Episode 200 - Action Jackson: LIVE!

[Mistweave 15]

9 hours ago, pscudese said:

I love these two hidden gems...

1. During one of the man / woman scenes on the street, you can see posters for Predator along the wall:

 

2) After being pick-pocketed, we see Action Jackson's wallet stating he was born in 1938. Wow! The filmakers made a conscious effort to say Jericho is 50 yo? Where was the "I'm getting too old for this shit" comment?

 

3) On a side note, here is a handy chart to show all the crossover actors who appeared in this movie, but also Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Commando and Predator. As I call this film... It's the Kevin Bacon of 80s Action Films.

I didn’t even notice the predator movie posters cause I was focused on the random 4 white guy a capella group practicing/performing? underneath the posters. Was that a thing in the 80s? Just dudes singing on the sidewalk...or maybe it was a Detroit thing?

And action Jackson is really ripped for a 50 year old!

congrats on the 200th episode! I’m glad this show exists in my timeline! 

[SlidePocket 707]

8 hours ago, iamSGA said:

Lastly, on a side note, is Vanity now the Queen of HDTGM? She's been in three of the movies (Action, Last Dragon, Stargrove John Stamos movie)

Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Lopez disagree because they have four movies each covered.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

Sandy and J-Lo ain't got nothing on Vanity RIP 4eva <3<3

[RyanSz 3140]

Speaking of creepy dummies, I remember as a kid going past a house that had big front windows that went from floor to ceiling and the owner, whom I assume had bought these things from the Chuck E. Cheese that closed down, had the entire animatronic band positioned facing out towards the street. While they were creepy to see in the daytime, they were fucking terrifying at night because he didn't have blinds on the windows and the light was always off in that room so they were standing in darkness, with really only their faces visible to people passing by. I can only the terror a person would feel the first time they walk into the room and seeing the backs of these things not realizing they were robots from a pizza place.

[joshg 207]

Did anyone else recognize Dellaplane's mansion as "Stately Wayne Manor" from the '66 Batman TV show??

Digging a little online, it is quite the celebrity home (the home itself, not because celebrities live there). In addition to Action Jackson and Batman, it has been featured in Dead Again, Rush Hour, Bowfinger, Scary Movie 2, The X Files, and Stand By Me.

http://www.iamnotastalker.com/2010/04/06/wayne-manor-from-the-batman-television-series/

 

Apparently Paul McCartney bought the property in 2005. Here's the Zillow report. Anyone looking to drop $9 mil on a 10-bedroom?

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/380-S-San-Rafael-Ave-Pasadena-CA-91105/20858675_zpid/

[joshg 207]

It's really true that June doesn't remember the movies she's watched.  This was the 3rd Vanity movie (after Last Dragon and Never Too Young To Die) they've covered with her, not the 2nd.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

8 hours ago, The_Triple_Lindy said:

Anyone who thinks "hold on to your dick" isn't handy, pertinent advice clearly doesn't remember King Missile:

 

Didn't a woman chop her husband's penis off in the 80's or 90's and throw it in a field?

[Blast Hardcheese 636]

Happy 200th episodes, Paul, Jason and June! This episode is hilarious and so much fun. It ranks right up there with my personal favorite, 88 Minutes.

I'm lucky enough to be married to a woman who loves 80 action movies (Lethal Weapon, Beverly Hills Cop, Die Hard--essentially the films Action Jackson is in the center of the Venn diagram of). She had never seen, let alone heard of, Action Jackson, so this was her first time watching this endlessly entertaining film. Needless to say, she absolutely loved it. "This movie is fuckin' perfect!" she exclaimed 20 minutes in. It was so much fun watching this movie with her (I haven't seen it in over 20 years since first watching it on VHS) and we had a blast. Thank you for making this movie HDTGM's 200th.

Okay, so never having tried heroin, I have to admit that I am not exactly an expert on this illicit drug. My general knowledge of its addiction is derived primarily from seeing it portrayed in films like Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction and Requiem for a Dream. In Action Jackson, it's established that Dellaplane has hooked Vanity on heroin (or, is he fostering her already established addiction--this guy's a creep, so either way... ). Okay, but does the old-timey syringe she uses look a bit too hefty for shooting-up with? It looks like the kind of syringe an veterinarian would use on large animals. Then there's the effect the drug has on Vanity: instead of coming across as lethargic and, well, stupor-y, she's acts like a fidgety, drunken sex-pot who, once she gets back to apartment, has "the munchies." Now, I don't want to say that the filmmakers had a sub-remedial understanding of heroin addiction, but their portrayal of it is like a grab bag of lurid addiction symptoms à la Refer Madness.

