Carl Weathers in 'Action Jackson' (1988) | Unraveling the Explosive Action and 80s Vibes

foreign [Music] great dude great doing great wonderful wonderful we have a very special movie today something from the 80s 1988 to be exact uh a another I don't know what what should I call it uh action classic from the 80s the university classic yes absolutely okay absolutely well speaking of action today we're talking about the movie Action Jackson starring Carl Weathers and this was Carl Weathers really one big starring role you know as like the action lead in a movie right that I can remembe

r am I correct about that yes his name was on the Marquee yeah yeah and this was like a big break for him this you know this he had played you know Apollo and he was in Predator um the year before right but you know had he hadn't had that uh Marquee his name over the title so this was a this was a big one for him right so just to get right into it Alex you want to go into the cast of this movie sure sure no problem uh man we got of course the incredible legendary Carl Weathers uh Carl Weathers h

as done done so much for for uh Hollywood uh you know we got iconic character Apollo Creed that kind of added she added so much to the whole Rocky franchise in itself man just wonderful man um did Predator of course did Predator one of our favorite movies did uh Predator that was that was his character and Predator was outstanding uh but this time you know this is this is his film and uh you know I shared a few interviews with you and uh you know he was really ecstatic about the whole idea about

him you know having his own character and and he was hoping that he had that they would make a franchise out of it so um and we just did a Last Dragon so we've got uh Denise Matthews AKA vanity coming back the beautiful vanity absolutely wonderful beautiful woman she did a great job in this film man um very natural acting and again I shared a few interviews with you and she was uh she admitted that she's pretty much uh you know acting natural because she had certain issues and a dark past that

kind of added to uh the the character here that she was she was playing and uh you know I think that she she actually didn't have a problem playing this role she took it so it was offered to her so but she did a great job uh we got uh Craig Nelson who plays uh Peter delaplane's the main villain in this film um not you know I I looked at his filmography I remembered him from uh Poltergeist you know but not too much else he was coach right when he coached yeah he played he played in coach too play

ed coach um but you know he played a really good villain in this in his film I mean it's almost like the part was made for him in a very arrogant uh smirky you know like he he was Untouchable Teflon man you know so but he did a great great job with the with the part that he played in here um we also had uh Sharon Stone I think Sharon Stone's character she played delaplane's wife um did a great great job a very natural actually her performance fit with the situation what was going on and stuff I

was just surprised you know with her Arc you know I thought that we were going to see a lot more of her you know um but it turns out that you know if she was cut short early and I was just like wow that was a shock to me yeah and I don't remember at the time how famous Sharon Stone was like I for whatever reason I can't remember like if she was like an A-list star at the time this movie came out because you know she she gets she gets offed like about halfway through the movie right maybe yeah ma

ybe about halfway through the movie so yeah I can't remember if she was really big at the time and another thing is like you know that was her naked in the movie it wasn't like some stunt yeah stunt woman her and vanity no stunt boobs in this movie right um she was comfortable with being uncloged on on screen you know you figure she did Basic Instincts she did sliver yeah so I mean it's just one of those things where she's just one of those those actresses that just you know she's gonna give you

100 regardless of what you got to do so yeah she looked great she'll look great in the movie oh yeah yeah absolutely absolutely this was uh this film actually was funny because it's almost like it was a command not a commander but a predator reunion because you had Billy Duke you know Bill Duke was in there he played uh I guess a captain yeah arm bust was arm Buster arm buster yeah he's got uh he's got a thing where they always put him in these uh these uh I guess these commanding roles and pol

ices you know police movies or detective films or stuff like that he's always the chief for the lieutenant or the lead the lead detective or something like that so but he fits it you know he fits a great place great so he's got that like his like his eyes his eyes are always kind of not droopy but that kind of like you know looking that judgmental look yeah where yeah it seems like you know I know what I'm talking about do you know what you're talking about yeah yeah and I like that like you kno

