Friday, June 17, 2016

Junesploitation 2016 Day 17: '80s Action!

If the law won't get them...we will!

107 comments:

  1. Invasion USA (1985)

    Joseph Zito's creative re-imaging of Dr. Suess' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" follows Hunter (Chuck Norris), as the Cindy Lou Who character fending of the terrorist grinches as they vehemently try to steal freedom. Zito takes no prisoners, though, as he understand fully that terrorists, unlike in the whimsical Seuss story, seldom have a change of heart.

    Riverboats are drifted.
    Many dicks are shot off.
    Truckload upon truckload of terrorist scum are mowed down.

    Christmas must be saved.
    'Murica be saved.

    An unstoppable patriot with an oddly extrasensory ability to find and subvert evil. This... is the Norris of legends.

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    1. Above the Law (1988)

      As this film progresses I found myself considering more intently how batshit insane Nico (Seagal) really is. He says some seriously insane, nonsensical shit.

      Good 80s action fun.

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    2. Some say that terrorist's hearts are two sizes too small.

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    3. And then there was that time Chuck Norris shot a man in the head without pulling the trigger http://cinapse.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Invasion-USA-Chuck-Norris-Mean.jpg

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  2. Red Dawn (1984)

    This was an interesting movie to say the least. My first viewing of Red Dawn and in the first half hour it really held my attention with the Russians invading the USA almost immediately and the kids dealing with it. Its great to see Patrick Swayze lead his friends thru the wilderness and fight the Russians but I will say I feel like the movie dragged a bit after that first half hour. Its still a solid film just not all that I was hoping for. I haven't seen the remake but something tells me its a lot more straightforward then this one. Big plus to this movie though for letting the ladies fight, nice change of pace.

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    1. I made my wife watch Red Dawn recently. Sold it as a Dirty Dancing reunion of sorts. Mwahahaha.

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    2. I almost went with this one also! How adorable is Lea Thompson in general? Muchly.

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  3. No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)

    I knew nothing about the movie, just saw Van Damme on the cover and checked if it was from the '80s. Imagine my surprise when I realize that not only is JCVD the lead, he's playing a bad guy! Turns out it's his first big role where he plays basically a mob enforcer.

    Most of the running time is spent with teen drama, slapsticky comedy, breakdancing sequences and training montages with Bruce Lee's ghost, but the karate tournament at the end (basically Van Damme vs. the city of Seattle) is exciting and gets the blood pumping.

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    1. *not only is JCVD NOT the lead...

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    2. What the hell was up with that ice cream scene?

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    3. What the hell was up with most of the scenes?

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  4. Shoot to Kill (1988)

    It was an 80's action movie I hadn't seen, and hey, it's the first movie Sidney Poitier did after an 11 year hiatus in film. Never mind the fact that for a movie called Shoot to Kill there's actually surprisingly little shooting and in fact twice as many characters are killed by being pushed off a cliff than are shot.

    Sidney Poitier is a cop tracking down a murderer who escaped him. The murder ends up in a group on a journey through the wilderness led by Kirstie Alley. Which member of the group is the murderer? Is it the Scorpio Killer from Dirty Harry? The Kurgan from Highlander? Ike from Mother's Day? Clark from The Thing? You'll find out abruptly halfway though the movie, but in order to stop him, Sidney Poitier is going to need help from Kirstie Alley's boyfriend Tom Berenger.

    This isn't a particularly great movie, but where else are you going to find a cast like this?

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  5. 10 to midnight (1983)

    Roger Ebert rated it thumbs down and started his review with these words:"This is a scummy little sewer of a movie", and he´s right. But I have a soft spot for this brutal, sadistic and misogynistic latter days Bronson movie, that could pass nearly as a horror movie.

    It´s a typical Cannon film with all their trademarks and a great cast. Next to Bronson there are Andrew Stevens from "The Fury", Lisa Eilbacher fresh of "An officer and a gentleman", Wilford Brimley a year after "The Thing", Gene Davis from Friedkin´s "Cruising", frequent Eastwood sidekick Geoffrey Lewis, future Mrs Travolta Kelly Preston and future "Death warrant" director Deran Serafian in his first acting role.
    The film is written by the writer of "The magnificent seven", edited by the "T2" editor and directed by Bronson regular J. Lee Thompson, who also directed two "Planet of the apes" sequels.

