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Action Jackson (1988)

Rate: 4
Viewed: 5/05, 2/24

ActJ
5/05: Having been probably signed immediately after showing off his impressive physique in Rocky and Predator, Carl Weathers proves in Action Jackson that muscular actors with minimal acting ability don't translate well for action flicks.

Hence, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone remain the only two guys capable of it while many scores of wannabes had tried the same route but ultimately failed. This speaks volumes to their uniqueness.

The first question that came to my mind while seeing Action Jackson was: "Where's the action?" The answer turns out to be: "There isn't any." On the other hand, Sharon Stone still can't act; it's hard to believe she continued to get work. At least, her character died early to save me the grief. Outdoing Sharon Stone is Vanity who's in dire need of acting lessons. Afterwards, her movie career went down in flames.

Today, Vanity receives peritoneal dialysis three times a week which has to be continuously maintained for the rest of her life due to heavy drug abuse during the 80's. It won't be long before she dies. On the other hand, Craig T. Nelson is decent, but he's unable to overcome the terrible script.

All in all, Action Jackson has a few good moments but fails to deliver most of the time.

2/24: Action Jackson didn't make a star out of Carl Weathers.

Why is that? He has too much charisma but not enough anti-hero. The lousy script doesn't do him favors, either. It's hard to follow the story. Peter Dellaplane is interested in exactly what? Plenty of good guys and baddies are collected from various well-known action films such as Predator, Lethal Weapon, Commando, Die Hard, and Above the Law.

Then, we've got a lousy actress in Vanity playing a junkie who doesn't have a problem exposing her breasts while performing at a night club. Jericho repeatedly says he doesn't want her, and then all of a sudden, he develops interest. Well, good luck to him in dealing with Vanity's dialysis as a result of her drug abuse years. Unsurprisingly, she died in 2016. By the way, it's strange to see many smoky rooms in the film; what did they do...run a fog machine continuously?

All in all, Action Jackson tried to revive the Blaxploitation genre but did a good job of killing it permanently.