Cage (1989) New Century/Action-Drama RT: 100 minutes Rated R (violence, language) Director: Lang Elliott Screenplay: Hugh Kelly Music: Michael Weatherwax Cinematography: Jacques Haitkin Release date: September 15, 1989 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Lou Ferrigno, Reb Brown, Michael Dante, Mike Moroff, Marilyn Tokuda, Al Leong, James Shigeta, Branscombe Richmond, Tiger Chung Lee, Al Ruscio, Daniel Martine, Rion Hunter, Dana Lee, Maggie Mae Miller, Paul Sorensen. Box Office: $618,178 (US)
Rating: ***
What if somebody put Hercules and Yor in the same movie? Would that be a cool crossover or what? This wish is half-fulfilled with Cage, a fight flick starring Lou Ferrigno and Reb Brown, the actors who played the mighty heroes in a couple of cheeseball movies released in 1983. Directed by Lang Elliott (The Private Eyes), it came out the same year as a few other B-level fight flicks- e.g. Best of the Best, No Holds Barred, Kickboxer and Fist Fighter. It’s my favorite of the bunch.
In the underappreciated action-drama, the muscular thespians play a couple of Vietnam vets pulled into the brutal underworld of illegal cage fighting. Scott (Brown) has taken care of Billy (Ferrigno) since a shot to the head left him severely brain damaged. He feels obligated since Billy was saving his life when he was shot by the Viet Cong. Twenty years later, the guys own a bar in L.A. Scott is up to his eyeballs in debt to the bank; if he doesn’t come up with some serious cash, they’ll take the bar.
Scott isn’t the only one in financial dire straits. A couple of low-level mobsters, Tony (Dante, The Big Score) and Mario (Moroff, Death Wish 4), owe a crapload of money to Tong leader Yin (Shigeta, Die Hard) to cover his $100,000 gambling debt. He’s the one in charge of the underground cage fighting ring in Chinatown. Tony’s also into the Mafia for 75 grand. Given only days to pay in full, he has to find a fighter capable of defeating Yin’s undefeatable guy Chang (Lee, The Golden Child).
As luck would have it, Tony and Mario are in Scott’s bar when a gang of toughs led by Diablo (Richmond, Hard to Kill) tries to roust the joint. They’re easily taken down by Scott and Billy. When Tony sees how strong Billy is, he tries to interest him in fighting for him only to be turned down. Not one to be dissuaded, Tony goes to Diablo for help in changing their minds about his offer. He pays the thug to burn down the bar, a venture that ends with Scott and Billy’s longtime friend and bartender Meme (Miller) being killed. Not long after that, the mobsters take child-like Billy with the intention of convincing him to get into the cage with Chang. When Scott discovers Billy missing, he hits the streets to track him down.
The subplot concerning an undercover investigative journalist (Tokuda, Farewell to the King) is underdeveloped and not entirely necessary but what the hell. I like Cage a lot. I’ve been a fan since I went to see it with a friend (RIP Kenny, miss you!) on a Sunday afternoon at the City Line Theater. Some of it, like the opening credits montage of Scott helping Billy through rehab at the VA hospital, is quite moving. Sure, the song playing on the soundtrack, “Don’t Let Go” by Jennifer Green, is sappy but it’s the right call for the sequence’s intended mood. The friendship between Scott and Billy is sweet. He genuinely cares about the hulking man-child who pulled his ass out of the fire in ‘Nam at great personal expense.
I never, ever thought I’d write these words but Ferrigno gives a good performance as Billy, a gentle giant who doesn’t know his own strength. He convincingly projects child-like innocence throughout. That is, until he’s provoked. Then he’s a brute. Brown is also good as Scott, a nice guy who turns tough vigilante in his search for Billy. There’s a great scene where he exacts vengeance on the scumbags that firebombed his bar. Lynch and Moroff do a fine job as the mobsters with Moroff being the nicer of the two. He’s the one who tries to keep Billy out of danger.
One of the coolest aspects of Cage is the presence of character actor Al Leong in a rare good guy role. He’s an undercover cop posing as a Tong in order to bring Yin down. Leong should be familiar to fans of 80s action movies. He played bad guys in Lethal Weapon, Action Jackson and Die Hard. Here, he gets to reunite with Die Hard co-star Shigeta. I LOVE this guy! He’s an awesome character actor. I also like the late Al Ruscio, a character actor who specialized in playing gangster-types. You might remember him from Any Which Way You Can and Deadly Force. Of course, I have to give a shout-out to Branscombe Richmond, another bad guy fixture from the 80s and 90s. This is what I call a bad ass cast!
I didn’t realize until now that Lang Elliott is the same guy who made the goofy Tim Conway-Don Knotts spoof The Private Eyes. Talk about two disparate movies, right? He does a nice job with Cage. It has some great brutal fight scenes and a fair amount of action. Okay, so Hugh Kelly’s screenplay is a bit on the underdeveloped side. It’s no big deal. Really, it’s not. It all comes together at the end and that’s what really counts. As you can see, I have a soft spot for Cage, a solid piece of B-movie entertainment that manages the impossible task of touching the heart and delivering exciting fight action at the same time.
