Iron Eagle (1986)

Greetings fellow film nerds and enthusiasts...

This week I watched one of my favorite 80s flicks... 'Iron Eagle' which just so happens to be celebrating a 30 year anniversary this year.

A lot of people think that this movie was a Top Gun ripoff, but in fact it was filmed before Top Gun and the release was pushed until later because the distributors didn't want people to confuse it with Top Gun.


The film is about an Air Force pilot that gets shot down and held  prisoner in a middle eastern country. They sentence him to death. The U.S. can't do anything about it because they can't start a war over one man. The pilot's kid, who is somewhat of a pilot himself, decides to plan his own rescue mission with the aid of a retired Air Force colonel. They secretly "borrow" military aircrafts and all the firepower they can carry to pull off the greatest rescue mission ever attempted.
Iron Eagle has great aerial combat scenes, a great cast and an awesome 80s soundtrack.

Let's talk about the cast...

Louis Gossett, Jr. and Jason Gedrick

Originally, Emilio Esteves was going to play the lead role of Doug Masters but it ended up going to Jason Gedrick (Backdraft - 1991.) The role of the retired Air Force colonel was played by Oscar winner Louis Gusset Jr (An Officer and a Gentleman - 1982.) Actor Morgan Freeman tried out for the role too.
The downed pilot was played by Tim Thomerson (Trancers - 1984.)


People who grew up watching movies and TV in the '70s & '80s will recognize a few other cast members... Lance LeGault plays an Air Force General (he's the guy that was always chasing the A-Team around.) One of the kid's friends was actor Robbie Rist (cousin Oliver on the Brady Bunch)

actor Robbie Rist

and another was Larry B. Scott (Lamar from Revenge of the Nerds.)

actor Larry B. Scott

This is a fun movie with lots of energy. The soundtrack was really jamming with music from Queen, Katrina & the Waves, George Clinton, Dio, Twisted Sister, Tina Turner and James Brown. The title song was written and performed by King Kobra.

The film spawned three sequels. Louis Gossett, Jr. was the only actor to play in all 4 films.

Nice little cheesy 80s action flick with great music and familiar faces. Check it out now!

Talk to ya soon about more gems!!

- Patrick Shawn Bennett

Avenging Force (1986)

Today we're going to take a look at the 1986 Cannon Films movie, 
'Avenging 
Force,' starring 80s B-movie action star Michael Dudikoff. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this cool action film set in the swamps of Louisiana.



When I was in high school, the Canon Film Group put out some of the most spectacular low-budget action films ever made. 
They produced a lot of the Chuck Norris movies, Michael Dudikoff Movies and films of Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Cannon meant action. Cannon meant guy flick.

My junior year in High School Cannon released 'Avenging Force' and I saw it in the theater. 

I was a Cannon Film fan and a Michael Dudikoff fan. I had first discovered him in another Cannon Film called 'American Ninja' which went on to spawn 4 sequels (unless you lived in Israel, then you got 5 sequels... I'll explain this in a minute.)

Michael Dudikoff was Cannon's rising star and if Cannon didn't go under I believe he would have become a superstar... like we think of Chuck Norris and Van Damme.

Michael has had a long B-movie action film career in films like 'Platoon Leader' 'River of Death' 'The Human Shield' 'Chain of Command' and 'Cyberjack.' He even starred in a TV series in the '90s called "Cobra" that lasted one season. He is still working in the low-budget action genre, most recently 'Navy Seals vs. Zombies' and the upcoming 'Hard Target 2.'

check out the trailer below for 'Avenging Force' (1986)

 

In 'Avenging Force' Dudikoff stars as Matt Hunter, a former secret agent who must take down an extreme right-winged vigilante group called Pentagle who hunt and kill men in the swamps of Louisiana as a sport and for their political gain. (Their form of assassination.)

The film was directed by Sam Firstenberg (Revenge of the Ninja, American Ninja, Breakin' 2) and co-starred Steve James and James Booth. Booth was the writer.

'Avenging Force' once again teamed Dudikoff with actor Steve James. They co-starred in a few of the American Ninja films together.  This might be the reasoning for Israel having 5 American Ninja sequels. 

