sol- His death faked after his car plunges into a river, an American policeman is given a new identity and forced to become an assassin for a government-run secret organisation in this mix of action and comedy starring Fred Ward as the title character. As evidenced by the title, this was intended to the first in a series of James Bond like movies that never quite took off, which is unfortunate since this is as riveting and entertaining a ride as one would expect from 'Goldfinger' director Guy Hamilton. The story is not without its weaknesses. Ward is a little too accepting of his new identity and role in life, never once pining for what he left behind. The film also spends little time on the idea of assassinations made to look like accidents despite an intriguing suggestion that the secret organisation has been run for decades as a way of the government dealing with shady figures that cannot legally be touched. All of Ward's training scenes are very well done though and frequently suspenseful (hanging off amusement park rides). Joel Grey is also dynamite as Ward's trainer who compares him to a yak claims that "fear is nothing more than a feeling" while dodging bullets by predicting muscle movements (!). The film is filled with great set pieces too; whether it be hanging off the Statue of Liberty or evading intelligent guard dogs, there is nary a boring moment to be had here.

cbroschell Guy Hamilton is known for his great Bond movies - Goldfinger and Live and Let Die, but his direction can't save some bad acting by Fred Ward and questionable casting of Joel Grey as a Korean assassin. Ward's likable enough, and perhaps 1985 wasn't a jewel year for movie making but the movie is not particularly watchable now. And maybe her stint on Voyager has tainted me, but I really, really do not like Kathryn Mulgrew - great voice, but just not entertaining. Wilford Brimley in his pre-diabetes days as the head honcho/computer guru is amusing and some of the pre-internet computer hacking is great and prescient. Adequate movie, just not the best it could be.

FFAxDAVID Like any book turned into a film,this does not do the books credit. That said,it is very faithful to both the repartee between the master and student as well as the excitement and skills obtained during training by Remo. Sure its fictional,a lot of the moves taught are impossible,but a lot are also plausible, and that along with the humorous banter between master and student as the wisdom and skills are passed on to the latter are what made me so addicted to Remo in book form, and what also makes this film so much fun to watch.Being addicted to the books before the film was made, usually a hindrance to enjoying the film when made as gets your hopes up too high, did not deter me from enjoying Fred Wards performance as the Destroyer to be, and i find it almost unfathomable that a follow up film never became a reality-but i will live in hope of it happening, and if they made another film half as close as this one was to the books i will die happy i will die happy.

Dan Ashley (DanLives1980) A classic American '80's action film that plays like an adult version of The Karate Kid; Remo Williams is a hybrid genre of classic American Martial Arts/Spy Thriller; more well crafted and enjoyable than Black Eagle or any other rare kind of that era.It's an action film that counts on few bare necessities and boasts more choreographed stunts than it does special effects. Majorly, it provides us with a well crafted human drama that is perfectly acted out between the actors and boasts an original sense of humour that surpassed The Karate Kid's "Master and Student" comedy formula, simply because it's more mature than Karate Kid.Some pass the film off as far-fetched but with hair-raising stunts being performed on top of towering fairground rides and the Statue of Liberty, who cares? What about the dogs walking the tightrope during the attempted sabotage or Chiun walking on water? It's just so much fun to watch! I still wish I could kill a man with my fingers after watching that film, it'd shorten the queue at KFC but I'll happily settle for my copy of this amazing film!