ACES: IRON EAGLE III (US - 1992) Directed by John Glen. Written by Kevin Elders. Cast: Louis Gossett, Jr., Rachel McLish, Paul Freeman, Horst Buchholz, Christopher Cazenove, Sonny Chiba, Fred Dalton Thompson, Phill Lewis, Mitchell Ryan, Tom Bower, Rob Estes, J.E. Freeman, Juan Fernandez, Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, Inez Perez, Bob Minor, Branscombe Richmond. (R, 99 mins) Released in January 1986, with the blockbuster TOP GUN still four months down the road, IRON EAGLE became a sleeper hit with its mix of aerial action, flag-waving Reagan-era jingoism, and a mostly hair metal soundtrack propelled by Queen's "One Vision," Dio's "Hide in the Rainbow," and King Kobra's "Iron Eagle (Never Say Die)." It proved even more popular on home video and on cable, inspired one blatant ripoff with 1988's THE RESCUE, and it became an unexpected franchise for AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN Oscar-winner Louis Gossett, Jr., who starred as Air Force Col. "Chappy" Sinclair, reluctantly helping an Air Force Academy reject (Jason Gedrick) mount a secret operation to rescue the kid's war hero father (Tim Thomerson!), who's been shot down and condemned to death by the fictional Arab country of Bilya. Gossett then returned to lead some young fighter pilots against some requisite Soviet bad guys for 1988's IRON EAGLE II. Both IRON EAGLEs were directed by veteran journeyman Sidney J. Furie (THE IPCRESS FILE, LADY SINGS THE BLUES, THE ENTITY), but he sat out when it came time for 1992's ACES: IRON EAGLE III, which hands the reins over to John Glen. Best known for his long association with the James Bond series, first as an editor and second unit director on 1969's ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE, 1977's THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, and 1979's MOONRAKER, Glen paid his dues and was promoted to director for 1981's FOR YOUR EYES ONLY and he went on to helm every 007 movie of that decade--with the exception of 1983's non-canon NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN--ending his run with 1989's LICENCE TO KILL. Glen brings some of the Bond mindset and style to the third IRON EAGLE outing, along with providing Gossett with an age-appropriate international cast of co-stars that make the film play like a WILD GEESE-esque proto-EXPENDABLES of sorts.
Just out on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber (because physical media is dead), ACES: IRON EAGLE III finds Chappy spending his down time flying refurbished and customized WWII fighter planes on the air show circuit, taking part in staged aerial battles with three fellow old-timer pilots: German Leichman (Horst Buchholz), British Palmer (Christopher Cazenove), and Japanese Horikoshi (Sonny Chiba). Chappy gets word that his Peruvian-born Air Force buddy Ramon was shot down during an apparent rogue mission and his body recovered by the Coast Guard, with the DEA brought in to investigate when $250 million worth of cocaine was found in the wreckage. Unbeknownst to Chappy, Ramon was a forced accomplice in a Peru-based drug trafficking operation overseen by former Nazi Gustav Kleiss (Paul Freeman). Kleiss has taken over the small village where Ramon was born and is holding his younger sister Anna (former bodybuilder Rachel McLish) hostage, threatening to kill their mayor father if he didn't comply. Ramon and another pilot, Doyle (SILK STALKINGS' Rob Estes) are part of Kleiss' operation that's using a Texas Air Force base as a distribution point. Anna manages to escape and stow away on one of the flights, and once in Texas (we never see how she somehow manages to get off the plane undetected), she informs Chappy of what's going on in her village. When base commander Simms (Mitchell Ryan) refuses to listen to Chappy and instead opts to tarnish Ramon's legacy, Chappy once again plays by his own rules and talks Leichman, Palmer, and Horikoshi into using their WWII show planes to launch a covert attack on Kleiss' Peruvian compound and rescue the enslaved villagers.