w you messed up right you know yeah and he was a really good counter to uh the screen presence that that Carl Weathers had you know so like you know when they had the the quick talk in his office and he was like I don't think you you're listening to me Sergeant you know what I mean he just stood up on him and Carl's characters like you know yeah back down real quick so I thought that was a really liked it up it kind of like you know because of course you know Carl Weathers characters one like wh

at you're saying he's kind of like a a damaged hero you know he went through some things with Della playing and he got demoted and stuff like that so he still got that flame in him man but Bill Duke's character was like no we're not having them on that you know just kind of made him back off which I thought was great you know so yeah it's good to see Bill Duke again and Bill Duke wasn't a small dude man he was almost there you know man like I said the the great a great counter for Carl Weathers

I would think yeah so absolutely I wanted to mention um uh Mr Miner is it Bob minority yeah Bob minor yeah I want to mention Bob minor real quick as just a legend one thing that I have to say is that when we talk about these movies I end up learning a lot these are movies I love I've seen a million times but I never I may have never gotten into like who would have stunt people in these movies or who what's the story behind this person or that person oh yeah and Bob Miner has an incredible story

Man still alive to this day if anybody's watching us look him up look at what movies that he was in but he's um you know black stunt man when there were a lot of black stunt man and I want to say he was the first uh to be to be in the stunt Union stunt person's Union if I remember correctly back in the 70s he was the first black person um but this guy's done a ton of movies you know he was still doing stunt work in 2016. this guy's old as my dad and he's a legend in the game he stunt doubled for

a whole bunch of black actors he's done stunt work stunt coordination on a bunch of movies National Treasure you know like yeah it's it's incredible he plays one of the goons in this movie um well Miner you know he was a former Champion bodybuilder in California so you know this guy's been around the block so I just want to I just want to put a little love on his name man saying absolutely while he's still around absolutely I'm definitely gonna have to now go and look at his filmography yeah to

see all the movies that he was in and I didn't notice you know what I'm saying that yeah I didn't know who he was I knew this is the same guy that was in commando but I didn't realize he had I didn't realize his story was this deep yeah definitely I just want to like I said I just want to give him a little props next Alice let's see if we can decipher the plot of this movie [Laughter] because as many times as I know both of us have seen it I don't think we ever put more than a half a thought in

to what Peter delaplane's plan actually was right why do you want to kill fuss controlling the union is not going to help you accompany that much right because there's he has a scene you know one of those scenes that bad guys in 80s movies always had where they explain the entire plot of their you know their nefarious plan to the hero yeah that happens in this movie and I swear it still went over my head the villain you know like Goldfinger or Mr Dr No what not explains the bond what he's going

to do before he tries to smoke him you know but yeah this this one here is just weird you know all I from what I gather uh Dela plane kind of has his own uh uh race car company or auto company and uh you know he's uh any Union um or he's trying to manipulate the union for political gain um so in the beginning of the film you know you see kind of opened up where you know you've got some you know I guess maybe uh Auto auto people or Auto supervisors uh for auto company and uh they might have polit

ical Affiliates or whatnot and they get taken out um by Della planes uh Team he's got this team of uh like Elite Opera opera operatives called uh the Invisible Man um they've got a reputation for being able to appear and disappear you know like ninjas um so he in the beginning he's systematically taken out you know uh key individuals within the union or have or have Union power to I guess to boost his his uh position so that he can manipulate uh the political system to um I guess to so that they

can elect who he wants so who the people that are affiliated with him want to be in offices you know various offenses that are in the government and that's pretty much what I got he wants to be a king maker right and that's exactly he did say that you want to be a kingmaker he didn't want to be a king you want to be a king maker you're a king maker yeah the guy behind the scenes right so and and you know re-watching this and doing doing the background work on it I finally figured out what the h

ell his plan was because yeah like I said as many times I've seen this movie I was like what is he doing what is it what does he actually want and I guess I've never actually just paid that much attention to what he was saying same here you know the action starts but I'm sitting there like all right I'm gonna see Jackson kick some ass and I think like Overkill is the is the theme of this movie because from the very beginning like dudes just get blown away like literally Blown Away these dudes ju

