Action Jackson - Needs more love

'Action Jackson' is a classic.  Actually, it's probably not.  It's pretty terrible in as many ways as it's good.  It's almost one of those 'so-bad-it's-good' type films, only it's just about credible enough to be taken - semi - seriously.

After the 'Rocky' film and 'Predator' there was a certain amount of money on Carl Weathers being a bit of an action star in his own right.  Therefore, he was given 'Action Jackson' as a vehicle to flex more than just his impressive biceps. 'Action' Jackson is a cop who is a bit of a rebel and does things his own way to get the job done.  Now there's a cinema cliche if ever I heard one.  So, he's got to get the bad guys while throwing his police badge at his long-suffering police chief in defiance.  Again, nothing new.

And yet, for all its flaws, it's actually a highly-watchable little number which can still be enjoyed if you're in the mood for this sort of film.  In today's cinematic climate of making all 'action' films uber serious and dark and gritty.  It's nice to step back to yesteryear and see a cheesy, dumb, big ol' series of over-the-top explosions and stereotypical characters.  This is what you'll get here.

I guess if the film does have flaws (or major ones) then it's that Carl Weathers, despite looking the part, shows he's probably not quite up to headlining a film on his own.  However, that may be a little unfair as I've read some interviews with him where he says about how much of the film kept changing in post production and things got a little all over the place.  He's hardly given much in terms of a script to work with and much of his participation is just him turning up and thumping bad guys.  There aren't that many memorable secondary characters to talk about.  Obviously you have the 'shouty' police chief and a generic love interest, but for those of you - like me - who have seen many eighties action movies, you may spot a few familiar faces from other similar movies (mainly henchmen).

If you've seen one eighties action movie (especially those in the 'cop' genre) then you'll probably be able to predict what's going to happen here beat for beat.  But, that's no bad thing.  You're hardly meant to think about this film's deep and meaningful social commentary - just enjoy it for what it is.

You could call it a 'poor man's 'Lethal Weapon'' and that kind of sums it up, so you're going to have to enjoy your eighties action movies and be prepared not to take anything seriously here to get maximum enjoyment out of this.  Luckily, I can do that, so I had a great time with this one.  Despite technically 'bombing' at the Box Office when it was released, at least it seems that 'Action Jackson' has found some love over the years with the help of a cult following.  And deservedly so!

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that