ACES: IRON EAGLE III's plot is beyond ludicrous (credit screenwriter Kevin Elders, who penned the two previous films and went on to make his directing debut with the 1999 Dennis Rodman actioner SIMON SEZ), but the cast doesn't seem to be taking it too seriously, especially Gossett, who at one point mutters a required-by-law "I'm gettin' too old for this shit." In addition to McLish's Anna, the team is also helped by their air show promoter Stockman (Fred Dalton Thompson, who's unusually loose and likable here), and Tee Vee (Phill Lewis), the film's ill-advised comic relief. Tee Vee lives in the same decrepit slum apartment building where Anna is hiding with her aunt, in a laughably unconvincing inner city "hood" set that you'd swear was on a Bulgarian backlot if you didn't know the film was shot in Arizona (and don't miss boxer Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini, out-acted by his mullet in a brief role as a local cartel enforcer). For all the anti-Arab racism present in the first IRON EAGLE, nothing has aged worse than ACES' Tee Vee, who's introduced stealing a TV and at various points, is shown riding a shrieking donkey, doing impressions of Eddie Murphy and John Wayne, referencing the Fresh Prince, 2 Live Crew, and Milli Vanilli, and, in possibly the most cringe-worthy moment in the entire franchise, starts rapping and busts out a "My name is Tee Vee and I'm here to say..." The only good thing you can say about Lewis' performance is that it's marginally better than the one delivered by McLish, the early '80s female bodybuilding champ and focus of the 1985 documentary PUMPING IRON II: THE WOMEN. Married to IRON EAGLE franchise producer Ron Samuels, McLish's acting career began with ACES: IRON EAGLE III and ended with her next film, the Samuels-produced, Albert Pyun-directed RAVENHAWK. She gets to take part in a couple of throwdowns and she looks great glistening with sweat, but McLish is painfully bad, and being surrounded by an Academy Award-winner and a bunch of other experienced pros doesn't do her any favors.
Fortunately, ACES: IRON EAGLE III gets by on the screen presence of Gossett, Buchholz (the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN co-star even getting to wear a cowboy hat at one point), an Errol Flynn-channeling Cazenove, and Chiba. Working with a much smaller budget than what he'd been granted in his 007 glory days, Glen brings an unmistakable Bond vibe to the film from the drug cartel plot of LICENCE TO KILL, to some terrific action sequences and huge explosions, or Freeman's villain, somewhat of a riff on the actor's best-known role as the treacherous Rene Belloq in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, with the addition of a hammy German accent and a Blofeld-like facial scar (and a memorable one-liner when he gets a look at Chappy and sneers "Hardly the Ayran ideal, are you?"). He even has a standard-issue Bond villain henchman in the ruthless Escovez, played by perennial late '80s/early '90s bad guy Juan Fernandez, so memorable as "that shitbag Duke" in the 1989 Charles Bronson sleazefest KINJITE: FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS. There's also an outlandish action sequence involving Cazenove that would've been right at home in a Roger Moore-era 007 outing. ACES: IRON EAGLE III sat on the shelf for year before short-lived New Line subsidiary Seven Arts released it in theaters with little publicity on June 12, 1992, where it tanked in 11th place, grossing even less than WAYNE'S WORLD in its 18th week (it probably didn't help that it was R-rated, where its teen-aimed predecessors were PG-13 and PG, respectively). It was the first of two flops that summer for Glen, the other being the costly Alexander Salkind bomb CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: THE DISCOVERY, which hit theaters two months later. Glen went on to direct several episodes of the short-lived British TV series SPACE PRECINCT and made his last film to date with the 2001 Christopher Lambert espionage thriller THE POINT MEN. That same year, he published his memoir For My Eyes Only, and later contributed commentary tracks to the 2006 DVD editions of his Bond films. These days, the now-87-year-old director occasionally gives interviews and appears to be enjoying his retirement. Furie--also still with us at 86 and, as of 2018, still working--not-very-triumphantly returned to the franchise for 1996's straight-to-video IRON EAGLE IV, which found Gossett's Chappy Sinclair leading the usual ragtag group of young military misfits to stop a chemical warfare plot.
