In the mid-1980s, Orion Pictures went scouring through existing IP looking for something to launch a new franchise upon. They landed on The Destroyer series of novels featuring Remo Williams, a heroic spy-like figure working for a top-secret government agency. They figured they could turn that into a working class American version of James Bond. They gave character actor Fred Ward his first shot at being a leading man. They were so confident this film would launch a franchise they subtitled it: The Adventure Begins….
It was a massive bomb.
That’s a real shame because the film is actually quite fun, and I would have enjoyed watching many sequels (with some big caveats, which we will get to in a minute).
Buy Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins…Sam Makin is a tough New York City police officer (Ward with some dark makeup on, possibly some prosthetics, and a big 1970s mustache). He gets into an altercation with some street toughs and gets himself killed. Except those street toughs were actually hired by CURE, a super-secret government agency, and Makin isn’t really dead. CURE faked his death, gave him a new face, and shaved that mustache.
CURE Agent Mac (J.A. Preston) rechristens Makin as Remo Williams, a name he gets from some writing on the bottom of a bedpan. CURE director Harold W. Smith (Wilford Brimley) informs Remo that their job is to observe the higher echelon (which Smith does with a supercomputer that knows everything), look for corruption and basic evilness, and take it out.
Remo is trained by Chiun, a Korean martial arts expert who can dodge bullets, walk on water, and spout smart-ass aphorisms. His training is in the Mr. Miyagi style of having Remo do weird chores, which ultimately make him awesome.
Unfortunately, Chium is played by the very great and very white Joel Grey. Yeah, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins… is a bit racist. You could chalk it up to this being the 1980s, and they needed a big name to play the character. But while Grey was a Broadway star, he wasn’t exactly a household name, and the 1980s was the height of Hong Kong cinema. Guys like Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, and Tony Leung were making films that were breaking box-office records in their homeland and getting noticed in the U.S.
That sucks, but it was the 1980s, and that decade is full of problematic films. I’ll let other more qualified people dig into that and just stick a pin in that problem so we can carry on with the film.
It spends an awfully long time with Chiun training Remo. That makes it both a very 1980s film (the decade of long, training montages) and a sure sign that they really did want there to be sequels. Remo climbs a series of successively more difficult steps only for Chiun to turn off the lights and tell him to come back down. He’s forced to climb around the outside of the famous Coney Island Wonder Wheel, while Chiun sits inside barking orders. Then he’s taken to the top of the Statue of Liberty (which is surrounded by scaffolding due to its centennial restoration) in order to overcome his fear of heights. It is there he is finally attacked by some bad guys.
Our big bad is George Grove (Charles Cioffi), a weapons manufacturer who has been skimping on safety measures. Our perfunctory love interest is Major Rayner Fleming (Kate Mulgrew), who is onto Grove, but can’t quite prove he’s done anything wrong.
It was directed by Guy Hamilton, who is best known for directing several James Bond films. You can feel that influence all the way through. From Harold Smith’s supercomputer to the numerous bombastic action scenes (and how they are shot rather clunky), you can definitely tell the aim here was to be an American Bond.
Ward is charming, and Mulgrew is wonderfully tough. If you can get past the inherent racism of Grey playing Chiun (and that is a big ask), he’s actually quite good and a lot of fun.
This isn’t a great film by any means, but it is an enjoyable one. I do wish it had been successful and they had made many more sequels.
Kino Lorber, along with MGM, has given Remo Williams a nice-looking, new UHD transfer and loaded two discs full of extras. Those include:
DISC ONE – 4K UHD
- New 4K restoration of the film from the original camera
- Dolby Vision/HDR presentation of the film
- Audio Commentary by Film Journalist Brandon Streussnig
- Audio Commentary by Producer Larry Spiegel and Co-Producer Judy Goldstein
- 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0 Audio
- Optional English Subtitles
DISC TWO – BLU-RAY
- New 4K restoration of the film from the original camera
- Lessons in Popcorn Villainy: Interview with Actor Patrick Kilpatrick
- Audio Commentary by Film Journalist Brandon Streussnig
- Audio Commentary by Producer Larry Spiegel and Co-Producer Judy Goldstein
- Created, the Destroyer – Writing Remo Williams: Featurette
- Unarmed and Dangerous – Producing Remo Williams: Featurette
- Secrets of Sinanju – Training Remo Williams: Featurette
- Balance of Power – Designing Remo Williams: Featurette
- Assassin’s Tune – Composing Remo Williams: Featurette
- Radio Spot
- Theatrical Trailer
- 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0 Audio
- Optional English Subtitles
- Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase
