Avenging Force
(1986)
Director: Sam Firstenberg
Cast: Michael Dudikoff, Steve James, James Booth
There's no
doubt about it - the American public, as well as the public of pretty
much every other country in this world - loves stars. Though what I
have just said could apply to the kind of luminous sphere of plasma you
see in the night sky, I am of course really talking about the human
kind of stars. Indeed, it's fun and a kind of comfort to see the same
people in multiple movies. And realizing that these stars are probably
making a lot of money and having fun at the same time inevitably gets
Joe Public thinking it would be great to become a megastar. But as you
probably know, there are only so many people who become megastars in
their lifetime. Why is that? Well, there are a number of reasons why.
One of the obivous reasons is that most people who go into acting
aren't that very good at it, and the public has little tolerance
towards watching inept thespians. Other obvious reasons include hard
facts like that there is not only a limited number of big roles to go
around, there is only so much publicity the press can churn out that
can go towards making a lowly star into a megastar. But there are many
other reasons why some actors never become big stars. One of the most
interesting cases I've come across is with actor Dennis Christopher.
Christopher, as you may know, made a big impression with his appearance
in the 1979 movie Breaking
Away.
It sure seemed at the time he would go on to bigger things. But within
a few years, he was down to appearing in minor movies - if appearing in
movies at all. I was puzzled about this for long time until a few years
ago when I read an interview with him. During the interview, he stated
that during the next few years after Breaking Away,
he observed "the cult of celebrity", and found that it turned him off.
This led him to search instead for roles that were interesting and
memorable, even if they weren't in major Hollywood movies.
But I have learned over the years that actors who make a
conscious choice to not become megastars are fairly rare. Most actors
would like to make it big for their ego and their wallet. However,
circumstances are more often than not against them. Take the case of
the many actors who appeared in movies from The Cannon Group in the
1980s. As you may know, Cannon was a studio that helped to kill some
actors' careers in motion pictures. For example, Charles Bronson's
theatrical career, which was already starting to wane when he signed
with Cannon, soon got eroded to nothing, and he spent the last years of
his acting career in made for television movies. Chuck Norris is
another example. While his first Cannon movie (Missing In Action)
was a substantial hit, within a few years he was appearing in direct to
video productions. But I really want to talk about Cannon's attempts to
make their own megastars. Off the top of my head, I think the only time
it could be considered they succeeded was with Jean Claude Van Damme.
(Though on closer examination, Cannon just made two B movies with Van
Damme, and other studios subsequently took Van Damme and really made
him into a megastar.) The rest of the time they didn't get very far.
Take the case of Michael Dudikoff. Cannon got off to a good start when
they plucked Dudikoff out of obscurity to appear in the 1985 movie American Ninja.
Although Cannon did not end up giving the movie a truly wide release,
the movie grossed close to eight million dollars in North America,
which was a pretty good gross for a 1980s movie with a half hearted
release.
It seemed that Dudikoff was on his way to becoming a
megastar. But that did not happen. The main reason for this was that
Cannon started to have financial problems, and the lack of funds made
it harder to push Dudikoff to the press and the public. When American Ninja 2
was released two years
later, it only got released to about half the
number of theaters the first movie in the series got, and only grossed
about half the amount of money the first movie made. Subsequent films
Dudikoff made for Cannon (like Platoon Leader
and River Of Death)
got smaller and smaller releases and started to make less and less
money, and eventually Dudikoff found himself working in direct to video
product. Truth be told, the bad quality of most of Dudikoff's Cannon
movies probably is another big reason why he never became a megastar.
But there was one - Avenging Force
- that had it been handled by a major Hollywood studio could have
pushed Dudikoff into the big time. Before I start to explain why, a
plot synopsis. Dudikoff plays a fellow by the name of Matt Hunter, who
was once a former secret agent for the United States government. But
after his parents were killed, he resigned in order to take care of his
kid sister Sara (Allison Gereighty). Currently, he is supporting his
good friend Larry Richards (James, Riverbend),
who is a rising politician. Larry's involvement in politics has caught
the eye of an extreme right wing organization called "Pentangle".
Pentangle doesn't relish the idea the African-American Richards in a
high position of power, and they are determined to eliminate him. But
thanks in part to Matt's determination to protect his friend, a couple
of attempts by Pentangle to assassinate Richards are foiled. Pentangle
then decides to get even tougher. They end up kidnapping Sara after an
assault on Matt's ranch, leaving the wounded Matt a message that if he
wants to get Sara back, he'll have to play a game Pentangle plays on a
regular basis with various other people trying to stop their
organization. The game is basically what happened in the classic short
story The Most Dangerous Game,
only played in the Louisiana swamp country. And to date, Pentangle has
won the game every time.