What happened was when 'Avenging Force' came out in foreign countries the title was changed... in some countries it was released as 'American Warrior 2' because 'American Ninja' was released in those countries as 'American Warrior.' And because this was another martial arts action flick starring Dudikoff and James they called it a sequel to 'American Warrior.' 

Well, in Israel the film was released as 'American Ninja 2.' Again, because it starred the same two guys from 'American Ninja.' I guess Cannon marketed it as a sequel in foreign countries because 'American Ninja' was very successful and they wanted to target the same audience. 

Now, when Cannon made the real sequel to 'American Ninja' and titled it 'American Ninja 2' there was a problem. 

Michael Dudikoff and Steve James

They already had an 'American Ninja 2' overseas (which was actually 'Avenging Force.') So, they released the real 'American Ninja 2' in Israel as 'American Ninja 3.' Confused yet? This means that in the U.S. we have 5 American Ninja films but in Israel there are 6 American Ninja films. If you ever get to talking movies with an Israeli just remember that your American Ninja 5 is his American Ninja 6. Your conversations could be very confusing.

Here's some more trivia for you...
When the script to 'Avenging Force' was written, it was Cannon's intention to have it star Chuck Norris and it was going to be a sequel to Norris' 1985 film 'Invasion USA.'

Norris didn't care for the script and passed on the project. The script was then rewritten to fit a younger actor and Dudikoff was given the role. The character name remained the same. Matt Hunter is the main character in both 'Invasion USA' and 'Avenging Force.'


Let me talk a little directly about the movie 'Avenging Force.' 



I loved the scenes set at a New Orleans Mardi Gras parade. They were pretty spectacular... and to see Dudikoff scaling the wall of a New Orleans balcony apartment and fighting on the roof... it was all super cool. As in most of Cannon's films there were plenty of explosions, gunfights, and martial arts combat. 'Avenging Force' doesn't disappoint in these areas.
I loved all the hunting scenes in the swamp where Dudikoff takes on the hunters one by one. Some of the scenes reminded me of the fight at the end of Swamp Thing.
A lot of people feel that this was Dudikoff's best film. I personally think 'Americn Ninja' was, but that's just a matter of opinion. They were both pretty good.

To me, the only thing missing from this film set in Louisiana was an alligator or two. Dudikoff spends plenty of time sludging around in the swamps and bayous but you never see a single gator. I wanted to see a few.

This was a fun film to watch and is definitely one of my favorite Cannon films. 

The film was available on VHS but for some reason never got a DVD release until recently when a Blu-ray/DVD combo was released.

The Blu-ray has a very nice intro by director Sam Firstenberg and some good commentary. I highly recommend getting the Blu-ray.

Thanks for reading.
Until next time... 





- Patrick Shawn Bennett 
  Movies by the Slice: with extra cheese.

Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)

'The Legend of the Lone Ranger' (1981)

The Lone Ranger is a fictional hero of the old west. He was a former Texas Ranger that was ambushed and left for dead but rescued by a native American named Tonto. The Ranger decides to wear a mask to conceal his identity so that he and his sidekick Tonto can uphold truth and justice in the American west. The character quickly became and American icon.

The character was created by a radio station, WXYZ, in Detroit in 1933 for a kid's radio show.
Over the years the character gained popularity in radio, magazines and comic books. From 1949 - 1957 the character's popularity grew tremendously through a live action TV series and movies.
Actor Clayton Moore is probably the best know actor to play the hero to date.
Over the years a couple of remakes have been attempted on both television and film. The latest incarnation was made by Disney in 2013 and was considered a huge flop at the box office.

The film version I want to talk about today is the 1981 movie "The Legend of the Lone Ranger." I can remember being super excited when this film came out. I was a kid in junior high school. The trailers on TV were so cool. The producers kept the traditional light grey costume, red scarf, black mask and white hat.

He looked amazing firing his silver plated, ivory handled six-shooters. The movie posters in the theaters were a sweet sight to behold too... it featured the Lone Ranger holding up a silver bullet and light was gleaming from the silver tip. It was stunning. I have a copy of the poster on the wall in my bedroom. Still one of my favorites to date.

The film starred a relatively unknown actor named Klinton Spilsbury as John Reid/The Lone Ranger and Michael Horse as Tonto.

