Here is where we will truly find out who is old and who is young in The Awl community: How many of you remember Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins? (Do me a favor and please all comment that you don't, because you're in the coveted 18-29 demographic. Also mention how much you like to purchase things. Appreciate it.) Anyway, for those of you who don't, watching the preview above will be something of an eye-opener: Yes, this really was what the eighties were like. I have nothing else to add, except to say that Fred Ward is a dramatically underrated actor (Netflix Miami Blues the next time you've got nothing in your queue; it's a shame they didn't make more of those.) Oh, right, the peg: "'The Dark Knight' producer Charles Roven and 'Transporter' producer Steve Chasman are teaming up to produce 'The Destroyer,' a franchise vehicle that brings back '80s action hero Remo Williams. The pair have set up the project at Columbia." No word on casting yet, but rumors have Viggo Mortensen filling the Williams role.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
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I thought that "T. J. Hooker" was what the '80s were like. (I was told this by an elderly friend. I'm too young to remember and too busy buying stuff to look it up myself.)
The ant hill trick has never been duplicated.
Sadly, I've always been disappointed the adventure didn't continue.
Just out of curiosity, did the Joel Grey mention in the previous post lead you to Remo Williams?
IT DID! But on the teevee.
I was too busy watching Simon & Simon and Riptide to bother with Remo Williams. That said, I discovered Fred Ward's talents later in Tremors.
Simon & Simon were fine. But they were no Ten-Speen & Brownshoe.
That's not Remo territory though is it? That's like, late 70s... Hart to Hart territory.
Hunter, for the win.
no, Stingray for the win!
I'm too old to remember it. I'm also too old to remember to buy anything.
Oooooh, but Three's Company! That Joyce DeWitt was a dish!
Welcome Back, Clarence, those were Good Times back in Room 222, when we took things One Day At A Time.
You always knew What's Happening.
I'm all about Love, American Style. Oh, and buying things too! Even though I'm old.
Not only do I remember Remo Williams, I remember that his name came from the back of a bedpan. A truly bizarre performance by Joel Gray.
"You did not ask to be white. So perhaps that is not your fault. You did not ask to be here. Perhaps that is not your fault, either." Chiun rules. I like to purchase things.
Also Choire buys stuff! Lots of it! And takes pictures to show it off. Of course that will stop next year when he turns 30, apparently.
I still watch Remo Williams when ever it is on. Which is sadly too rare. The scene in the climax where the best they could do to visualize his ching-chong kayratay skills by speeding up the film? Priceless. Fun fact! Called 'The Adventure Begins' because they were trying to manufacture a franchise film. And didn't Casino Royale just steal the ending?
Sometimes I read about other people buying stuff for Julia Allison, and then I make my own breakfast and look for ways to cut back on my own foolish spending.
I'm old enough to be her uncle, and lucky enough not to be.
I never saw it but remember the title and buy lots of stuff because I get bored with the stuff I have. Will that make Cho happy?
Oh my god, when I was in 8th grade I took an elective class on Sci-Fi that I thought was going to be all cool and stuff, which consisted of reading Michael Chricton's Sphere, watching this movie, and watching Dirty Dancing.
Fred Ward is totally the shit though. There's a movie he's in that's like a bizarre combination of '40s noir and HP Lovecraft that utterly delightful. Did he and David Warner ever star together in everything? That seems like a potentially felicitous pairing.
Ha ha, a little research shows that Ward and David Warner co-starred in said HP Lovecraft noir movie, obviously. (Called "Cast a Deadly Spell," FYI.)
Ugh. I remember this dreck, but I have to run, I'm picking up a fresh 6-pack of Nissan Cubes and other consumer goods!
Why just this morning I purchased a case of prunes and a subscription to Geezer Jock.
Hallo, schmutzigen Jungen!
Does anyone know where I can get some Butterfingers?! I am 14!
I am still waiting for my Paul Blart Mall Cop and Last Year at Marienbad dvds with 15 more minutes of fart jokes to arrive.
I remember and I thought you could run on top of fresh cement if you had that kind of training. I was 7. This movie was basically The Karate Kid for adults. Instead of getting back at bullies, you get back at the government.