    Reading credits of old movies is so interesting when you start connecting the names to other movies, especially when you see how some careers over the years go from A-list to ..... Cannon.

    Which to me and in this case is totally fine. Still a watchable intense movie. Or maybe I´m just nostalgic.

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  6. Commando (1985)

    Ahhh the 80s, a time when a kid on a bike could out run the police and a man with a gun, a couple of grenades, a rocket launcher and a dream could take out a whole military base single handedly. I had a lot of fun with this movie. I especially enjoyed Vernon Wells' Bennett, and its always a pleasure to see Dan Hedaya, even in a sarfari suit. This felt like the most Arnie-iest movie I have seen though there is few more I need to see.

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    1. I must say Lindsay, you are totally rockin this Junesploitation. Whose a rockstar? You are.

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    2. I can't imagine you'll find anything more Arnie-ist... I mean, he carries a massive tree trunk on his shoulder then hand-feeds a dear with Alyssa Milano. What more do you need?!?!

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    3. HA!... Deer, not dear. Obviously.

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    4. The 70's might be the Golden Age of American filmmaking but the 80's just can't be beat for pure insanity and all-around awesomeness!!

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    5. Love Commando. Saw it in November in a theater, gonna watch it again today. 'Cause why the hell not?

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    6. Thanks Gabby, I am blushing and everything.
      I love the change between the textured 70s and 80s, could have been the cocain but that is allededly, to movies like Commando, and Cannon movies. Tyson I love the first glimsp of Arnie - just a chainsaw and bludging muscles of indeterminate locations.

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  7. Next of Kin (1989, dir. John Irvin, on DVD) – First Time Viewing: Patrick Swayze, Bill Paxton, and Liam Neeson as country-fried, mulleted, badass brothers at war with the corrupt city types (including Ben Stiller as a villain)? How has it taken me so long to see this? Unfortunately that awesome premise is executed as a fairly boring movie. It has its moments, the end showdown is cool, and I love all the performances (Especially Neeson as Briar [!]), but overall it fell a little short (2.5 out of 5 Griers).

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  9. Blastfighter (1984, dir. Lamberto Bava)
    A First Blood/Death Wish hybrid filtered through the lunatic lens of the Italians. A former cop named TIGER SHARP gets out of jail after serving a sentence for murder, reunites with his estranged daughter with whom he shares some uncomfortable sexual tension and runs afoul of some rednecks who spend the rest of the movie chasing and trying to kill them both. Also, he carries the most badass gun in the history of movies. Holy shit did I enjoy this. The dialogue and dubbing are so entertaining, the score by Fabio Frizzi is incredible, the last act features limbs being shot off and bodies exploding and the final shot is one of the best/craziest in any '80s action movie. So highly recommended.

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    1. HELL YES! I loved Blastfighter. Watched this two Junesploitations ago!

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    2. You had me at Tiger Sharp.

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    3. That literally sounds like the best movie ever made.

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    4. Is Blastfighter available on any sort of region 1 release? I just watched the trailer on YouTube and it looks like a life changer. Possibly even deadlier than Deadly Prey.

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    5. It's close to Deadly Prey but I don't know if anything is deadlier :) No US DVD exists to my knowledge.

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    6. How did this not come up in any of my searches?! This sounds incredible!

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  10. "Over the Top" (1987) Dir. Menahem Golan

    (CAUTION!! SPOILERS FOR OVER THE TOP!!)

    What a good start to the day! Not much to say about this Cannon classic! One of the films directed by Mr. Cannon himself Menahem Golan so you know you're going to get it all! Sylvester Stallone (who also has a screenplay credit and please dear lord I just want to believe that he was responsible for the classic line he delivers to his son while in jail "I want to give you what's inside of me" YOWZA!!) as "Lincoln Hawk" WOOHOO AMERICA!! Robert Loggia being as great as he always is against all odds. Then we have Lincoln Hawk's son Michael Cutler played by the voice of Daniel Witwicky himself David Mendenhall. I can't get behind Michael at all...I mean your Dad wants to give you what is inside him and you just leave him for your Grandpa! What's up with that!! We also have Terry Funk...good enough for me! I didn't know that Giorgio Moroder did the score and wrote all of the music for the "big name" musicians to play. Don't know if that makes it better or worse honestly. What is the actual film about I hear you say?!? Well...Lincoln Hawk is a truck driver who wears a hat and wants to reunite with his estranged son Michael who is graduating (I think?) from military academy. They start a journey to visit Michaels mother in the hospital who is very sick and along the way Lincoln teaches Michael how to arm wrestle like a big dawg!! Did I mention that Michael's grandpapa doesn't want Lincoln to take custody of his grandbaby...for reasons...just trust me. They make it to the hospital and Michael's mother has already passed away and he freaks out and blames some stuff on his father Mr. Hawk and runs away back to his grandpappy. Lincoln comes to take Michael back from his grandpappy again and smashes his awesome truck through the front and ends up going to jail where the AMAZING scene I mentioned earlier takes place and Michael basically shits on his loving Hawk father. Lincoln is so bummed out about this that he sells his truck and enters an arm wrestling competition and bets all of his money, that he got from selling that truck that has caused him so much grief in the past, on himself to win the whole damn thing!!
    Michael finds some pictures and letters from his daddy that make him fall back in love with him...you go Lincoln Hawk! Michael sneaks out of his grandpapa's home and hunts his father down at the arm wrestling championship. Enough already...Lincoln turns his hat around which "turns on his switch" and he wins the competition and everybody lives happily ever after!!

    P.S.-Don't be confused because the movie doesn't seem to know for sure if his name is Lincoln Hawk or Lincoln Hawks as they use both throughout the film.

    For better and worse...this is the kind of movie I think of when I think of 80's movies...mostly for the better!!

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    1. Norm MacDonald once said that this is the most effective cinematic combination of the intense gut-wrenching emotion of a contentious child custody battle and...arm-wrestling.

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    2. Haha...yes he did...I just listened to that bit recently even and totally forgot about it while watching the film...utter failure on my part!

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  11. THE TERMINATOR (1984)

    I'm going to try to only watch stuff from my favorite movie year for Junesploitation today, because America fuck yeah

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    1. Fuck yeah! I really hope to see this in the cinema some day as one of my fav cinemas shows this sometimes. Fuck yeah, that is a great summary Albert!

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  12. The Killer (1989)

    It's not as slick or complex as more modern asian action crime movies, but it has compelling characters, engaging action, and John Woo's trademarked slow-motion, dove flying, camera spinning direction. What more could you ask for?

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    1. By far one of my favorite 80's action flicks. That movie rocks!

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    2. This movie does rock! That last scene is epic, doves and all.

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    3. This was my pick, too. I love it, but Chow Yun Fat is the least efficient killer ever. "I know I shot him in the head, and his brains exploded out of the back of his skull, but I should probably shoot him five or six more times just to be sure he's dead."

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  13. Nighthawks (1981) (first time viewing)

    Stallone and Billy Dee Williams are partners in this cop thriller. At first it didn't work well with Williams trying to be the goofball to Stallone's straight man, but it picked up and got more interesting when they were reassigned to hunt down the terrorist, Rutger Hauer. Not much in the way of action, but I ended up enjoying this one. You get Lando Calrissian, Stallone sporting his best Serpico impression and dressing in drag not once, but twice, and Hauer as a terrorist who will unflinchingly kill any adult, but at least has a soft spot for babies. Not the best Stallone movie, but worth a look.

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    1. Well, the filmmakers knew we'd all be dissapointed if Stallone only cross dressed once.

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    2. That movie is going on the list.

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  14. Sudden Impact (1983)

    Clint Eastwood's fourth go-round as Dirty Harry Callahan (and the only entry in the series directed by Eastwood himself) finds the San Francisco cop hunting a vigilante (Sondra Locke) who is targeting rapists.

    It's difficult not to sympathize with Locke as she guns down her tormentors which makes her a good foil for the similarly violence-prone Harry, and it gives the movie a level of empathy you don't often find in one with this high a body count. This is the movie that gave us "go ahead, make my day," and it's about as pure a distillation of what makes the Dirty Harry series work as you could hope for.

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    1. I haven't seen this in so long, but I can kind of remember after reading your post as to why!

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  15. The Running Man (1987) dir. Starsky

    anyone else dying for a faithful adaptation of the novel? So good, at least as I remember.

    The cast of this one is staggeringly cool, if not a bit wasted. The propaganda elements make me wish Verhoeven had been in charge. Could've taken it to the next level. Mario Conchita Alonso's line readings are funnier than Arnold's: "it's my seeentheesizer. I'm a mooozisian. "
    Celebrated composer Harold Faltemeyer fumbled the ball on this one.