ACES: IRON EAGLE III opening in Toledo, OH on 6/12/1992
Even a broken clock is right twice a day, and once in a while, a combination of forces that, under any normal circumstances, would portend certain doom actually turns out to have unexpected merit. Consider the case of A FIGHTING MAN, a low-budget, straight-to-DVD Canadian-made drama that would appear to be the epitome of every melodramatic boxing cliche you've ever seen going back to the 1930s Warner Bros. programmers. Consider that it stars Dominic Purcell, the once-promising PRISON BREAK star-turned-lumbering charisma-vacuum whose constant employment is one of the great mysteries of the modern DTV era. Consider that it's written and directed by veteran Canadian hack Damian Lee, who's somehow managed to be in the business of making movies for 30 years without ever making a good one (yes, Purcell and Lee also teamed on last year's abysmal BREAKOUT). There's absolutely no reason for A FIGHTING MAN to be anything but a steaming shit sandwich, but...this is actually...pretty good? Lee's script piles on a checklist of tropes and contrivances. Purcell is Sailor O'Connor, an aging ex-boxer with a record somewhat south of mediocre. He's not even worthy of being called a has-been. He's a never-was. If Sailor O'Connor was an actor, his stage name would be "Dominic Purcell." Sailor's only claim to fame is that, while he's lost almost all of his fights, he's never been knocked down. He hasn't been in the ring in four years, but wants to fight the proverbial One Last Fight. And it's not for the obligatory One Last Shot at Redemption: it's because he needs the money to give his fiery, cancer-stricken Irish mom Rose (Sheila McCarthy, thickly laying on the feisty Maureen O'Hara sass) one last trip to the old country since she's got six months to live. He's too proud to accept a handout from his trainers Brother Albright (James Caan) and Max (Michael Ironside), and he won't be talked out of fighting by his mom or by concerned Father Brennan (co-producer Kim Coates), who seems to spend more time fretting over Sailor than he spends in church. Sailor's opponent is King Solomon (Izaak Smith), a cocky and ambitious young fighter who's trying to escape his hellish life in the projects with his crack-addict mother (Emma Campbell). King needs a fight because he's been reduced to appearing in porn flicks to make ends meet and all he wants is to marry his pregnant girlfriend Peg (Jenessa Grant).
There's also Louis Gossett, Jr. hamming it up with a ridiculous Jamaican accent as King's irascible trainer Cubby, Adam Beach as reptilian promoter Fast Eddie, who's as big a conniving, untrustworthy piece of shit as his name would imply, famed trainer Freddie Roach as himself, and Famke Janssen as Diane, a recovering alcoholic linked to Sailor through a past tragedy that haunts both of them to this day. Lee also manages to cram in some mid-fight contractions for Peg, a visit to a bar for Diane where she almost falls off the wagon, and a traumatic backstory from Sailor's childhood about his abusive, drunken father that explains why he's the bullheaded fighter he is and how nothing can knock him down. Lee's structure of the film is interesting in the way that the fight is already underway at the very beginning, and between rounds, we're given the fragmented flashbacks detailing the events that led up to the fight we're seeing, and the timelines converge by the end. I never would've guessed a straight-to-DVD Damian Lee joint starring Dominic Purcell would have an ambitious Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu structure combined with the profound sense of melancholy and grief you'd find in the EXOTICA/THE SWEET HEREAFTER heyday