Remo Williams

In Hollywood, as in life, timing is everything. Perhaps if the whimsically entertaining Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, based on the more serious-minded series of Destroyer novels by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir, had been made today it would bear a much closer resemblance to the source material, with its "blue-collar Bond" mimicking the ruthless attitudes of modern action stars like Bourne, John Wick and 007 himself. But in 1985, Bond was still played mostly for laughs and a movie about a hired assassin, despite working for the good guys, had to play by the same rules.

Recruited and re-named, against his wishes, by a secret organization that answers only to the President, former cop Remo Williams (Fred Ward) is trained in the ancient - and imaginary - art of Sinanju by his aged, but still exceedingly capable, tutor Chiun (Joel Grey) for the purpose of eliminating certain threats to national security. This time around, that threat is embodied by a greedy arms dealer who's passing off a defective bill of goods to the military, buying or silencing anyone who gets too close to the truth, like Major Fleming (Kate Mulgrew), an ambitious female officer whose stand against the establishment gets her caught up in Remo's covert mission.

The most obvious - and politically incorrect - flaw in Remo Williams is the whitewashing of the character of Chiun. Despite the fact that Grey, a Caucasian from Cleveland, brings an extraordinary amount of wit and physical grace to the role (not to mention the completely convincing Korean make-up job), the creative choice was questionable then...and is unquestionably wrong now. But for those who can look beyond that, the charming banter between Chiun and Remo make-up the heart of this origin story, as the master martial artist attempts to mold a silent and deadly killer out of a man who "moves like a pregnant Yak!"

Like all good martial arts film, Remo Williams makes much ado of the transformation, resulting in a mystically-powered superhero who can run on sand (and wet cement) without leaving footprints, swing from the Coney Island Wonder Wheel and scale the refurbished Statue of Liberty. As Remo, Fred Ward brings a rugged, work-a-day appeal that matches the film's tone perfectly. And director Guy Hamilton (one of two 007 veterans including writer Christopher Wood) makes sure to shoot the action wide, a skill lost on many modern lensers, to better appreciate the pre-CGI stunts.

But when the time comes to actually begin the adventure, we're stuck with some underwhelming army base espionage ruled by a paunchy villain in a pin-stripe suit who'd be more at home in an episode of The A-Team. Following the Bond formula, there is a diamond-toothed second-hand-man who makes a much better impression, but the film's third act is anticlimactic by any standard. Which is probably why Remo Williams is a film almost everybody likes, but very few actually love.

An opinion reiterated by the film historians who contribute to the audio commentary on Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray, which also includes a number of well-produced featurettes focused on the production, stunts, score, set design and original series of novels. This is one of the more extra-heavy titles in the Twilight Time catalog and makes for a true collector's edition to match the awesome hi-def transfer.