Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) Orion/Action RT: 121 minutes Rated PG-13 (violence, language, brief sexual conversation) Director: Guy Hamilton Screenplay: Christopher Wood Music: Craig Safan Cinematography: Andrew Laszlo Release date: October 11, 1985 (US) Cast: Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, J.A. Preston, George Coe, Charles Cioffi, Kate Mulgrew, Patrick Kilpatrick, Michael Pataki, Cosie Costa. Box Office: $14.4M (US)
Rating: ** ½
It’s called Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins which would imply that other adventures would follow. It was supposed to be the beginning of a new action franchise like the James Bond movies. It even has director Guy Hamilton at the helm. He made four Bond films- Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Live and Let Die (1973) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1974). Based on the pulp paperback series The Destroyer, Remo might have seemed like a sure thing to Orion executives. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as this is the only Remo movie to date.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins is not a bad movie. It’s just one that could have been better had it focused more on action than the hero’s training sessions. Allow me to explain. After New York City cop Sam Makin (Ward, Tremors) is presumably killed in the line of duty, he wakes up in a hospital room with a new face and identity (taken from the bottom of a bedpan)- i.e. Remo Williams. He’s been recruited by a super-secret government agency called CURE that secretly takes care of problems the other government agencies won’t touch. They answer directly to the President; he’s the only one outside of the agency that knows of its existence. The only other members are agency head Harold Smith (Brimley, Cocoon) and Remo’s handler MacCleary (Preston, A Few Good Men). He’s to be an assassin for the US government.
He’s sent to aged Korean martial arts master Chiun (Grey, Cabaret) for training unlike any you’ve ever seen. Among other things, he learns to dodge bullets and run on air. He also learns to overcome his fear of heights by fighting potential assassins on the scaffolding surrounding the Statue of Liberty which was undergoing restoration at the time. Here’s the thing about CURE. They don’t use guns EVER. That’s the rule. The idea is to make the killings not look like killings.
Then we get into the plot such as it is. He’s sent to take down George Grove (Cioffi, The Don Is Dead), a corrupt weapons manufacturer who’s been selling defective weapons to the military. Naturally, there are higher-ups involved in the conspiracy. Major Fleming (Mulgrew, Throw Momma from the Train) uncovers information that could blow the whole operation. That means she has to be silenced. It’s a good thing Remo’s there to protect her.
It’s all rather silly actually, but Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins isn’t without its entertainment value. Although the main villain is kind of weak, he has this cool psycho henchman Stone (Kilpatrick, Under Siege 2) with a diamond in one of his front teeth. It comes in handy later for Remo. His right-hand man Wilson is played by Michael Pataki of Rocky IV. I like very much the idea of a clandestine government agency taking care of untouchable bad guys, but couldn’t they come up with a better plot and villain? We’ve seen his type before. The action scenes aren’t all that impressive either. They’re like something you might see on The A-Team.
The best performance in Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins comes from Grey whose makeup job earned the movie an Academy Award nomination (it lost to Mask). I realize that today’s woke audiences will object to the role of Chiun being played by a non-Korean actor. What can I say? It was the 80s. He’s quite a character, this little dude. Most of what he says sounds like what you find inside of fortune cookies. He’s hooked on a trashy soap opera that he feels depicts the finest qualities of mankind. The scene where he wins a big stuffed animal at Coney Island is amusing. The guy has mad skills though. He can paralyze parts of the body with a single touch and run on water.
Ward is usually a good actor and he does his best, but he doesn’t make Remo really stand out as an action hero. The writer Christopher Wood wanted Ed Harris (who was up for the role), but the producers decided to go with Ward instead. Harris would have been a better choice for Remo. Mulgrew is okay as the token female character. Brimley brings his usual fatherly persona to his character. Kilpatrick always makes a great menacing bad guy.
I suppose it goes without saying that Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins is completely unbelievable even though the idea of such a secret government agent is entirely plausible. Still, this movie is chock full of plot holes. It’s never mentioned if the FBI is investigating Grove. Surely, they must know he’s up to no good. Anybody who goes around with obvious henchman has to raise a red flag or two, right? Then again, the same could be said of any James Bond villain. However, how can any agency that has one of its trainees jumping around a national landmark stay secret? On second thought, never mind all these questions. You just have to suspend disbelief.
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins is hardly a landmark action movie. It mishandles the material to a small degree. However, it’s entertaining enough that you won’t mind watching it too much. You’ll just wish it had been better.