Dellaplane owns a car company located in Detroit, MI, a highly competitive market which is dominated by "the big three": Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge. Dellaplane's company doesn't seem to produce any other models of cars other than the two-door sports car that looks suspicious like a Pontiac Fiero with 80's Ferrari vents glued on to the side of it, so how successful can this guy really be? Additionally, Dellaplane, a "successful" automobile magnate, is driven around town not in a luxury car manufactured by his own company, but rather in a Mercedes Benz limo instead. Also, the establishing shot of his narrow, multi-story factory (which must be super convenient for mass producing cars on an assembly line) shows a large, old brick building with several windows busted out. The guy can afford a private army of assassins (with an endless supply of butterfly knives), fund a convoluted murder scheme and lives in a very nice old school mansion, but he can't repair the windows in his company's headquarters?

It was mentioned during the podcast how the producers came up with the name Action Jackson, and an Australian crew member exclaimed, "I'm in like... " yadda, yadda, yadda. Action Jackson is actually the name of a line of action figures produced by the Mego Corporation during the 1970's. The commercials had a pretty catchy theme song: "Action Jackson is my name/Bold adventure is my game!" which , incidentally, was also sung by by Joel and the Bots on an episode of MST3K. Anyhoo... here is one of the Action Jackson television commercials:

 

Lastly, the actor who played the butler in Action Jackson is Nicholas Worth. He was also in another great action movie: Sam Raimi's Dark Man. He sadly passed away in 2007.

[DrGuts1003 462]

Happy 200 episodes Paul, June, and Jason!  This was another terrific episode.

There was a lot of talk about potential prequels and sequels for this movie.  Fun fact...some people mistakenly believe a sequel does exist.  In 1990 Carl Weathers did a TV movie called Dangerous Passion, which also starred Billy Dee Williams.  Apparently in some European countries like Germany and the Netherlands the movie was called Action Jackson 2 in order to capitalize on the success of the first film, even though there is no relation between the two films other than Carl Weathers being the lead in both (and both movies having some one man, one woman scenes)

 

I also had questions about two other scenes.  First, does Coach shoot Sharon Stone in the stomach or back?  The way it’s shot was not clear to me, but neither seem believable.  If he shot her in the stomach, she would have felt the gun pressed against her as they kissed and would have reacted.  Plus the gun would have recoiled into his stomach.  But shooting her in the back doesn’t make sense either because we see later that she has a bullet hole in her stomach which means the bullet would have shot clean through and hit him.

 

Then I was confused by the bomb at Vanity’s apartment.  Action and her go to her place after realizing the cops are swarming his place.  So who was the bomb for?  To my knowledge Vanity hasn’t done anything to that point that would cause Coach to want to kill her.  And it doesn’t make sense for them to try and kill Action then if they were already trying to frame him for murder.

[grudlian. 4725]

6 hours ago, gigitastic said:

Didn't a woman chop her husband's penis off in the 80's or 90's and throw it in a field?

Yes, Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband's, John, penis while he slept because he was abusive.

[Mistweave 15]

1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

Yes, Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband's, John, penis while he slept because he was abusive.

And he went on to become a porn star after it was reattached!

 

[RyanSz 3140]

13 minutes ago, Mistweave said:

And he went on to become a porn star after it was reattached!

 

The movie was aptly named Frankenpenis. John also did a cameo on WWF Monday Night Raw helping Val Venis, a wrestler who had a porn star character, to the ring after an angry husband of one of the women Val slept with had tried to castrate him with a katana.

[ChunkStyle 1160]

7 hours ago, Blast Hardcheese said:

 

Okay, so never having tried heroin, I have to admit that I am not exactly an expert on this illicit drug. My general knowledge of its addiction is derived primarily from seeing it portrayed in films like Trainspotting, Pulp Fiction and Requiem for a Dream. In Action Jackson, it's established that Dellaplane has hooked Vanity on heroin (or, is fostering her already established addiction--but they guy's a creep, so I think it's the latter). Okay, but does the old-timey syringe she uses look a bit too hefty for shooting-up with? It looks like the kind of syringe an veterinarian would use on large animals. Then there's the effect the drug has on Vanity: instead of coming across as lethargic and, well, stupor-y, she's acts like a drunken sex-pot who, once she gets back to apartment, has "the munchies." Now, I don't want to say that the filmmakers had a sub-remedial understanding of heroin addiction, but their portrayal of it is like a grab bag of lurid addiction symptoms à la Refer Madness.

 

Maybe her reactions to the heroin and the fact that she was able to kick the habit in 6 hours had to do with them not seeming to bother finding a vein the times we see her get injected.  She is like the sketch of someone acting drunk while only having non-alcoholic beer.