st shot out of a building you know he's on fire whatever uh later on a dude gets hit with a grenade it's just his Overkill is the theme of this movie right like just doing 200 yeah they could have smoked that dude any way they wanted they had to you know blast him out of a window in a skyscraper [Laughter] yeah that was a great scene though man that was a great Scene It was yeah especially as an opening as an opening that is that's how you open the action movie that's how you open it I don't car

e if it's a good action movie a great action movie or just a Cheesy action movie you it's something you can watch when when at the beginning of the movie if somebody gets blown out of a window yeah yeah his girlfriend is his side chick or whatever gets smoked and then he gets blown out of the window when she was first to go down I was like yeah [Music] thank you if he was an established actress I forgot her name but she you know she was an established actress she died in the first scene in the m

ovie right right I've seen her on TV and in a few films as well yeah I can't remember her name is at the time but yeah that that beginning kind of gave you kind of like an idea of what you what the hero is going to be up against because again you know those guys were like ninjas to me you know peer disappears the guy was shooting all in the office and stuff like that and trying to figure out where these guys are they just came through the window you know like a squad and then poof they're gone a

nd shooting nothing I'm like the hell is this they reminded me of the uh of the The Chins I think with The Chins and um Sharky's Machine too yeah definitely if you haven't if you haven't seen shark's machine we talked about that go watch that video go watch the video exactly yeah it's a great movie yep so what I want to get into next real quick is um who's besides Jackson and honestly I want to say besides vanity who's who's your favorite character in this movie you know I I like Bill Duke's cha

racter but we didn't really see a lot of him um screen time is not an issue so whoever you want you know when when he went to uh to the hood and tried to get him in vanity uh Vanity's character uh I think her name was Sydney right yeah um try to get him some kind of of a place to lay low at you know he ran into an old buddy who was uh fats Williams I hadn't seen fat fat swamas in a long time he's got that iconic voice I think he's done this in different things too but I think his name was kid Sa

ble in the film it was good to see him again I hadn't seen him in a while and then from that point you know he kind of stayed stayed with the film while we're till the end you know he popped up and helped him out a few times and stuff so I thought that was real cool but yeah I'd say that he was one of my favorite one of my favorite characters to see him again and uh you know your boy Sunny from Predator man dealer that had me die laughing because I was like this Predator reunion man you know and

of course he just did his intense his intense scene and just like he always does I think he liked those types of Parts man yeah somebody that's grabbing Somebody by the neck you know it seems more fun you know yeah yeah great fight scene yeah and like so you know Overkill again you know don't just throw them out of a window you throw them from one window or across the alley into another one exactly exactly that's how you do it oh man um all right so I'm gonna give you my like like I said kid Sa

ble he was a great character he was a great character but I I kind of have to I'm gonna tell you which one's my pick but real quick the the kid the kid you see like around at the beginning he's like a purse snatcher right right gotta keep space and right and they they're telling him all these like horror stories about Jackson when they got him in the patrol car and he's like huh what really yeah you know he let him out of his cage to feed him you know just just hyping him up man you know right A

ction Jackson might as well be 14 feet tall 900 pounds you know that's like that's what this kid's thinking right and they get to the station and you know he runs into him he tries to escape and runs into Jackson and passes out but the what's funny is that he keeps coming up right he keeps showing up in the movie and you think like oh this joke's going to keep going but Jackson actually uses him later right right in the end yeah right the kid kind of has an arc you know he doesn't have he's not

a big character role but he kind of has an art where he he tries that he actually does something good for once you know right in the movie even even when kid Sable send him up to uh bring breakfast and he's like he's like holding a train yeah I thought that was funny too [Music] um so I like I like that kid man I I didn't even write his name down but I'ma tell you my favorite character other than the main characters and she only has one scene the lady that plays d oh yeah yeah I don't know what

