A LOOK BACK AT ‘ACTION JACKSON’…THE ORIGINAL ‘BLACK DYNAMITE’
In the pantheon of 1980’s action films, Chuck Norris ruled the early half with his ‘Missing In Action’ & ‘Delta Force’ projects while Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger…and to a lesser degree, Jean-Claude Van Damme, ruled the box office(and cable/syndicated TV) by the end of the decade.
But ‘Action Jackson’ starring Carl Weathers, gets lost in the sauce of numerous Rambo & Terminator projects…and whatever film set Van Damme found his way onto.
I saw ‘Action’ recently for the first time in about fifteen or so years, and very little of it feels dated.
Although it was released in February 1988, twelve year old me didn’t see it into the next year when it aired on HBO.
My eyes were glued to the scene as Weathers portrayed Jerico ‘Action’ Jackson, a recently demoted Detroit police Lieutenant, back on the force who finds himself attempting to take down bad-guy car developer Peter Dellaplane, played by TV’s Craig T. Nelson.
Jackson’s demotion was due to apprehending Dellaplane’s son who was being investigated, nearly tearing his arm off.
When Jerico is reminded of this by his precinct captain, he replies with a straight face…
“He had a spare.”
This movie plays as a non-jokey Black Dynamite.
From the mustache, martial arts, cool car, and catchy one-liners.
But this project does one better than even Shaft, by not making Jackson be an over-sexed private dick, but a divorced husband.
When Jackson discovers Dellaplane’s scheme, he’s framed for the murder of Dellaplane’s wife, played by a pre-Basic Instinct Sharon Stone forcing him to seek help with friends from his old neighborhood, ex-boxer Kid Sable played by late character actor Chino’Fats’Williams whose raspy voice is very familiar to 80’s film-goers. His credits include The Terminator,House Party,Weird Science,Iron Eagle…he even appears in the first three Rocky films.
Another past friend Jerico visit is hairdresser Dee, played by Armelia McQueen, whose credits include Sparkle(1976), Ghost(1990), & Life(1999)
Dee is my favorite character in the movie…the sensual tone of her voice & energy toward Jackson,(whose sitting in her work chair) explaining Dellaplane’s nefarious plan while moving to the background music,made me felt some type of way as a pre-teen.
Half way into the story, Jackson gets assistance from Dellaplane’s mistress, drug-addled lounge singer Sydney, played by the late Vanity(Denise Matthews), three years after she appeared in the 1985 classic action pic The Last Dragon.
Another interesting cameo is the heroin-dealer Mr.Quick, who attempts to serve Sydney’s needs before Action intervenes, is played by Sonny Landham, who played Billy Sole(the native American character) in Predator(1987).
The climax involves Jackson & Co. infiltrating a private party at the Dellaplane residence, where Jerico eventually drives a prototype car up a staircase, to the master bedroom to save Sydney from the clutches of Dellaplane.
The movie was a box office hit…earning twenty million dollars on a seven million budget, but the critics hated it. Vanity was even nominated for a Razzy award for ‘Worst Actress’.
It has since found a cult following.
In an interview with the AVClub.com in 2014, Weathers explains the company that produced the film, Lorimar, sold their library to Warner Bros in 1989 and the property became an after-thought.
After thirty years, Action Jackson still holds up as a new generation of moviegoers can rediscover this gem on a slow weekend afternoon.