[joshg 207]

7 hours ago, Blast Hardcheese said:

 

It was mentioned during the podcast how the producers came up with the name Action Jackson, and an Australian crew member exclaimed, "I'm in like... " yadda, yadda, yadda. Action Jackson is actually the name of a line of action figures produced by the Mego Corporation during the 1970's. The commercials had a pretty catchy theme song: "Action Jackson is my name/Bold adventure is my game!" which , incidentally, was also sung by by Joel and the Bots on an episode of MST3K. Anyhoo... here is one of the Action Jackson television commercials:

 

I would love it if this movie was the result of a long-gestating attempt to make a live-action movie version of the Mego action figures.  Sorta like how it took over two decades to adapt G.I. Joe into a theatrical release. But with years of script edits and studio interference, the team of scuba diver, Aussie marine (is that what he said?), karate expert, etc. was whittled down to "demoted Detroit cop with superhuman physical abilities" and the only thing that remained was the title.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

14 hours ago, joshg said:

It's really true that June doesn't remember the movies she's watched.  This was the 3rd Vanity movie (after Last Dragon and Never Too Young To Die) they've covered with her, not the 2nd.

To clarify, I think June was saying this was the 2nd Vanity movie in a short amount of time, being so close to Never Too Young to Die. 

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

Loved this movie! Love Vanity! Everything she touches is gold. I grew up watching The Last Dragon on a seemingly endless loop and have been in love with her ever since. 

We can add Roger Ebert to our Vanity fan club. 

Quote

The movie has another problem: Weathers. He was well-cast as Apollo Creed, who had essentially one note to play, and played it. But in this more ambitious role he doesn’t have the necessary charisma; he looks great, but lacks presence, especially against scene-stealers such as Nelson, Roger Aaron Brown and (especially) Vanity. And that leads me to the movie’s one redeeming merit, which is Vanity’s performance.

Again this time, as in “52 Pick-Up,” she shows a natural screen presence, a grace and easiness under pressure. I had the feeling, watching Vanity in this unhappy movie, that she could play anyone in any movie and make it work. She has a couple of nice song numbers, too, although they’re spoiled by overemphasis on the electronic rhythms.

“Action Jackson” looks like it was intended as the first in a possible series of movies starring the same character. If they’re going to make another one, I suggest they decide if it’s supposed to be a violent movie, or a comedy. It might also pick things up if they put Vanity in the lead.

I don't agree with Ebert's review, overall (obviously), but he's spot on regarding Vanity.

ETA: For your re-watching pleasure, Action Jackson is currently free (with ads) on Vudu. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

10 hours ago, grudlian. said:

Yes, Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband's, John, penis while he slept because he was abusive.

That's right! She was found not guilty do to temporary insanity I think... which justified based on the supposed years of abuse. I know that he tried to be a porn star after but I have no idea what happened to her. I hope she's doing ok. 

[Cam Bert 8145]

On 10/27/2018 at 6:05 AM, Elektra Boogaloo said:

Can we talk about how Craig T. Nelson should play a bad guy more often because he has a creepy vibe? I didn't watch COACH but when he was on Grace and Frankie I was really grossed out by his hair. I was like Jane Fonda is out of his league!

Looks like somebody is forgetting about him being an adulterous murder in Devil's Advocate

[Cam Bert 8145]

I have an observation that may fill in a mentioned plot hole.

So when Action Jackson goes looking for Papa Doc he goes into this bar or pool hall type place. We see many customers playing pool and drinking at the bar as well as another bartender on staff. Yet after being sucker bottled and knocked out we see the bartender and his crew awaken Jackson in the bar pool hall now entirely empty. But wait I can hear you now "Cam Bert, we saw Vanity  come through a set of doors, clearly this was some sort of backroom." Fair point if not for the fact the entire scene takes places with the stairs they entered and exited from present in the background the entire scene! Now this is where the plot hole gets filled in.

Action Jackson is knocked out. Then the bartender goes back into the main room and slowly starts closing up shop telling the customers they have to go for some reason or another. The other staff knows the drill and leaves during this process as well. However just prior to this Vanity free of Action Jackson and still craving heroin meets Billy from Predator in the bar. When she asks him where she can score. He takes her into a back room to conduct a little transaction. Billy mentions that if she needs another fix he's got a place at the hotel where she happens to be staying as well. However before she can complete the deal and shoot up she hears the commotion of everybody leaving and hides in the backroom. Billy knows better than to mess with these testicle fetishists so he leaves and goes back to the hotel. Shortly after  the rest of the hot dog time crew shows up and starts in on Action. Vanity can't stand by any more and bursts from the backroom to save Jackson. The rest of the movie plays out as normal. This is why later when Jackson goes to the hairdresser to get some exposition she knows that Billy is also in the hotel and seeks him out to the fix she was denied earlier. Plot hole resolved.

[grudlian. 4725]

I have a genuine question:  was this movie meant to be a comedy/parody of action movies? I don't think it's as meta as Last Action Hero, but I think there are parts where the movie that know how jokey this is. 

