Verdict
Summary
Based on a long-running series of men’s adventure novels (there are more than 150 entries and counting) called The Destroyer, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins was supposed to kick-start a 007-type franchise, but unfortunately the film wasn’t successful enough to warrant sequels, which is truly one of the most lamentable mistakes in movie history, if you’re asking me. This movie has always been one of my favorite films of all time with its ideal casting, impressive stunts (the Statue of Liberty stuff has always been very impressive), chemistry, and a wowzer of a score by Craig Safan, who gives not just Remo an amazing theme, but gave one to Chiun too. The film still entertains in a very big way.
Plot:
An off-the-books covert agency forcefully recruits a cop to become their top assassin.
Review:
A tough New York cop is “eliminated” and then reconfigured – facially and with a new identity – and forcefully recruited by CURE, an off-the-books agency known only to the President, to become the country’s most elite assassin. His new name is Remo Williams (Fred Ward, perfectly cast), and his boss is Smith (Wilford Brimley), and his recruiting agent (J.A. Preston) sends him over to be trained by the living master of Sinanju, a Korean dynamo named Chiun (Joel Grey, unrecognizable thanks to Oscar-nominated makeup work). Chiun is a racist who sees Remo as the American slug that he is, full of hamburger poison and MSG, but within a relatively short amount of time, he sweats the poison out of him and teaches him to “breathe” and “float” and feel the vibrations of human tendons, which give him a huge advantage over enemies of the United States. Speaking of enemies, Remo makes a few: Millionaire Grove (Charles Cioffi), who is a shady guy operating in plain sight, but has all sorts of nefarious business going on within the government, and he has plenty of goons working for him, namely a thug named Stone (Patrick Kilpatrick) who has a diamond embedded in his front tooth. With Remo and Chiun on the case, nobody else can stand a chance!
Based on a long-running series of men’s adventure novels (there are more than 150 entries and counting) called The Destroyer, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins was supposed to kick-start a 007-type franchise, but unfortunately the film wasn’t successful enough to warrant sequels, which is truly one of the most lamentable mistakes in movie history, if you’re asking me. This movie has always been one of my favorite films of all time with its ideal casting, impressive stunts (the Statue of Liberty stuff has always been very impressive), chemistry, and a wowzer of a score by Craig Safan, who gives not just Remo an amazing theme, but gave one to Chiun too. The film still entertains in a very big way, and though there was a pilot to a TV series that came after this (Jeffrey Meek played Remo, while Roddy McDowell played Chiun), the series never got picked up. Now would be the ideal time to reignite the franchise again with a Cobra Kai or Reacher style approach, not worrying about PC or anti-woke ideologies because Remo and Chiun exist in a pulp world where nothing is PC. I’ve read the first 40 books in the series and I can attest to that. Guy Hamilton, who made several of the 007 movies, directed this.
Kino Lorber reissues Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, but this time on 4K Ultra HD in a brand new 4K scan that restores vitality to the image. It comes with two audio commentaries, an interview with Patrick Kilpatrick, five featurettes, and promotional material. Kino’s new edition also comes with a Blu-ray disc.