Undescribable Perfection

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

In the early 70s I was a fan of the Destroyer series of novels. The paperback series, created by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, told the story of secret government agent Remo Williams and his trainer Chiun and their adventures. When I heard a movie based on the books was coming out in 1985 I was anxious to see it. It turned out to be everything I thought it could be and I enjoyed it but I was only one of few. The movie didn't fare well at the box office and a following series never materialized. That didn't stop the movie from finding a following on video and now on disc.Sam Makin (Fred Ward) is a beat cop who unwillingly recruited to be a new type of special agent for the government. Faking his death, giving him reconstructive plastic surgery and taking him into the fold he is told by controller Harold Smith (Wilford Brimley) that his new name is Remo Williams and that he will be working for him. To make him the most formidable agent possible Williams will be trained by Korean martial arts instructor Chiun (Joel Grey). Chiun is the master of Sinanju, a secretive martial art that few are even aware of.Williams continues his training with two well played scenes some will remember. One takes place on the Wonder Wheel at Coney Island. The second involves the Statue of Liberty where he is forced to use the skills he's developed to take on a few workers on the scaffolding there and not fall off at the same time.Eventually William's skills are called on when a weapons procurement program seems to involve a dealer who is passing off bad weapons. A Maj. Rayner Fleming (Kate Mulgrew) has been sent in to investigate and it doesn't take long for her path to cross with Remo. Before they can dig deeper they're on the run and trying to solve the problem at the same time.The interplay between Williams and Chiun is what makes this movie different than most. There is a lot of subtle and sometimes not so subtle humor involved in their relationship. An example of this is the fact that Chiun denigrates American culture and food but insist that soap operas are the best thing there is about it. By the end of the film they feel more like father and son than teacher and student.Both Ward and Grey shine in this film. Ward has that world weary look to him but handles the lead with ease, proving that he was a much better actor than the roles provided him in his career displayed. Grey is amazing to watch beneath a well done makeup job. The makeup was so good that it was nominated for an Oscar that year losing out to MASK. Not only that, Grey was nominated for a best supporting actor at the Golden Globes for his performance.The combination of humor, stunt work and action make this film a treat from start to finish. Why it didn't do as well as expected is beyond me. When I've met people who have seen the film they have nothing but good things to say about it. But apparently the audiences of 1985 weren't as pleased. It's nice to see it arrive in a great looking blu-ray edition though.Twilight Time not only provides the best look this film has had since it was originally released there are plenty of extras on hand as well. Those include an isolated score track, an audio commentary track with film historians Eddy Friedfeld, Lee Pfeiffer and Paul Scrabo, the featurette CREATED, THE DESTROYER: WRITING REMO WILLIAMS, the featurette UNARMED AND DANGEROUS: PRODUCING REMO WILLIAMS, the featurette SECRETS OF SINANJU: TRAINING REMO WILLIAMS, the featurette BALANCE OF POWER: DESIGNING REMO WILLIAMS, the featurette Assassin'S TUNE: COMPOSING REMO WILLIAMS, a stills and promotional gallery and the original theatrical trailer. As with all Twilight Time releases this was limited to just 3,000 copies so fans will want to jump on this one before it sells out.

The movie wasn't very good. The producers made it too bland, with a generic villain and without a lot of the wild humor of the books.A few years after the movie they made a pilot based on a short story Murphy and Sapir had written for Inside Sinanju, a reader's guide to the series.So, while the actors are still so-so, the plot itself is, I thing, better than the movie.Encore's Action and Wam channels are showing it in July and August. The first time, to my knowledge, that it's been seen since it aired during the summer of '88.Air dates are: All Times ET/PT Tuesday, July 7th Encore Action 7:15am Tuesday, July 21st Encore Action 5:10am Friday, July 24th Encore Action 10:35am Tuesday, August 4th Encore Wam 1:45am Friday, August 21st Encore Wam 3:15am Wednesday, August 26th Encore Wam 4:30am Sunday, August 30th Encore Wam 3:05am

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.

i can only speak for myself,but i enjoyed this movie.i thought it moved along at a good clip.Fred Ward was good as the title character,but Joel Grey was a real hoot as his Korean mentor Chiun.Wifred Brimley plays the head of the organisation that recruits Remo.Kate Mulgrew(Captain Janeway in Star Trek Voyager)is also in the movie.even though i liked the movie,i didn't fell it was very substantial,and after watching it,it felt incomplete.i suspect they were hoping to do a franchise,but the movie wasn't a commercial success,so they abandoned the idea.too bad,because it would have been good to see Remo progress in his training and take on new adventures.for me,Remo Williams:The Adventure Begins is an 8/10