um um our Miller McQueen I think her name is I think so Mella armela McQueen I think if I'm if I'm pronouncing exactly exactly she had a long career I just for whatever reason I don't know if it's the sound of her voice or the way that she talked like Finance could tell his demise that was just one of the most captivating scenes to me I don't know why oh yeah like I just love that scene in The Barbershop because of how she talks she's got the cigarette and she's explaining things she's giving Ex

position right basically it's just a it's a clever way to give Exposition in a movie so you go go see the person that knows everything Trope you know in these movies and they they break down a whole bunch of stuff that the movie doesn't have time to explain right you know with in in insane so you get somebody who the scooper and they break down a whole bunch of plot you know plot points in the movie without you having to have all these extra scenes right to speed things up yeah yeah right and fo

r whatever reason man I just love that that scene watching re-watching the movie for this review I I paused it to look her up because I was like who is this woman I don't remember ever seeing her in anything but she she has been a bunch of movies um in television but for whatever reason I just didn't recognize her face she was she was in a lot yeah she did Ghost um I don't remember her in ghost but she did ghosts she was uh she was in the movie Life with uh Martin Lawrence and um and I couldn't

remember like what scene I was like what scene was she in in life because I love life yeah I got to go back and take a look at myself but she was a living single and she did a few episodes of Martin as well so she she's definitely been on TV man definitely yeah so yeah that was that was my pick man I I I I I loved her in the movie yeah her delivery of her of her or her lines were Flawless man you know yeah exactly what we needed at the time right so let me ask you this question what's your favor

ite line or scene from the movie you know to be honest with you I think that the that the whole Papa Doc thing was kind of like it was it was not necessary right but I guess you know we got to see Action Jackson do his thing right so that was just giving more reason to to give him more more people to beat up but um I kind of like the Papa Doc thing and you know to look at the guy in the bar I could have sworn I was showing off man it looked so much like it you know that whole thing with with the

balls and the jar type thing man I was just like what the hell like why are we doing this okay we're cool beat him up you know right I thought that that whole thing that whole scene um I think uh the guy I've got the main the main guy that was talking so much uh Miguel I can't I can't remember yes yeah yeah he was he he delivered horror movie icon right right he was from uh uh Return of the Living Dead and uh again part five yeah part three part three part five no I think it was part five becau

se I think he's the one that got killed in the outhouse yeah but yeah that that whole thing with the bar scene it was extra but again you know I I know why they had it in there because you know without that you know you didn't really see a lot of action from from Jackson you know what I mean yeah so yeah plot wise what was going on just it didn't really fit like it would it would have fit if they didn't if vanity didn't didn't come in there and say that he was just crazy and they were like yo he

's crazy and they they were about to like kind of let him go it seemed like like y'all about to cut his balls off a second ago right like this doesn't really make sense like it would make more sense if he just went in there and just started wrecking dudes yeah yeah you know trying to get information right it was weird again because you know all he had to do was go CD and it's just like so why did we do this why do we do this whole thing and then kid Sable kid Sable even mentions back at the hote

l he said I could have told you his balls was in a jar in a pool hall man his balls didn't enjoyed yeah yeah so yeah so the whole thing is unnecessary right um right how about you for me it's it's the scene where uh Jackson they've got him they've got him like tied up with the chains or whatever of course it took us I feel like let me let me back up real quick I feel like they needed a reason to take Jackson's shirt off in this movie oh yeah of course even though it even though when you see it a

t first you're like why is the shirt off like why why is his pants on they got his shirt off but then they give you like an actual plot reason why the shirt is gone like okay well y'all made up for it you know the guy took his shirt so he could disguise himself as Jackson all right whatever they wanted a reason to like grease up Carl Weathers and and have his shirt off yeah they gave a plot reason for it so all right I I forgive you for that one but anyway after that right after that scene you k

now he the the Vanity's bodyguard you know comes down to help and he they he escapes and they're fighting all the goons right and he gets that uh that 40 millimeter uh grenade launcher yeah 40 Mike Mike yeah okay yeah and he's got the one dude that you know on the side of the the building and he said how do you like your ribs how do you like your ribs hey another flame to this date Overkill complete Overkill like first of all them 40 millimeter grenades they they go off but oh yeah ain't that mu