It also had a few heavy hitters such as Jason Robards as Ulysses S. Grant and Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown from the Back to the Future films) as Butch Cavendish.




And as a nice nod to the '50s series, actor John Hart (one of the actors to play the Lone Ranger in that series) was cast as a pivotal character named Lucas Striker.

Due to the success of the television series "The Dukes of Hazard" which was hot at this time, the producers of "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" decided the film should have a "balladeer" to narrate the audience along every now and then, like Waylon Jennings was doing on "The Dukes of Hazard."
The producers chose country singer Merle Haggard for the job. 

The narration was pretty cheesy with it's rhymes. Lol. I would love to watch the movie without that just to see how differently it plays out.

The movie wasn't received very well and got bad reviews which hurt it at the box-office. It also won several "Razzie" awards, which is an awards ceremony that parody's the Oscars and gives awards for worst movies and worst actors. Lol. Actor Clinton Spilsbury received them for worst actor and worst new actor. The film itself won worst movie and even the music in the film won worst music and worst song.

And something that I have never read a reason for... actor Klinton Spilsbury's voice was completely dubbed over for the entire movie by actor James Keach. I don't know if Spilsbury just had a funny sounding voice or maybe he delivered his lines horribly.

I remember as a kid getting into the toy line for this film. The toy company Gabriel released figures of The Lone Ranger, Tonto, Buffalo Bill Cody, Butch Cavendish and George Custer... along with the horses Silver (the Lone Ranger's Horse) Scout (Tonto's horse) and Smoke (Butch's horse.)

I had three of the figures... The Lone Ranger, Tonto and Butch. I still have the Lone Ranger and Tonto on my desk in my office.

This film was another origin story. There were lots of shoot'em up action but the story seemed to take a long time to build. It wasn't until about 45 minutes into the movie that we got our first glimpse of the Lone Ranger in costume. But that scene when they do reveal him is one of my favorite scenes in movie history! It shows him from the back, kneeling at his brothers's grave. He's wearing the classic grey costume and the double black holsters with silver bullets and pearl handled guns. After he finishes taking to his brother's grave, he slowly stands and turns around... putting on the white hat and BAM!!! There's the Lone Ranger in all his glory. And to top off this excitement... the William Tell Overture (Lone Ranger theme) begins to play at that exact moment!! I can remember the excitement rushing in and the big smiles both my Dad and I had. We looked at each other, grinning.
From that moment on the momentum of the film started to build.

One of the things I loved about this movie is the landscape. The film was shot in New Mexico, Utah and California. I recognized some of the same rock formations and ranges used in the '50s Lone Ranger TV show. 
One that just pops out at you is the Vasquez Rocks located in Agua Dulce, California. I bet you have seen these rocks dozens of times... I can remember then from Star Trek, the Lone Ranger TV series, Wayne's World, Zorro, Free Enterprise and dozens of other films. It's an American landscape icon.

Another thing I likes is how they put historical characters in the film such as General George Armstrong Custer, Buffalo Bill Cody and Ulysses S. Grant. They tied them nicely into the story.

The acting in the film was ok. Christopher Lloyd stole the show as Cavendish. Michael Horse as Tonto was able to talk normally without broken English like that character was portrayed in radio and TV before. This worked well for the character.
I would have loved to have seen a sequel to this movie to see how the chemistry between The Lone Ranger and Tonto would have developed.

I remember in junior high one August when we were down to the last two days of the school year and the teacher was going to let us watch movies to pass the time, I brought "The Legend of the Lone Ranger" to her on VHS and she let us watch it in class.

With all the bad reviews and the Razzie awards I still love this film version of the Lone Ranger. If the people that ripped on this film could have seen the 2013 disney Lone Ranger film I think this one would would have been received much better. All in all I thought this was a pretty good film. It's got it's cheesy moments (but is that a bad thing? It's not if you're watching your movies by the slice.)

I rewatch it at least once a year and it always brings back awesome memories. Check it out.  It's available on DVD & Blu-ray and you can actually watch the entire film on Youtube for free.


Until next time... Hi Yo Silver... and away!


- Patrick Shawn Bennett
Movies by the Slice (with extra cheese)