of Atom Egoyan, where all the pieces of the puzzle are slowly put in place and you see how everything fits together in the end. Yes, it's hokey and manipulative, but its straight-faced sincerity sucks you in. And for all the cheap shots I've taken at Purcell, he may have found his perfect role with Sailor O'Connor, whose terrible boxing record, dead-eyed stare, monotone mumble, and the shuffling, tired gait of a defeated man with nothing left to lose and who's had nothing but shitty cards dealt to him for his whole life allow the actor to use his lackluster screen presence to his utmost advantage. To quote the poet laureate Harry Callahan, "A man's got to know his limitations," and while Purcell looks comatose when he has to do action movies, here, he's perfect. Look, I'm not saying this is some undiscovered classic or anything. We're not talking ROCKY or THE SET-UP or THE HARDER THEY FALL here--it's a maudlin and overly earnest B-movie for sure, but it somehow works, even as it plows head-first into shameless man-weepie territory by the end. Maybe it's Purcell finally finding a role that suits his somber persona, maybe it's the better-than-expected supporting cast (Caan is very good, and really, you had me at "Caan and Ironside as his trainers"), but against all odds, A FIGHTING MAN is an unexpectedly not terrible surprise. Purcell and Lee...who knew? Eye of the tiger, guys. Eye of the tiger. (R, 88 mins)
THE OUTSIDER (US - 2014)
Caan also turns up as the villain in THE OUTSIDER, which marks veteran British actor Craig Fairbrass' first attempt at becoming a headlining action star in America. Fairbrass starred in a couple of British horror films that became mid '90s video store staples (NIGHTSCARE and PROTEUS), and frequently turns up in various D-grade fare like Uwe Boll's FAR CRY, the Randy Couture actioner HIJACKED, and the Dominic Purcell dud VIKINGDOM, but he's best-known for TV's EASTENDERS and for his voice work in various CALL OF DUTY video games. He's got an imposing, square-jawed presence with a Vinnie Jones "fookin' 'ell, mate!" demeanor that could make him an acceptable fourth-string Liam Neeson with the right vehicle, but THE OUTSIDER, which surrounds Fairbrass with the best supporting cast that 2002 had to offer, isn't it. Utterly generic in every way, THE OUTSIDER, conceived by Fairbrass and writer/director Brian A. Miller (a repeat purveyor of completely forgettable Wal-Mart bargain-bin clutter like the 50 Cent-produced CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE and the Stephen Dorff cop thriller OFFICER DOWN), is patched together from elements of THE LIMEY and TAKEN (Fairbrass is even referred to as "the Limey" at one point). Fairbrass is tough-as-nails British mercenary Lex Walker, called away from a contract gig in the Middle East when his daughter Samantha turns up dead from an apparent drug overdose in Los Angeles. When he arrives at the morgue to identify the body, it's not his daughter, who went missing from her job at tech giant Most Industries a week earlier. Walker doesn't get anywhere with evasive Most CEO Karl Schuuster (Caan, who couldn't have put in more than two, maybe three days on the set), who obviously knows something he's not telling. Walker teams up with Samantha's waitress friend Margo (Shannon Elizabeth), and her sometime boyfriend Ricky (Johnny Messner), who leads him right to Samantha (Melissa Ordway). She had to fake her death because Schuuster's goons were coming for her after she uncovered a massive identity theft scam he was masterminding from the Most headquarters. Meanwhile, Walker forms an uneasy alliance with cynical detective Klein (Jason Patric) to bring down Schuuster and expose his shady dealings.
