The beautiful 80's & B-movies went together perfectly.
Armed Response (1986) is a beautifully 80's B-movie that would've gracefully sat on a shelf in a video store, probably in the Action section.
Armed Response is a little gem that boasts one Amazing cast of B-movie faves of cult cinema stars with David Carradine (Death Race 2000, Lone Wolf McQuade) & Lee Van Cleef (The Octogon, Escape from New York) & Mako (Conan The Destroyer, An Eye For An Eye) & Michael Berryman (Double Dragon,The Guyver) & Laurene Landon (Maniac Cop 1&2) & Dick Miller (The Howling, Piranha) & more!!!
Set in the seedy underworld of Los Angeles Chinatown, a mob boss Akira Tanaka (Mako) of the Yakuza wants a priceless statue back. A rare ancient statue that stands between war & peace within the criminal underworld but it's been stolen by a theif.
Tanaka hires a local well known private investigator to get it back for him. The private eye is the son of local ex-cop tough guy Burt Roth (Lee Van Cleef) & is younger brother of Burt's older son Jim (Carradine) who owns a local bar that they hangout in as a family. There's also another brother, so that's hard nut Burt & his three sons that are a well known family, The Roths!!! Each member of the Roths have served in Vietnam & each have their own deadly skills & bad-ass attitudes. When the two younger sons get in deadly situations that include double crossing & murder, it's up to father & son duo of Carradine & Cleef to take matters into their own hands. Carradine & Cleef are both hard presences on screen & don't really have to do much actual acting as this is a revenge action thriller. Lee Van Cleef is the best in the movie in my opinion, the guy just looks bad-ass without saying a word. I love the line when Van Cleef's Burt says "This is a family matter now" & so father & son gear up & put their old military skills to good use as they go investigating into what happened to their bros/sons & come up against Tanaka & his henchmen.
Mako is great as always in anything, the guy has such a legendary voice & thats why he was perfectly cast to voice Master Splinter in the 2007 TMNT movie. Mako is calm but deadly effective in his role here as high up boss that is trying not to go to war with an even more deadlier crime lord.
Joe Dante regular & B-movie legend DICK MILLER shows up in a small role & it's always a treat when he turns up in anything!!! I'm a big Dick Miller fan. When you see Miller you think of his movie background (Gremlins, Gremlins 2, Piranha, Innerspace, The Terminator, Night of the Creeps, Amityville: It's About Time, Small Soldiers, The 'Burbs, The Howling & many, many more.
David Carradine who is side by side with Van Cleef as the main leads here gives a very understated performance & is a tough screen presence. Carradine was a big B-movie star & was cast a man of action in tons of low-budget Direct-to-video movies, he made quite a name for himself in the home video market. I really liked Carradine in Midnight Fear (1990) where gave a wonderful performance as a burned out alcoholic country Sheriff on the case of some disturbing murders. Carradine really knew how play pis#ed off, drunk & no-nonsense characters well & seemed similar to what he was like in real life.
The film has a 48 hrs feel to it at times with a feel of Big Trouble In Little China. I kept expecting the film to turn supernatural fantasy but it never did. The cult favourite Michael Berryman plays Tanaka's main henchman & he's always great on screen & plays villains perfectly. Most famous for Wes Cravens The Hills Have Eyes.
There's shootouts & action sprinkled throughout but it's actually not action-packed as expected but that's ok because i liked spending time with the odd mix of characters.
A big standout plus for this low-budget Direct-to-video B-movie was it's excellent music score. The beginning music is so perfectly 80's i got Nostalgia for this film that i had never seen before!!!
There's a cool big shootout sequence in Chinatown near the end & it builds up to that nicely.
Armed Response is definitely a gem from the good old days of videos & B-movie goodness. Truly one of the most satisfying casts of B-movie favorites I've ever seen in one place.
Armed Response (1986) is a beautifully 80's B-movie that would've gracefully sat on a shelf in a video store, probably in the Action section.
Armed Response is a little gem that boasts one Amazing cast of B-movie faves of cult cinema stars with David Carradine (Death Race 2000, Lone Wolf McQuade) & Lee Van Cleef (The Octogon, Escape from New York) & Mako (Conan The Destroyer, An Eye For An Eye) & Michael Berryman (Double Dragon,The Guyver) & Laurene Landon (Maniac Cop 1&2) & Dick Miller (The Howling, Piranha) & more!!!
Set in the seedy underworld of Los Angeles Chinatown, a mob boss Akira Tanaka (Mako) of the Yakuza wants a priceless statue back. A rare ancient statue that stands between war & peace within the criminal underworld but it's been stolen by a theif.
Tanaka hires a local well known private investigator to get it back for him. The private eye is the son of local ex-cop tough guy Burt Roth (Lee Van Cleef) & is younger brother of Burt's older son Jim (Carradine) who owns a local bar that they hangout in as a family. There's also another brother, so that's hard nut Burt & his three sons that are a well known family, The Roths!!! Each member of the Roths have served in Vietnam & each have their own deadly skills & bad-ass attitudes. When the two younger sons get in deadly situations that include double crossing & murder, it's up to father & son duo of Carradine & Cleef to take matters into their own hands. Carradine & Cleef are both hard presences on screen & don't really have to do much actual acting as this is a revenge action thriller. Lee Van Cleef is the best in the movie in my opinion, the guy just looks bad-ass without saying a word. I love the line when Van Cleef's Burt says "This is a family matter now" & so father & son gear up & put their old military skills to good use as they go investigating into what happened to their bros/sons & come up against Tanaka & his henchmen.
Mako is great as always in anything, the guy has such a legendary voice & thats why he was perfectly cast to voice Master Splinter in the 2007 TMNT movie. Mako is calm but deadly effective in his role here as high up boss that is trying not to go to war with an even more deadlier crime lord.
Joe Dante regular & B-movie legend DICK MILLER shows up in a small role & it's always a treat when he turns up in anything!!! I'm a big Dick Miller fan. When you see Miller you think of his movie background (Gremlins, Gremlins 2, Piranha, Innerspace, The Terminator, Night of the Creeps, Amityville: It's About Time, Small Soldiers, The 'Burbs, The Howling & many, many more.
David Carradine who is side by side with Van Cleef as the main leads here gives a very understated performance & is a tough screen presence. Carradine was a big B-movie star & was cast a man of action in tons of low-budget Direct-to-video movies, he made quite a name for himself in the home video market. I really liked Carradine in Midnight Fear (1990) where gave a wonderful performance as a burned out alcoholic country Sheriff on the case of some disturbing murders. Carradine really knew how play pis#ed off, drunk & no-nonsense characters well & seemed similar to what he was like in real life.
The film has a 48 hrs feel to it at times with a feel of Big Trouble In Little China. I kept expecting the film to turn supernatural fantasy but it never did. The cult favourite Michael Berryman plays Tanaka's main henchman & he's always great on screen & plays villains perfectly. Most famous for Wes Cravens The Hills Have Eyes.
There's shootouts & action sprinkled throughout but it's actually not action-packed as expected but that's ok because i liked spending time with the odd mix of characters.
A big standout plus for this low-budget Direct-to-video B-movie was it's excellent music score. The beginning music is so perfectly 80's i got Nostalgia for this film that i had never seen before!!!
There's a cool big shootout sequence in Chinatown near the end & it builds up to that nicely.
Armed Response is definitely a gem from the good old days of videos & B-movie goodness. Truly one of the most satisfying casts of B-movie favorites I've ever seen in one place.