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  16. Predator (1987)
    Commando (1985)

    A nice double dose of testosterone-laced movie comfort food, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Duke.

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    1. I am sure the Astor theatre in Melbourne was playing this as a double feature - still kicking myself that I couldn't make myself go south of the river. Its a perfect double.

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  17. Road House (1989)

    Another first for me. Til now I've only known this movie by reputation and from that MST3K Christmas song. It's pretty great. As much western as action flick. Plenty of fisticuffs but saving the ultraviolence until it has the most impact. Swayze is cool. Sam Elliott is even cooler.

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    1. My favourite aspect of Road House is how Swayze stoically says that "Nobody ever wins a fight" and then proceeds to literally beat up a town, winning about 73 fights in the process.

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    2. Swayze is very cool in this! This was a recently new to me also. I think last year.

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  18. The Exterminator (1980)
    Almost every possible way that someone could be killed is used in this movie. There's a decapitation right in the beginning, and a meat grinder death halfway through. Those are the most memorable, but there's so much killing that it's hard to keep track of. The plot does just enough to give someone an excuse to kill every villain in the city, but that's not really a concern of the movie.

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    1. I always remember the meat grinder scene and the amazing VHS artwork

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  19. THE RUNNING MAN (1987):

    Arnold plays this movie like someone is literally pointing a gun at him from just out of frame, but it's very, very close to being really good. I wish Verhoeven had made it.

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    1. very, very close, like that spandex... sorry I don't know why I did that haha

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  20. Eyes of the Dragon a.k.a Fight to Win (1987) (Dir. Leo Fong)

    Co-written by and co-starring the brilliant man behind one of my all time favs "Karate Cops (a.k.a Hawkeye)" Mr. George Chung (and Chuck Jeffreys is in this one too doing his Eddie Murphy bit again) Cynthia Rothrock is top billed but that's just to sell the film, she shows up like 40 minutes in BUT it's worth it and pays off. Bill "Super Foot" Wallace is in this too. Even Ronnie Lott has a cameo as he did in the great "Karate Cops".

    Holy fuckin' hell, this was incredible! My favorite so far for Junesploitation and top 5 new to me of the year. Some Karate instructors are battling over the Foo-Loo-Soo (fu lu su? Feu Leu Seu?) Statues. Some ancient statues that mean something for some reason. Doesn't matter. Just as "Karate Cops" (which followed a year later) there's a real Beverly Hills Cop music score thing going on here. Where "Karate Cops" was really going for that film (REALLY going for it) this one is doing Karate Kid and Revenge of the Ninja, minus any Ninjas.

    The dialog is incredible. Seriously, I was in tears and had to pause the movie at times. Chung's delivery is impeccable. There's something about that guy that is so charming. His presence and charisma on screen makes me wish he had made it as a star. There's also seriously like 10 music montages in this!

    The only other film Chung did was "Kindergarten Ninjas" which I have for later this month (I've been holding off watching it since last year for Ninja! Day, but there isn't one this year, sadly). I still love "Karate Cops" more than this, and I would advise everyone see that film at some point, but this one is a strong companion piece. I love this movie! What a great way to start the weekend.

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  21. THE BARBARIANS (1987)
    The Barbarian Brothers (Anybody remember them? No?) muscle it up in this sword-swingin’ princess-rescuin’ fantasy. It’s heavy on the jokes and campiness, which is probably for the best, considering that the brothers were cast not for their acting talent but for their many physical bulges.

    TOY SOLDIERS (1984)
    A bunch of partying college students go off course and end up in a South American warzone, where must learn to fight and rescued their captured friends. This tries to be big action, gritty suspense, and broad comedy all at once, only to end up being none of those things.

    ACTION JACKSON (1988)
    After hearing so much about this movie over the years, I’ve now finally seen it! Reality check: It’s not as extreme or hardcore as its reputation. It’s still a lot of fun, though. The taxi chase and Craig T. Nelson’s obvious kung fu stunt double are worth it.

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    1. I reall need to get to Action Jackson!

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    2. Action Jackson is the bomb. I couldn't love it more!

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    3. I don't understand why Carl Weathers wasn't in ALL the movies.

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    4. The fact that Carl Weathers didn't become one of the biggest action stars in Hollywood is beyond comprehension. C'mon! Look at that moustache!