Lethargically paced and drably shot, THE OUTSIDER offers no surprises or suspense, with Patric and Caan sleepwalking through their performances, everyone else unconvincingly spouting vague techno-jargon, and Fairbrass proving to be a dull action hero. Sequence after sequence follows the same formula: Walker blusters and bulldogs his way into somewhere, wants ta ask someone some queestions 'bout 'is daw 'er, gets some guff, and promptly smashes the person's head into a wall or through a door until they staaht tawkin'! The kind of movie that provides an adequate level of white noise while you peruse your Netflix queue for something else to watch, THE OUTSIDER is as bland and paint-by-numbers as it gets. Nothing overtly terrible about it, but there's really nothing to see here. (R, 94 mins)
AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN was perhaps 1982's stealthiest blockbuster. It opened with little fanfare on July 30 and didn't have its biggest week until September. It remained in the top five until December, only taking the top spot twice, but it made just under $130 million to became the third highest-grossing film of the year. The film, directed by Taylor Hackford (THE IDOLMAKER) and written by Douglas Day Stewart (THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE, THE BLUE LAGOON), is predictable and manipulative (especially the storybook finale), but it's got some strong performances and for the most part, it's aged well. Aimless, troubled, and angry Zack Mayo (Richard Gere), still not over his mother's suicide when he was child, joins the Navy as a way out of his dead-end life with his drunk father (Robert Loggia), whose idea of bonding is getting a prostitute for the two of them to share. He befriends fellow recruits Sid Worley (David Keith) and Casey Seeger (Lisa Eilbacher), clashes with drill sergeant Foley (Louis Gossett, Jr), and falls in love with local factory worker Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger) who, along with her best friend Lynette (Lisa Blount) dream of finding a Navy man to whisk them away from their dead-end jobs so they can see the world. Gere is very good as the irresponsible Mayo (aka "Mayo-naise," aka "Mayo the Wop"), who finally learns how to be a man once he's away from his loser father (fourth-billed Loggia exits the film before the opening credits, and spends most of his screen time scratching his balls), and it's he and Winger's considerable onscreen chemistry that made this the massive hit that it became. That, and the hugely popular Joe Cocker/Jennifer Warnes theme song "Up Where We Belong."
The song got an Oscar, and the Best Supporting Actor Oscar went to Gossett, who's fine in the role, but there's really nothing exceptional in his performance (and the Oscar curse led him straight to 1983's ill-advised JAWS 3-D). Of course, this was before R. Lee Ermey rewrote the book on cinematic drill sergeants five years later in FULL METAL JACKET (some of Ermey's dialogue seems to have been taken from here, as Gossett mentions "steers & queers," and threatens to gouge out Sid's eyes and "skullfuck" him). Winger first gained notice in 1980's URBAN COWBOY and helped provide the voice of E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, and received the first of her three Oscar nominations here, and this film was big enough for her that it managed to get her top billing over established stars Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson in the next year's TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. Winger, who famously clashed with MacLaine and quickly earned a reputation for being "difficult," has never been as vulnerable and appealing as she is here. Gere, coming off of AMERICAN GIGOLO, has been in a lot of big movies but has never really gotten the respect he's deserved as an actor. Watching the film again after many years, I was surprised at how good Gere is in this--not just in his interaction with Winger, Keith, or Gossett (the boot camp scenes are beyond formulaic), but most impressively in the scene where Mayo sacrifices his chance at the obstacle course record to help Seeger over the wall. It's audience manipulation at its most blatant, but Gere and the charming Eilbacher (why was she never a bigger star?) sell the hell out of it. But was it necessary for Mayo and Foley to settle their differences with a martial-arts match-up?
Ron Howard previously directed and starred in 1977's GRAND THEFT AUTO for Roger Corman, but NIGHT SHIFT was his first theatrical feature as a director since leaving HAPPY DAYS to focus on a career behind the camera. Working from a script by regular collaborators Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel, Howard brought along his TV co-star Henry Winkler and created one of the most immensely likable comedies of the year. It would probably rank as a comedy classic if it didn't lose momentum in the last third and drag on a bit longer than necessary. Winkler stars as Chuck Lumley, a mild-mannered night shift attendant at the NYC morgue, but from the very moment he's introduced, the film belongs to a debuting Michael Keaton in a star-making performance as his new assistant, fast-talking "idea man" Bill "Billy Blaze" Blazejowski.
With the help of Chuck's prostitute neighbor Belinda (Shelley Long), Chuck and Bill begin running a profitable prostitution ring out of the morgue. Winkler and Keaton are a great team, and after several years of doing stand-up and assorted TV roles, Keaton immediately established himself as a major new comedic talent, and in the coming years, would prove to be just as adept in serious roles as well. Long was a few months away from starring in CHEERS, and the film also features appearances by Bobby DiCicco (who gets the immortal line "Oh, that Barney Rubble...what an actor!"), Richard Belzer, Joe Spinell, Nita Talbot, an ass-baring Michael Pataki, Vincent Schiavelli, Cassandra Gava (the witch in CONAN THE BARBARIAN), a young Shannen Doherty as a girl scout, and Kevin Costner as "Frat Guy #1" (he's at the party in the morgue, behind Keaton as he's balancing a beer bottle on his forehead), in addition to the inevitable Clint Howard.