Since I took the time to write about Michael Dudikoff in
the opening of this review, it's only natural that the first thing I
should discuss about Avenging Force
is how Michael Dudikoff comes across in the movie. Well, as I think I
have stated before in past reviews on this web site, I have usually not
found
Dudikoff to be a great actor. In many of his other movies, he comes
across as somewhat stiff and having as much emotion as Chuck Norris.
But with this movie, Dudikoff comes across significantly better than
usual. He does the physical side of his role well, coming across as
relaxed and not stiff in the quieter moments, but going all out when
the bullets start to fly. (More on this later.) While he isn't very
emotional, Dudikoff here puts on the air of someone who is usually very
easygoing and casual, which helps mask his limited acting range. And
Dudikoff does manage to put in some conviction in when the situation is
serious. When his character tells his friend Larry, "You need me, I'm
here," and later, "Your fight is my fight," you believe his words.
Also, when Dudikoff's character is paired in a scene with his kid
sister, you do get a real sense that as reserved as this guy is, he
does love his sister and is devoted to making it sure she gets out of
trouble. Speaking of the kid sister, the actress playing her in the
movie without doubt prevents Dudikoff from being branded with the worst
performance in the movie. Child actress Allison Gereighty is absolutely
terrible
in her
role, absolutely flat and stiff with both her voice and how she moves
about onscreen. She is so bad that even Chuck Norris' acting looks good
compared to hers. (Note: On the commentary track for the DVD of the
movie, it's mentioned that Gereighty was dubbed when her true voice
proved unsatisfying. If true, it's pretty hard to believe that her true
voice was worse than what we get to hear.)
Dudikoff does pretty well onscreen, though there are two
other actors in Avenging
Force
that especially deserve kudos. It will probably come as no surprise
that Steve James once again showed he had the right stuff and deserved
to be a big star. He is extremely charismatic, and commands the screen
in all of his scenes. Even when he does a totally gratuitous somersault
in an action scene, or takes off his shirt to show his impressive
build, you don't laugh, because you can believe this particular
character would do that. When it comes to the antagonists, the bad guys
are headed by actor John P. Ryan (Eternity),
who gives a wild performance as the Pentangle leader. Even when his
character is spouting disgusting filth and racist philosophies, Ryan
chews the scenery in a manner that is so entertaining that he's a
villain you'll love to hate. So much so, that it's a little surprising
that the screenplay doesn't have him make as many appearances as you
might think (he only shows up a few brief times in the first half of
the movie.) That was not the only issue that I had with Avenging Force's
screenplay. The inner workings of the Pentangle organization are
sometimes inconsistent - for example, they are pro-American, but they
throw Kendo tournaments and Ryan's character collects exotic weapons
from all over the world. Also, the organization is said to be extremely
big, but somehow existence of this organization has not been known by
the general public. And while Matt Hunter's former intelligence agency
knows how Pentangle works and what other businesses and organizations
it runs, the fact that they haven't been able to pin down the
identities of the leaders of the organization is somewhat hard to
swallow.
But when an action movie has problems like this with its
script, they often can be overlooked if the movie delivers in other
areas. Avenging
Force
manages to do this, and do it very well. Made just before Golan and
Globus started to dramatically slash the budgets of their movies, the
movie looks great. It's well photographed, has good production values,
and was shot in a number of actual Louisiana locations. Some of these
locations help to make for some great action setpieces, like the
tangled and rusting harbor where Matt and Larry fight Pentangle agents.
While the backdrop of the action sequences add some definite spark, I
think the action sequences would still be great had the locations been
more generic. Dudikoff, for one thing, is clearly doing a lot of the
stuntwork himself; seeing him throw himself into the action is very
exciting, and you'll see that he must have got hurt to some degree many
times during filming. But director Sam Firstenberg (American
Samurai)
certainly deserves a lot of the credit. Certainly he keeps the action
coming on a fairly regular basis, so the movie never gets dull. He also
stages the fisticuffs, shootings, car chases, and people bursting into
flames so that there is a raw and unstaged feeling to it all. You can
feel the agony, brutality, and the pain the participants are going
through or dishing out. Fighting is made to not be easy for both the
good guys and the bad guys, so much so that at one point I wondered if
the character of Matt would make it out alive - that doesn't often
happen to me when I watch an action movie. The well done (and
plentiful) action alone makes Avenging Force
well worth a look for action movie junkies. Though I did have one
quibble concerning the action. When Matt is going through the whole
replay of The Most Dangerous
Game
in the last third of the movie, he makes the same dumb decision that
protagonists constantly do in other movies of this ilk - not picking up
the weapons of the bad guys he kills. Well, come to think of it, he
does do it once. That is better than you usually get to witness in
these dangerous game movies.
(Posted February 18, 2021)
Check for availability on Amazon (DVD)
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See also: Overkill, Raw Courage, The Shooter
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