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    5. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s still plenty of meat on that bone. Now you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato. Baby, you've got a stew going."

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  22. Extreme Prejudice (1987)

    Walter Hill. John Milius. About all the needs to be said really. Also the second movie with Clancy Brown that I've watched today.

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  23. Turkey Shoot (1982) aka Escape 2000, aka Blood Camp Thatcher

    Nice little slice of Oz-sploitation features Steve Railsback as a rebellious scamp of an inmate in a prison camp. The setting is not quite post-apocalyptic, but you can tell that in between 1982 and 2000, some seriously weird stuff went down. It was directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith who is an exploitation hall of famer (Stunt Rock, Dead-end Drive-in), so you know you're in good hands. It starts off as a break the will of the prison rebel type movie and eventually evolves (devolves?) into a Surviving The Game "let's hunt some people" jam. Features a healthy dose of graphic violence and can be a bit on the sleazy side. And in case you are wondering, yes it features a wolf man-type in formal wear, including top hat who seems to be from a somehow more bonkers completely different movie. Definitely worth it for fans who like their exploitation a little strange or people who think wolf men should do better than jeans.

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    1. Turkey Shoot is kind of awesome.

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    2. Finally got around to watching this one today. I could take or leave the prison camp stuff but my enjoyment improved considerably once the hunt was on (I smiled like an idiot every time the wolf man showed up on screen). Definitely the most exploitation-y thing I've watched this month that didn't involve Nazis.

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    3. I watched this last year based on Patrick's Recommendation (and Mac? Sorry, there was one other I can't remember). I thought it was pretty great.

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  24. Bloodsport 1988
    High kicking sweaty shiny JCVD fun, lots of doing the splits and slow motion action shots, not as good as Timecop which is the double on the same bluray but still enjoyable, Timecop strangely holds up a bit better, based loosely on a real fighter called Frank W Dux, I have not seen this film for 20 ish years but as soon as scenes play I remember most of them, I must of watched this a lot years ago

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    1. Yeah, I find this enjoyable too!

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    2. Time Cop better than Bloodsport? I don't know, Dennis...

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    3. I'm a Timecop fan, but I don't think it would even make my top 5 Van Dammes. Bloodsport is still my favorite.

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    4. I must of been in a weird mood because I watched Timecop recently and it felt really great where as Bloodsport felt dated last night, I still really like it, I guess its expectations and after not really thinking much about Timecop for years it played better than I thought it would, and JC definitely does the splits more in Bloodsport so that's a plus. :)

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  25. Avenging Force (1986)

    First off let's get out of the way what movie this is not not an American Ninja sequel even though it has Michael Dudikoff and Steve James. And second it's not an Invasion USA sequel even though it was written as such and nobody bothered to change the main characters name, Matt Hunter.

    So Michael Dudikoff and Steve James are martial arts expert ex-military special ops, I swear this is not an American Ninja sequel, who are up against Donald Trump, ok so not Donald Trump but seriously it could be, and his hence men who don't like them very much for whatever reason.

    This movie is batshit crazy, the first 10 minutes sees two men hunted by guys in samurai and gimp masks with katanas, from here we see a small child murdered, no one really grieves for him. Steve Jmaes gets shot with bullets and arrows but stays going. A smaller child gets flung from a window, rag dolls out of a two storey house and landed on by Dudikoff but survives only to be shot in the face 30 seconds later. And this all seems natural in this movie.

    There are more impalings than at a kebab place in the last 15 minutes and still the movie keeps going, building to a sequel that unfortunately never came about.

    It would be so easy diss this movie but it's probably Dudikoff's best and better than a lot of what Chuck and Seagal were throwing out at this time.

    All that's left to say is come on Sly get Dudikoff in the next Expendables movie

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    1. Classic. And Yeah, Dudikoff is sadly underappreciated. I'm hoping that the Jai White Expendables thing actually happens as I thought that he was a part of it. Might be wrong.

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  26. Conan the Barbarian (1982)
    Had Commando all lined up (a first time viewing to boot) and Netflix pulled it from under my feet (Blame Canada!). Had to get my Arnie fix and watched Conan for the first time. Setting itself kind of takes it out of that 80's vibe, but there's enough "AAAARRRGGHHHH" "UUUURRGGH". Not a whole of dialogue which was kind of cool. Let the music and the action take you to the next boss.

    Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987)
    Blood, boobs, bondsploitation. Something about drugs, diamonds, the mob, secret agents and of course a toxic snake. Always put the seat down. So many good one liners.

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  27. GYMKATA (1985, 90 min.) on Amazon Rental for the first time.

    Why isn't this a Cannon Group picture? Because it's a studio picture (MGM) trying to emulate a Cannon joint, and it shows. Too goofy to be taken seriously but too well-made to be labeled trash (grading on a steep curve here, folks), "Gymkata" could have only come during the 80's. You know, that decade when the CIA recruited and trained young gymnasts like Kurt Thomas (who wisely didn't pursue an acting career after this, because #Pridesploitation) to infiltrate battle-to-the-death tough man competitions in made-up countries so that the US could have a strategic satellite foothold into Soviet territory. Forget whether Jonathan's bleeding-from-an-arrow-wound father lives or he gets it on with Princess Rubali (Tetchie Agbayani). "Gymkata" ends on the high of knowing the US of A is sticking it to the Ruskies, because America, fuck yeah!

    Imagine if "Gymkata" had actually caught on and became a "Die Hard"-type Hollywood template (instead of synonymous with high-concept cheese). We'd be onto "Aquaman 5: Mary Jane Strikes Back" starring Michael Phelps, or "Sky Patrol 4: Prowling Tiger" with Lindsey Vonn. Guess we all owe a debt of gratitude to "Gymkata" for demonstrating convincingly why athletes with impressive physiques should concentrate on selling fattening sodas and junk foods to couch potatoes instead.

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  28. American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987): I jumped at the chance to follow Patrick's idea of cellebrating 80's action the Cannon Ninja way, so this is how I chose this. It was batshit insane really. And what is a Junesploitation with one of those? Even though objectively bad I enjoyed myself so what the hell.

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    1. I do need to check these out, I know American Ninja 4 is on a streaming service over here, but I think I might bite the bullet or the throwing stars as it were and just grab a copy of the first one.

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  29. RED DAWN (1984)

    I think this will be the only other '84 flick I do. But I'm cool with the two I chose.

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  30. MAD MAX 2 aka THE ROAD WARRIOR (1982)

    This is a decent choice, I feel.

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  31. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

    I haven't seen this since I was a kid. This film, along with part 2, were big in my home as a child of the 80s. Granted, we only had the 'taped off TV' edit of the film. Limited violence, no strip club scene, and hilarious overdubs for the swears. I, unabashedly, love this film. This movie has fantastic music throughout it as well.

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  32. Death Wish 3

    This movie is well known on this site for a reason. It's so bonkers it's practically a parody of the first two Death Wish movies. Charles Bronson is a little less wooden than he usually and the action is nonstop. A hard movie to defend on any artistic level but as far as 80's action goes this one's a classic.

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  33. One Down, Two to Go (1982, dir. Fred Williamson) on Hulu.

    After mobsters rig a martial arts tournament and attack their friends(Jim Kelly & Richard Round tree), two cops (Fred Williamson & Jim Brown) come to the mob down.

    Somehow, a movie with this many badasses disappoints. As director and actor, Williamson is clearly having the most fun, and Brown has some good moments. Kelly and Roundtree aren't given a lot to do. The direction is shaky at best. Joe Spinell has basically a cameo which felt like a horrible tease

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  34. Cobra (1986)

    Everything in this movie feels engineered by people saying, "14 year olds would think this is cool!" This movie is dumb. SO DUMB. But honestly, this was exactly what I wanted tonight. My brother and I had so much fun with this.

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    1. You cannot go wrong with robot themed fashion shoot - so yes completely engineered to 14 year olds

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  35. Tenement aka Game of Survival (1985, dir. Roberta Findlay)

    Oh, man, look out, this movie is out for blood! Imagine a cross between *batteries not included and Assault on Precinct 13 (with no alien robots.) I was maybe too stressed out for this one.

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  36. Young Guns (1988)
    I saw this in the theater in '88. I own the DVD but had not watched it since I bought it about 15 years ago.
    I was worried that nostalgia was clouding my memory of how much I enjoyed it, but Young Guns holds up really well. It's well acted, well put together. I highly recommend it if you've never given it a watch.

    "Did you guys see the size of them chickens?"

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  37. One Down, Two to Go (1982, dir. Fred Williamson) on Hulu.

