An officially "dead" cop is trained to become an extraordinary unique assassin in service of the US President. A cop who answers a call is ambushed. The next day he is buried. But in reality he is in a hospital and his appearance has been altered. He is then told by a man named McCleary that he now belongs to "them". "Them" being CURE an organization whose job is to battle corruption. They give him the new name of Remo Williams. He then meets the head of CURE Harold Smith, who spends most of his time sitting in front of a copmuter and perusing over reports of individuals that have to be dealt with. They then give him to Chiun, a Shinanju master, which is the art of killing someone and making it seem like an accident or natural causes. Chiun's regimen is hard on him. Smith then discovers a man named Grove, who is a defense contractor. It seems that whenever there's a case against him, the key witnesses and investigators disappear. Currently a military investigator is pursuing him about his new project which for some reason, he is tight lipped about. Smith sends McCleary and Remo to help her but Grove discovers them and wanting to know about them decides to stir things up. He sends some people to take Remo out but he outwits them. And when he tells Smith about it, Smith doesn't care who then tells him that unless they have more evidence against Grove they can't do anything and if they are about to be exposed, they have to disappear. And while Smith and McCleary have made arrangements for their demise, Remo is told that Chiun will take him out. So he and McCleary have to get the evidence they need. After Burton's Batman, Hollywood wanted tentpole movies that could make sequel after sequel. So why not turn to men's paperbacks, like The Destroyer, a series of 152 books written by the team of Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir (as well as some ghostwriters) that have 30 million books in print?<br/><br/>Sam Makin (Fred Ward, The Right Stuff) was a tough New York City cop who died in the line of duty before being resurrected as Remo Williams, now the CURE organization's front man in the war against the enemies of the United States. Now with a new face, no fingerprints and training in the assassination skill known as Sinanju from the Korean martial artist Chiun (Joel Grey, who is not Asian and is actually a Jewish man from Cleveland), Remo is ready to battle corrupt weapons dealers and save Kate Mulgrew's military officer character.<br/><br/>I've been begging Becca to watch this movie for years and she responded to it by asking, "Was this a real movie or one of those ones you like that no one knew about?" It was an actual movie. Maybe people didn't care as much as me, because in 1985 I was fully into The Destroyer thanks to Marvel publishing a black and white comic book version.<br/><br/>Watching this film years later, it's weird how little happens. "Are they ever going to do anything or is this the entire movie?" my wife asked. "This is his origin story," I tried to say, but she's right. For all the amazing things Remo learns to do, he gets to do very little of them.<br/><br/>But hey - Wilford Brimley is great as Remo's boss, Harold Smith. And Michael Pataki is always a welcome face in a film. There's enough to like in this one, like cameos by Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard) and William Hickey (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation).<br/><br/>This was intended to be a blue-collar James Bond. Which makes sense, once you realize that they used Bond screenwriter Christopher Wood (The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker) and Bond director Guy Hamilton (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun).<br/><br/>Sadly, there was a 1988 TV spinoff of the movie that never made it past the pilot stage, starring Jeffrey Meek as Remo and Roddy McDowall as Chiun (who was British and also not Asian). If you've seen a kung fu movie, you've seen it all. The idea of apprehending criminals who are high in business and government is good story matter. But in this film, that's where it starts and ends. The movie just stretches reality to the point where it snaps. Construction workers are instant assassins. Sensitive laboratories have gangsters walking in and out. CEO's are firing .50 caliber machine guns. Please do NOT try dodging bullets at home. This is done by trained professionals.The best actors in the whole 'story' are the demeans. A 9 year old kid would be disappointed with this movie. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is more down to Earth. Come to think of it, the Road Runner and Coyote has more realism.
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354 weeks ago