• The origin of the movie is just guys sitting around talking about an action movie and I've definitely had these kind of conversations that devolve into my friends laughing at how ridiculous our ideas get.
• Carl Weathers definitely has some reactions and line readings that come across as aware of itself. Almost winking at the camera kind of performance in spots. I think Carl Weathers is a good enough actor to at least play it more serious if that's what the role demands.
• There are puns so bad I'm not sure they could be unintentional. Burning a person then saying chill out makes so little sense it almost has to be a joke right?
• This movie is right at the cusp of action stars playing with their personas and the genre itself. Big Trouble In Little China was pretty recent. Robocop had just come out and, while it's not a comedy, there are a lot of intentionally humorous parts. Sledge Hammer! was in the middle of its run. Twins comes out later this year (not an action movie but an action star doing comedy).

I don't think this movie is as smart as True Lies or Austin Powers or other action comedies/genre parodies. I just think it's a little bit aware of how goofy it is instead of just inept filmmaking. Definitely some of this movie is just lazy writing that doesn't make sense but some of it feels to me that there is a little bit of "wouldn't it be funny if..." going on here.

[gigi-tastic 2322]

On 10/26/2018 at 9:39 PM, RyanSz said:

Speaking of creepy dummies, I remember as a kid going past a house that had big front windows that went from floor to ceiling and the owner, whom I assume had bought these things from the Chuck E. Cheese that closed down, had the entire animatronic band positioned facing out towards the street. While they were creepy to see in the daytime, they were fucking terrifying at night because he didn't have blinds on the windows and the light was always off in that room so they were standing in darkness, with really only their faces visible to people passing by. I can only the terror a person would feel the first time they walk into the room and seeing the backs of these things not realizing they were robots from a pizza place.

A family friend moved into a cottage on a lake near this giant Mcmansion that had two dummies posed on it's terrace when I visited her. Apparently they moved them around sometimes and she was once terrified by them because she  they had dressed one was a maid and she was watching her through the window.  They were, like all dummies and mannequins, terrifying and I HATED them. 

[gigi-tastic 2322]

So WAS Coach's plan really that great? Wouldn't it have been smarter to buy off more than one guy instead of killing a bunch of people? Or are all these union heads just saints? I'm sure there's got to be something they want.  It seems like it would have been easier to flood the playing field with your guys and kill people (for plot purposes). Then have one of them have a come to Jesus moment and turn on him giving Jackson much needed evidence or helping him in a standoff etc.

[alcontrasticon 4]

Paul mentioned how nice Jericho's apt was for a police Sergeants salary but no one mentioned that his apartment building had a valet, Jericho clearly tipped the valet $5 and the dialogue hinted that Jericho always tips the valet well.   If Jericho ONLY leaves to go to work 5 days a week and tips $5 each time he returns that comes to $1300/year. Currently a Detroit Police Sergeant salary is between $58K and $81K which adjusted for inflation would have been $28K to $38K in 1988. Jericho was likely giving his valet 4.7% to 3.4% of his PRE-TAX salary and the valet drove his car like a dick! Plus being divorced he is probably also paying alimony as well. 

 

edit: Jericho is living outside his means!

[ManScene ManVoice 13]

Long time listener, first time posting. Was any one else concerned about Seth’s laughter? I thought he was going to die! 

[alcontrasticon 4]

1 hour ago, ManScene ManVoice said:

Long time listenSter, first time posting. Was any one else concerned about Seth’s laughter? I thought he was going to die! 

Seth's quick comedic genius is right up there with Zouk's but yeah, he was hard to listen to at times! I started feeling like I was slightly asthmatic just listening to this p-cast.

Quote

Then I was confused by the bomb at Vanity’s apartment.  Action and her go to her place after realizing the cops are swarming his place.  So who was the bomb for?  To my knowledge Vanity hasn’t done anything to that point that would cause Coach to want to kill her.  And it doesn’t make sense for them to try and kill Action then if they were already trying to frame him for murder.

Plus the bomb appears to have been triggered by her answering machine so someone must have called her # after they witnessed them entering her building or saw the change in lighting when Vanity opened the fridge but this elite team of hitmen didn't have anyone covering the exits in case they happened to survive the explosion without a scratch or even temporary hearing loss?

On top of that, after the explosion when Vanity and Jericho exit her apt he kicks down the door rather than just opening it. Why? They weren't locked in. He nailed it first try because it's a movie but kicking in a door is not always very easy and just opening the door would have made way more sense in that scene.

This may be a bit of a stretch but as they are escaping her apartment after the explosion Jericho says, "That's why we don't turn on lights or answer the phone" which reminded me of the "That's why you always leave a note" recurring joke on Arrested Development where, as Gigitastic mentioned earlier, Karl Weathers had a recurring roll as himself.