The soundtrack features songs written by Carole Bayer Sager and Burt Bacharach, including the title track by Quarterflash (still riding high on "Harden My Heart"), Al Jarreau's "Girls Know How," and Rod Stewart's version of "That's What Friends Are For," which became a chart-topping charity single for Dionne Warwick and Friends (Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder) in 1985. Other songs on the soundtrack include Van Halen's cover of "You Really Got Me," Talk Talk's "Talk Talk," and two songs by Riggs, a band that Warner Bros. got on the HEAVY METAL soundtrack as well, and were thoroughly unsuccessful at convincing the world to give a shit.
Also in theaters this weekend was the Chuck Norris thriller FORCED VENGEANCE. Norris was slowly building a name for himself with drive-in hits like BREAKER! BREAKER! (1977), GOOD GUYS WEAR BLACK (1978), A FORCE OF ONE (1979), and THE OCTAGON (1980). AN EYE FOR AN EYE (1981) moved him closer to mainstream action and SILENT RAGE (1982) mixed Norris action into a sci-fi/horror story. Four months after SILENT RAGE hit theaters, Norris was in theaters again with FORCED VENGEANCE, which finds him in more familiar surroundings as a casino security guard taking on the crime syndicate of Hong Kong. The relentlessly busy Norris next did LONE WOLF MCQUADE (1983) and then had his first bona fide box office smash with MISSING IN ACTION (1984). FORCED VENGEANCE was directed by Clint Eastwood protege James Fargo, who served as an assistant director on several Eastwood films throughout the '70s before the star let him direct THE ENFORCER (1976) and EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978). Fargo left the Eastwood stock company in 1978, doing the box-office bombs CARAVANS (1978) and GAME FOR VULTURES (1979). FORCED VENGEANCE grossed $6.5 million and was the closest thing Fargo had to a hit without Eastwood, and by 1984, he was directing Pia Zadora in VOYAGE OF THE ROCK ALIENS before settling into a TV career (directing episodes of THE A-TEAM, SCARECROW AND MRS. KING, and HUNTER), with occasional B-movie assignments. After directing a low-budget 1998 kids movie called SECOND CHANCES, Fargo went MIA but finally emerged from obscurity after 13 years with BORN TO RIDE (2011), a straight-to-DVD SONS OF ANARCHY knockoff, with Casper van Dien and Patrick Muldoon reuniting from STARSHIP TROOPERS.
TEX was the first of a string of S.E. Hinton adaptations to hit screens from 1982 to 1985. Directed by Tim Hunter, who went on to make RIVER'S EDGE (1987), TEX stars Matt Dillon and Jim Metzler as two teenage brothers whose father (Bill McKinney) abandons them after their mother dies. It's a typical Hinton coming-of-age drama, with younger brother Tex (Dillon) forced to grow up fast and big brother Mason (Metzler) shouldering the responsibility of raising his little brother. The fine supporting cast includes the great Ben Johnson, Meg Tilly, and a young Emilio Estevez as a friend of Tex's. Dillon and Estevez would become almost the de facto faces of S.E. Hinton on the big screen, starring with an army of young, promising talent (Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, and others) in Francis Ford Coppola's THE OUTSIDERS (1983) and Dillon would also star in Coppola's second Hinton adaptation, RUMBLE FISH, later in 1983. Estevez wrote and starred in 1985's THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW, leaving 1988's Taming the Star Runner the only one of Hinton's young-adult novels that hasn't been made into a film involving either Matt Dillon or Emilio Estevez.
1. E.T.: THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
2. THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS
3. AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
4. YOUNG DOCTORS IN LOVE
5. NIGHT SHIFT
6. ROCKY III
7. THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP
8. SIX PACK
9. POLTERGEIST
10. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (re-release)
