The Adventure Never Continued...

Remo Williams: the Adventure Begins (1985)

Yep, the adventure began, unfortunately it never continued, and to me that was a real shame. Yes, this is another guilty pleasure. But, then again, one could say this entire blog is made up of nothing but guilty pleasures, and to me those are the best kind.

This was an attempt by executive producer Dick Clark (yes, that Dick Clark) to create an American answer to James Bond, by adapting Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s popular series of Destroyer novels for the screen, this was merely the first in what would have been an ongoing series of movies, and since this did so poorly at the box office, the rest never followed. Which is unfortunate really; because despite most of the negative reviews that this film received, this was actually a really fun movie, and I would have loved to see the series continue on.

Since this was the first movie in the proposed franchise, it’s basically the origin story, and as such it works very well. A rather large chunk of the flick is comprised of rather brilliant, hair-raising, and in many cases funny training sequences.

In fact, it is the humor that makes the movie work, and this film does contain a considerable amount of it. Most of that humor is delivered in the form of the rather witty banter between the two leads and their odd sort of love/hate relationship.

Fred Ward is Remo Williams, a former cop who has his death faked, and is given a new face. All of this is done without his permission by a shadowy organization, supposedly only answerable to the President of the United States, and it is made abundantly clear to the man that is now known as Remo Williams that if he doesn’t accept his fate, he can be permanently eliminated.

That said; Remo is placed under the tutelage of Chiun the Korean master of a deadly martial arts style known as sinanju, Chiun is wonderfully played by Joel Grey in what could only be called yellow-face, and despite the politically incorrect nature of the casting, Grey is the real heart, and soul of the movie.

Sinanju is the art of assassination, more to the point, assassination that is made to look like natural causes. The training sequences are quite imaginative and in some cases absolutely insane.

Chiun and Remo don’t exactly like each other and their relationship is the most entertaining aspect of the movie. Both Joel Grey and Fred Ward are quite enjoyable in their performances. Plus, they are ably supported by the pleasing presence of Wilford Brimley as the head of the organization, and Kate Mulgrew as an army major that has been asking the wrong questions, and making the wrong enemies. Speaking of enemies, Charles Cioffi does a fine job in the villainous role of George Grove.

Although the film was not a hit, wasn’t exactly embraced by the critics, and is mostly forgotten. I liked it and if you allow yourself to be taken in by its charms, you might like it too.