    After mobsters rig a martial arts tournament and attack their friends(Jim Kelly & Richard Round tree), two cops (Fred Williamson & Jim Brown) come to the mob down.

    Somehow, a movie with this many badasses disappoints. As director and actor, Williamson is clearly having the most fun, and Brown has some good moments. Kelly and Roundtree aren't given a lot to do. The direction is shaky at best. Joe Spinell has basically a cameo which felt like a horrible tease

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  38. Conan the Barbarian (1982)

    Fantasy usually isn't my bag, but it was about time I watched this Arnold classic.

    It took me awhile to get into this one, because I went in expecting a crazy, over the top action movie. I was mostly wrong. This is a much more serious and epic film. Once I settled on the tone I got swept up in the beauty of it all. Beautiful music, beautiful cinematography, and beautiful visual story telling. There is so little dialogue, but periodically there are very well written and well performed monologues. The action is fantastic and violent, and the effects really work. Conan is kind of great.

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  39. Megaforce (1982)

    As far as action movies go, this one is pretty god damn boring.

    I didn't know things were so bad for the Republic of Sardun and Gamibia. Thank god for Megaforce. Barry Bostwick looks like a futuristic Jesus and has distractingly blue eyes. The cover art looks amazing. There is a ridiculous amount of talking in this action movie. The action is not good and not crazy enough to be fun. I've basically forgot all about it and I just watched it. There has been way more positives than negatives in 1982 but this might be worse than Q. It might be a tie. I hate them equally.

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  40. Lethal Weapon (1987)

    I couldn't wait long enough for Cops day to watch this. I enjoyed the rapport between Murtaugh and Riggs, but felt like this movie was about 20 minutes too long. So much ADR. The last fight came out of nowhere, but it was pretty great.

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    1. I am incapable of seeing Lethal Weapon as anything but perfect.

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    3. Sorry, Daniel. I didn't mean to cause any offense - I know the movie is beloved. I'm just going to say that there's something inside me that's broken and that's the reason I don't love it completely.

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    4. haha Don't apologize for having opinions! I'm just expressing my love, it's all good.

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  41. Messenger of Death (1988)

    The opening sequence of the movie is pretty dark and I thought would set the tone of the movie. Well it did not, since the rest of movie is more of a crime thriller who done it than an action movie. At times I thought I was watching a made for TV movie. Definitely not one of Bronson's best.

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  42. A Better Tomorrow 2 (1987 dir. John Woo)

    I have a soft spot in my heart for any John Woo movie. The slow-mo, the doves, the Chow Yun-fat, I love it all. A Better Tomorrow 2 is not my favourite and is a little slow at times, but it has some really awesome scenes and images that are pretty iconic. Plus the batshit insane english dialogue alone is worth watching the movie for.

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  43. The Killer (1989)

    Lots of John Woo nonsense - the candles, the doves, the billowing white curtains, so much slo mo, and repeating earlier scenes to hit us over the head with significance. It seems like the man only has one story to tell: the duality of cop and criminal. I haven't seen much of his recent output, but am I wrong in thinking he's stopped doing this once Infernal Affairs did it so well?

    I'm apparently cranky about my movies today, but I will say that watching this made me wish I had sub-themed Junesploitation to use as many Hong Kong movies as possible. I may have to file away that idea for next year.

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  44. Predator

    Lots of fun with this film, Arnie and the bros just being muscular and fighting a predator! Can't beat it

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  45. The Dead Pool (1988, Dir. Buddy Van Horn)

    The fifth and last Dirty Harry movie and the only one I hadn't seen. Probably the slightest of the series but still contains Jim Carrey as weird drug addicted rock star/actor, some quality one liners and harpoon kill. A movie for this month no doubt about it.

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  46. Southern Comfort... i can't actually watch my copy..as my bluray has decided not to play dvds anymore.. 8( but i swear i WAS going to watch it..it may be the only 80s action i still have kicking around.. i saW it first run in 81..and was blown away..another seemingly simple story well told: a chase film through a swamp, that turns out to be much more and much better than it has a right to be. Whatever happened to Lewis Smith..this and Buckaroo Banzai and vanish... I would watch this film and Tigerland in a double feature anyday.

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  47. I would have loved to live this day for 1000 years......

    But I wanted to show my kids a classic, so I watched Commando, which was perfect. Once Arnold is in camo makeup, and shooting from the hip (so good!), he can take armies and f-ing destroy!!!!!

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