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I had enjoyed Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert's Sgt. Rock comics and grew up watching Arnold movies so to see a piece of promotional swag from an almost produced movie was "very interesting (throws up hand with Van Damme improv flourish)".  Put this on the shelf of "what ifs" along with the 80's Joel Silver/Terry Gilliam adaptation of Watchmen (with Arnold as Dr. Manhattan), the lesser realized Daredevil adaptation starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and the 90's James Cameron directed X-Men starring Michael Biehn as Cyclops, JCVD as Gambit, Dolph as Colossus and Ed Harris as Magneto (oh wait, that was my and Wizard magazine's version of a non-existent movie).

Apparently this Sgt. Rock bad boy almost happened.  As in, got canceled a few weeks before shooting, almost. In May of 1988, Warner Brothers and Arnold announced a September start.  A script was ready, promo buttons were handed out at conventions, Arnold had done costume fittings and director John McTiernan was in Europe scouting locations.  Sgt. Rock comics were seen on screen in the duo's 1987 classic Predator as the books were on the Mexican set for research.  But here we are twenty some years later with no Sgt. Rock VHS or Laserdisc or DVD or 25th anniversary Blu-Ray on our shelves.  Twenty-five years later, Joel Silver is still trying to bring Sgt. Rock to the big screen.

Who knows what happened, movies get made or not made for a variety of reasons.  Some understandable (budget, star power) and others not so explainable (hey, we gotta fill a release slate!).  We do know that Arnold would have been coming off soldier roles nearly back to back in Commando and Predator to much acclaim and box office muscle but action/buddy comedy Red Heat did not set the world on fire upon release in June of 1988.  It's reasonable to think that the studio got cold feet at the prospect of Arnold cooling with action fans.  Or maybe the King of Kings was tired of  running around shooting bad guys with a machine gun.  The Oak went a completely different direction and ended up making Twins, the flick that showed he was funny and a great actor (he played a virgin for crying out loud, if that's not Oscar worthy I don't know what is).

I got my eyes on a draft from that period (I'd love to read more versions) and remember not being overly enthused about it.  Rock's heritage had been changed to German-American to accommodate the Austrian star, effectively eliminating the character's American everyman quality.  I believe he's a steel worker from Pittsburgh in the comics.  Among the panels and dialog balloons, Rock is quiet and serious, taking care of soldiers so green they're "straight from the mint" and is allergic to medals.  His men are always in on the fight, no matter how dire the situation.

At that time, Arnold was larger than life, a superhero without the costume.  Would he be believable as the no-nonsense leader in an unglamorous world?  More than that, I recall the story being fairly tame and unexciting.  A lot of tumbling rocks and an injured Rock walking around Europe.  At one point he comes across an all black unit of soldiers and all I could think was that this was to be a Carl Weathers cameo to harken back to their great chemistry and manly handshake in Predator.

Maybe it's for the best to keep those rosy images in our dreams where they can't be tarnished.

EDIT:  Thanks to a terrific interview with screenwriter Steven E. de Souza, we can put this baby to rest.  Apparently, Arnold took a cue from Clint Eastwood and bought some property in Idaho, wishing to make a film nearby and utilize local crew.  It was said Sgt. Rock would film in and around The Oak's new digs.  While being fitted for his costume, someone mentioned Yugoslavia and a shocked Arnold called a meeting with the producer, director and executives.  As location scouts had already been dispatched to Europe, Arnold wanted it in his contract that he would not leave the continental United States to make the film.  After the meeting, Arnold and McTiernan left the project and since he wasn't sued, de Souza figures it was in his contract and Warner Brothers were going back on their word.  No dice, baby.