ch fire in the world you know what I'm saying but no that was actually still it makes an incredible scene it makes an incredible scene it does and I love it how do you like your ribs yeah bro come on like that's that's to me that's the best uh one-liner in the movie right right how you like your ribs exactly yeah I think if you think about this film if you think about this film right it's going to be the part that comes to most people's minds when the dude gets blowing up with the grenade you kn

ow right right they even advertise that yeah it's a perfect action scene it just is it's the perfect one-liner in the action scene so one thing I forgot because I I mean I watched it fairly recently but I kind of forgot like the number of little like silly moments in the movie yeah there's a few yeah and like like one scene where he's in the police station and Bill Duke is looking for him and he Jets out of there and the camera turns back to the the cop he was talking to and he had a piece of pa

per in his hand it's like floating down like this it was like like a Bugs Bunny cartoon like he just bouncing like paper slowing down and then the cop looks at the camera and I'm like what what this doesn't fit here right this isn't this kind of movie this isn't like you know Naked Gun or some [ __ ] like that this is like kind of a serious movie and like you can't you can throw humor in but not that kind of humor right right it's almost like you're trying to mix mix two types of films together

yeah yeah um but that's actually a tie for what I think might be just as silly and this isn't like silly on purpose well it's just silly because it don't make sense at the end when they're at the party and Jackson gets that Ferrari or whatever the sports car is drives it into the house and it drives it up the stairs and it drives it down the hallway I'm like yeah hold on I know for a fact I just saw two right angles in this stairway right right what are you doing and I don't know right and I don

't know who the hell has a Stairway that's 10 feet wide you know what I'm saying yeah that's that's over top yeah that car like you know you look at the commercials the delaplane company and the commercials and stuff like that I thought that it was more of like a Ferrari company and that car in particular was a Pontiac Fiero oh well yeah Fieros are kind of small two-seater and they're narrow so I could see him being able to kind of do that in a way but that's not the type of car that that delapl

ane was advertising on the commercials I thought so it was kind of really weird for me yeah yeah I was like man you ain't getting around the right angles in a car and I don't even know how the thing got up the staircase to begin with the thing was only like five inches from the ground right whatever right uh it's still it still led to a great fight scene whatever yeah Hollywood uh but that whole scene at the party I like you know the the plan was to have Bob minor you know one of the goons dress

up as Jackson and assassinate uh one of the um one of the uh was it Union reps or whatever that was the guy that he he might have owned his own uh auto company I know he was one of he was a big wig I know he was a big yeah so they're gonna have him assassinate the guy dressed as Jackson so people could they could blame Jackson but whatever of course that didn't work out no no and they already had Jackson framed for the wife for uh killing delaplane's wife as well so Jackson's on the run so he's

just trying to stack stuff and I was like oh okay yeah because he had Sharon Stone he kills Sharon Stone he does that cold he does that cold and [ __ ] man yeah once he realizes that she's been talking to Jackson he kills her and then he lays on the bed man he starts he pulls out a cigarette toss it was good at like nothing just like nothing happened at all let's do the psychopath yeah he he had issue dope plane had some issues man anytime you're going to kill your own your own uh your own wife

and I think um her character was with him at the lowest part of his life from what uh what Carl Weathers character was saying so for him to be able to do that really shows that he really kind of cold-hearted man I would say this dude's wife is Sharon Stone and his side chick is Vanity I just Stu's living an amazing life he's he's keeping he's keeping vanity you know on on drugs every time whenever they meet up he's keeping her drugged up so she's just she's a junkie in this movie but and that's

that's a whole separate thing about her being a junkie but you know one thing Jackson has like morally is he's not going to take advantage of her because she's a junkie he has an issue with junkies yeah yeah he wants her he wants her to clean herself up you know she she accuses him of being engaged like what is wrong with you I'm fine like me you don't touch me all night fine looking woman like me you don't even touch me I'm like these are going to be queer or a cop that whole scenario was hila

