Remo Williams - The Adventure Begins [DVD]

They just do not make them like this anymore. Great martial arts movie and it is a book too. Just a fun action movie worth watching on a rain or snow day. They follow up 2nd movie is also good but can be hard to find.

Love this classic hero flick.

I saw this movie when it first came out in 1985 and it led me to read (in sequence), and collect, all 150 books of the whole Destroyer Series. I bought this for my kid Sister in California who had never seen the movie. I especially enjoy the opening Musical Soundtrack representing the Korean culture. The melody by Craig Safan , which you hear throughout the film, is haunting and unforgettable to say the least. Actor Fred Ward was cast excellently as REMO WILLIAMS. Wilford Brimley was also a great casting as Dr. Harold Smith - the head of CURE. I regret there was never a sequel made. There are a lot of stories to have chose from over a span of 150 books ! Hollywood's divergence from the true story line was a shame to watch. REMO's associate ' Conrad McMasters ' was really a WHITE American VietNam Veteran who knew REMO. However, in the film he is cast as a Negro where representation, as is thrown down our throats nowadays, wasn't called for. Also, with all of the " oriental actors " in Hollywood, I never understood why they cast a heavily made-up ' Jewish ' actor Joel Gray to be a Korean Master Martial Artist ? Albeit, the movie is action packed and I think you will enjoy it and add it to your DVD library. Recommend it highly !

This was a very good movie! It was to start a series about The Destroyer, a James Bond like agent,who didn't use a weapon. Just his martial arts training. Shinanju, was the art taught by choon, the master. A master who could dodge bullets and walk on water! Very amusing! This is action packed from start to finish and a great one for watching on the weekend. The makeup on Choon, is so good ,that Joel Grey, who played him,went to a Korean restaurant, and sat there and he said the Korean really thought he was a real McCoy! Too bad this was the only one made, I would have liked to have seen part 2!

I saw this in the theater when it came out and anxiously awaited the sequels. This is one movie where the sequel would have probably been a much better movie if for no other reason than actors and director would get into The Destroyer legend.I loved the books at least up until Richard Sapir passed away. The books were fun, funny and contained much social satire. They were gems of wit and wisdom.Basically it is about a cop recruited to be a supersecret agent for the government for an agency called CURE. The theory being that the President needed a tool to combat evil that could be fought only by violating the Constitution. Of course Presidents now boast about violating the constitution but these stories are from a more innocent age.In the movie Fred Ward is perfectly cast as Remo Williams named in a very amusing way - "We put a lot of thought into it."Joel Gray does a marvelous job of Chiun the Master of Sinanju the latest in a line of assasins dating back a millenia or two. Sinanju being the "sun source of all martial arts".Wilford Brimly is probably the biggest departure from the books cast as Harold Smith. In the series Smith was a much more interesting character and the interplay between him and Remo is always entertaining.Overall the plot was weak. Iw ould have rather had them adapt one of the many stories from the book series. I just never felt that Grove was that evil a guy worthy of accelerating Remo's mission. Patrick Kilpatrick was a great villan - muscle man "Stone". I particularly enjoyed the scene where Remo uses Stone's special feature to escape from a gas chamber.The film was well structured I thought with equal amounts of Remo's training and mission, Joel Gray doing a wonderful Chiun, soap operas and all.I thought it was a good first effort. Had they kept it up I am sure they would have gotten the hang of it and the movies gotten better and better.I downrated the DVD mainly because of the format. so-called "fullscreen" is really only a half a screen. I did not buy the DVD just for that reason. I have an old copy on Betamax that I still watch twice a year or so.There are no significant bonus features on the disk as was pointed out by a previous reviewer. This is just about inexcusable these days.If my Beta tape ever weasr out I may be forced to buy a disk, but until then maybe MGM will get their heads out of you know where and re-release this movie properly.

Dated but still fun.

Good movie. Would recommend and watch again.

Unfortunately for me I sent this to my cousin in Montana and can't get him to return it.

Ein Hammer-Filmschade dass man seinerzeit keine weiteren Teile herausgebracht hat

Fred ward, au firmament, à voir absolument.

Great

Tra i miei film preferiti . Ottima la colonna sonora portante . Film leggero e per chi crede ancora (come me) nella potenza cinematografica degli eroi (super e non) .

I have always been a fan of this movie since I first saw it back on TV around 1989/1990 & although the leading man is no hunk like Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson (in their 80's heyday of which this movie was released circa 1985), Fred Ward more than holds his own. Both he & Joel Grey who plays Chiun, the recluse korean & master of Sinaju are what hold this film together. The chemistry between them is very good & you can buy into, I really found it amusing when he is training Remo (Ward) & the interplay between these two characters-they bounce of each other really well. If it was anybody else it might not work so well, as this film when you look at it in comparison to todays blockbuster is pretty tame & very formulaic. The story is actually wafer thin (I am not sure if director's cut or extended edition would every be released) as this is largely forgotten film that flopped at the box office because the studio didn't know how to market it properly. But if you pay attention to the bullet dodging sequences that are employed by the hero, you realise it was actually a precursor to The Matrix the Wachoskis just developed & made it better. There was potential for this film, as it was based on a long running american novel series (which is still running today, which I not too familiar with but am interested in reading, but sadly the opportunity was squandered. This was supposed to be a franchise like the Bond series (it was even directed by former Bond alumni Guy Hamilton who did the classic Goldfinger)but this was an origins tale & really needed a sequel to flesh the story & characters out more but alas this didn't happen. But the film has some really good moments of humour & action my favourite is the fight between Remo & the bad guys atop the statue of liberty,it is just priceless & showcases the film at it's best. I brought this fullscreen version on region 1 a couple years ago but have always wanted a widescreen version (of which I recently purchased from amazon at a resonable low price). But the menu is crappily presented on the Widescreen version with symbols replacing the letter version (they should have just copied the region 1 menu as everything is the same aside from the Widescreen ratio). This film is ripe for a remake & I think given the technology availiable today & in the hands of competent you would have the makings of a great action film.