When you approach middle age, there is a tendency toward bruising, my son.
What if we are old people who like to purchase young people?
I rented it last year because I remembered that it was good. It wasn't, really.
I'm afraid to watch the above video. Is it something about diabeetus?
Off to buy young adult things that are sold on the latest interactive youth-friendly internet cyber-websites!
OMG!
Is is about diabeetus!
And the Wonder Wheel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb_v5HzP9F0&feature=related
I think I may have seen bits of this show while waiting for "Hooperman" to come back from commercial.
I was older than your demographic when the movie premiered. Now I'm really depressed.
More posts on Jake and the Fatman, please.
I remember this but I was more of a Dr. Who kind of kid. That and "The Young Ones" marathon on MTV. Plus, Hunter and The Equalizer (even back then, I thought it odd that an aging, fat English dude with a corset was some kind of invincible tough guy).
My father used to say people told him he looked like Edward Woodward.
This is about the only horrible movie I didn't watch in theaters from 1983-1988. When we were kids we would go to the movies three or four times a week and would see anything, and I mean anything, from Out of Africa to Police Academy 3. ::shudder:: Now it's just a pain in the ass.
PEE ESS I like to purchase all kinds of things, like pot and acid and pills that don't relate to female reproduction.
By the time my brother and i wore out our VHS copy of Remo, the quote, "It is apparent to me that you know less than nothing!", had become so ubiquitous in our household that my step-grandma called out my aunt with it at Sunday dinner.
-> the voice has evolved away from Chiun's and into an old Jewish lady's... in my childhood anyway...
My sister and I spent at least a year dodging bullets Chiun style. Came in handy when the old man threw his empties at us. Good times.
I used to block ashtrays from the wife with a remote.
The remote had special tape...
Those were some fun replies. I remember that I liked this movie when I saw it as a kid - And I still cracked up in the trailer when he kicked him in the crotch. "I did not tell you to keep them up." :)
Does remembering Wilford Brimley make me a Semi-Old? Cuz, yeah.
The thinking mans Karate Kid.
I watched this like 5-6 times but don't remember much.
I'm Olds.
I still buy newspapers.
Fred Ward is the rich man's Fred Dryer.
When are you going to cover "Howard the Duck?"
I'm an old, don't remember this and love to buy shit.
Not only do I remember and love this movie I AM STILL WAITING FOR THE SEQUEL THEY PROMISED DURING THE CREDITS!
I did see it -- it was a slow warm-up for "Big Trouble In Little China", which was "Reno" times a million. And I'm happy to masquerade as whatever age you tell me in a survey.
Not only did I see this movie in ye olde theatre -- but by the time I did, I had already stopped reading the dozens (hundreds?) of Destroyer books on which it was based. Sort of a bloodthirsty nincompoop's Nancy Drew, the books were a group-written hodgepodge of 70s serial crap. Wonderful stuff for a nine year old who couldn't get into "Mack Bolan: Executioner". Chiun had an evil twin named Nuihc; it was eventually revealed that Chiun's real name *was* Nuihc, and the nova-Nuihc was an evil student of his that took his name, and so, to distinguish between himself and his evil student, old-Nuihc reversed his name to Chiun. I also remember Remo losing interest in sex because he had mastered the instant-orgasm-touching thing in so many ways that making a woman come was too easy and boring for him (as was killing people), so he really had no outlet for his many frustrations. I think there was also a killer android that Remo eventually befriended. And there was a billionaire villain who offered people outrageous sums of money to do the things they claimed they'd never do; he offered a fortune to a thug if said thug would beat his (the thug's) grandmother to death with a twig. Thus ends my Remo Williams memory dump.
No, but the trailer reminds me of this,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm8txY989Iw&feature=related
which I rented on VHS in the 90's.
Since my mind is going, I'm an old too, can someone help me? I remember a movie with Jeff Goldblum from around this time period where at the end, he gets a bag of money in a cheesy airport motel. IMDb offered no help.
What if I'm old enough to have watched this movie on Betamax but young enough to still buy things and think Viggo would totally kick Fred Ward's ass? Does that work?
Yes I remember Remo Unarmed and Dangerous, but it never took off as a franchise.