rious to me I was pregnant talking trash the whole time yeah yeah she was talking trash right yeah action I ain't seen none of that yep hilarious yeah but by the end he was ready though oh yeah yeah yeah you can't be in that kind of proximity with vanity and not be nah um so your favorite kill I kind of actually went over mine already right but what was your favorite kill yeah yeah I told you the the Sharon Stone death uh I think her name was Patricia Patricia delaplane um yeah that was that was

a shocker for me because you know you know in the beginning I didn't think that that he was going to do that to his own life and the way like you said the way he killed her was like you know he didn't lose any sleep over it so as far as shock factor that kind of like had to be like damn you're a piece of [ __ ] bro that's tough money bro yeah so I'd say that yeah for to be the smoothest kill I'd say that that that was uh my favorite yeah when he shot Sharon Stone's character all right all right

so let me let me get your one to one to ten 80s action movie where do you put this one to ten I think I'd put Action Jackson at at an eight and then it definitely um it'll it stayed with me through the years I've always remembered it um even from the beginning like you know I know we we talked about Sharky's Machine having like the one of those great uh entrances openings and to me this was great too because you know you had The Pointer Sisters uh had a had a decent decent song I think the name

was called he turned me out yeah but during that time period you know Pointer Sisters uh were were making uh opening songs for different I think they did uh than they do by Beverly Hills Cop too oh was that Pointer Sisters I think it was 46 years I can't remember but yeah they've sung some really good openers for films yeah so yeah just all around classic action uh action film it did my only complaint though and again this is an 80s things I guess you know when these these These Guys these vill

ains these A-list villains they got some trash help man I'm I'm sorry to tell you you know I mean I guess I know it it has to you got to have Cannon father for the hero to go through but come on man you know you got all of this money and you hiring bums like come on man that's right guys how are you the most how are you the most skilled powerful fighter of all your goons right it'll make sense yeah seriously flexibility you got a higher news that's better than you it'll make no sense yeah that t

hat that's my only complaint like you know I get it's an 80s thing you know you gotta have these guys out of here that the hero can beat them up but you know right reality-wise you're not gonna hire people like that you know you're gonna hire Ailers people that can have your back you know right that I think for me I I probably put it at like uh seven seven and a half maybe and only because it's a memorable movie for me I love this movie but only because there's there's aspects of it that just ar

en't necessary or things that could have been fleshed out better like I said the plot could have been fleshed out a little better some of the silly parts of it didn't need to be there but um the fact that Jackson has like a Harvard law degree it isn't really necessary to this story it just just certain things just aren't really necessary and it kind of holds it back just a little bit it's still it's still a movie I'll watch anytime right you know I've seen worse movies that I've watched just as

much so yeah yeah I probably put like a solid seven for like 80s 80s action flicks especially since the stars are brother you know we get a whole lot of those anyway so yeah yeah right right yeah so get a bonus point for that but that's Action Jackson y'all 1988 classic didn't do you know a whole lot of business at the box office it did okay it made I think four times its budget yeah like 65 mil I think gross didn't um didn't get it didn't get picked up for a sequel right for whatever reason um

could have been a vehicle for Carl Weathers and vanity you know obviously uh but yeah that didn't happen you know things like that happened in Hollywood so we don't always get what we want but but yeah anybody that's watching this you know check out Action Jackson check out Carl Weathers filmography the vanity we just we just talked about vanity in The Last Dragon so you can watch that video um any part and words about Action Jackson Alex nah just so if you haven't seen it you know you owe it to

yourself to check it out and get a look at Carl Weathers uh filmography um you guys just you've been working hard and he's just one of those those actors that I think he doesn't get enough credit for the stuff that he does especially with you know with the rocky series and uh you know he he deserves a lot more love so yeah all right well thanks for joining us y'all it's Action Jackson check it out like share subscribe see y'all next time [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign