Remo - Unarmed And Dangerous (DVD)

...to elaborate.

Remo Williams {Fred Ward} is a New York police officer. He is in his patrol car on a stakeout when suddenly he is attacked and left for dead. Remo is hospitalised and starts to recover. When finally compus mentus he is greeted by a man at the end of his bed who tells him that he is needed by them and that he is not the same man etc. Remo looks in a mirror to discover his appearance has been altered. Naturally Remo is ...
...to assassinate a Korean man. Remo sneaks in with his gun and sees this little old man making tea. Remo tries to shoot him but oddly misses everytime. There is more to this man than meets the eye. He sees the tension on the trigger finger, hears the guns mechanism, pre-empts the shot, and dodges the bullet. He closes in and does a great move putting Remo in an arm lock removing the magazine from the pistol very fast and proceeds to thumb out the bullets ... more

I first had a copy of this movie in the eighties, and totally loved it. Watching it as an adult I thought I would change my opinion of the film. Yet, whilst not being a brilliant film, it is still an enjoyable romp of a film. During the eighties there was quite a boom of martial arts, and ninja films made, but this is a martial arts film with a difference. There is no high flying kicks and punches. The style of martial arts used is slightly like Aikido where you use the opponents strength and incompetence against him. You largely use agility to not get hit yourself but they hurt themselves. Now the interesting part. One of the great things with the martial art is the ability to defeat opponents with two fingers......yes two fingers. Using precision strikes at nerves etc it totally renders the opponent unable to use his arms etc. {nice, i could do with learning this to deal with my vicious cat}. One of the other beauties fo this film is that it also plays a touch like a James Bond movie. Allow me to elaborate.

Remo Williams {Fred Ward} is a New York police officer. He is in his patrol car on a stakeout when suddenly he is attacked and left for dead. Remo is hospitalised and starts to recover. When finally compus mentus he is greeted by a man at the end of his bed who tells him that he is needed by them and that he is not the same man etc. Remo looks in a mirror to discover his appearance has been altered. Naturally Remo is pretty miffed and is a touch unco-operative. Eventually he becomes reasonable and is taken on as a secret agent to bring down a some corrupt high ranking officers in the military.

Remo's first mission is to assassinate a Korean man. Remo sneaks in with his gun and sees this little old man making tea. Remo tries to shoot him but oddly misses everytime. There is more to this man than meets the eye. He sees the tension on the trigger finger, hears the guns mechanism, pre-empts the shot, and dodges the bullet. He closes in and does a great move putting Remo in an arm lock removing the magazine from the pistol very fast and proceeds to thumb out the bullets one at a time onto the floor. Remo is pissed of at these nifty little tricks and decides to kill him with his bare hands. Everytime he strikes he misses and hurts himself on furniture etc. Enough is enough and no more playing. In a blink of an eye the Korean strikes and Remo is in agony. He tries to move but is muscles are locked, he is rendered totally useless. But whats this? Remo's new boss walks in and speaks to the Korean called chiun {Joel Grey}

This was a test for Chiun to know how much work needs to be done. Chiun thinks Remo is ugly, stupid, clumsy, and ignorant, but he will work on him. During Remo's training period the interaction between Chiun and Remo is extremely funny. Remo is made to live with Chiun who has an affection for cheesy soaps. Remo has to live without his home comforts and do obscure training. One of the things Remo has to do is tap is fingers against a board for hours. This actually strengthens them for the techniques. Remo does many wild and wacky things in a bid to impress Chiun, but Chiun remains impassive to not allow Remo to become too arrogant. In one scene the boss sees Remo training and says "he looks good when will he be ready" to which Chiun replies "ooooh in around 15 years, but if i cut a few corners 14 years"

Eventually Remo and Chiun start the mission and in comes the romantic interest, Major Rayner Fleming {Kate Mulgrew, Captain Janeway from Voyager} Here is where there are similarities to bond movies. When Remo is in action there is an anthemic music playing like they do in bond. There is loads of special agent stuff going on like car chases, pulleys etc. In one scene Remo is in a military installation. He fights a big brutish guy and defeats him. But Remo needs to get through some bullet proof glass that will not shatter. He grabs the guy off the floor by the hair and scrapes his mouth along the glass. The guy has a diamond jewel in one of his front teeth and it scores the glass making it able to shatter.

The relationship between Chiun and Remo is hysterical. It is likened to some of the great duo's like Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello. Many times Remo gets shot down in flames by Chiun's witty quips.

The film is a good buy for the humour and the different style of fighting in the film. The action is great and I love the way Remo defeats the final bad guy. {More bullet dodging} The bullet dodging sounds cheesy but it's not. The way it is shown in the film is put across very convincing. The guys end up shooting at the spot Remo was a milli second ago. The film has all the right ingredients for a respectable film that is very enjoyable. There is another wonderful scene where Remo infiltrates an installation. Only problem is three Doberman guard dogs. Remo keeps climbing up walls etc to escape them and mocks them by laughing and saying i'd like to see you get me now. Only problem is that he uderestimates the dogs genius and they utilise many clever tricks to get him, including tightrope walking! It is as fuuny as hell to watch.

Most memorable line: "Chiun you are a pain in the arse" to which Chiun replies "That is because it is the shortest route to your brain"

There is one fantastic scene with Remo training, scaling the Statue of Liberty. He is attacked and there is an awesome fight at the top. Seeing the transition of Remo from an arrogant, obnoxious unhealthy idiot, to what he becomes is great to watch. There is an abundance of wit and humour to boot.

Thanks for reading............Adam 

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