Time for a tooling up montage, as we travel back 40 years to look at the essential action movies from 1985…
We’re midway through the decade now and I can’t be alone in finding it almost unfathomable that 1985 was 40 years ago. No, not 10, not 20… 40 years ago man! The midpoint of the 80s saw the action genre booming with established specialists like Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood still duking it out with bad guys, however nothing typified 1985 in action quite like the duelling body counts of the two most exciting stars of the genre.
In terms of the Stallone and Schwarzenegger rivalry, this was the year where it really kicked off and they tried to outdo each other with every facet you could think of synonymous with the action genre. Who looked more jacked? Who had the biggest knife or the biggest gun? The audiences were the beneficiaries but it wasn’t just those two as the year saw a host of great star-making turns for several action stars. Here are 10 essential action movies from 1985…
Invasion U.S.A
Spoiler alert, but the legendary Cannon films will be making several appearances here as fine exponents of balls-to-the-wall actioners. Chuck Norris was pretty productive in 85, with Mission in Action 2 and Code of Silence also hitting screens. Now Code of Silence may well be a little better objectively, but Invasion U.S.A is the most Chuck Norris, Chuck Norris has ever Norrised. Remember when Chuck Norris facts were a thing? Every single hyperbolic statement, often from young millennials who’d never watched a single minute of Norris cinema, somehow managed to perfectly encapsulate the ridiculous brilliance of Invasion U.S.A.
Double denim and twin Uzi’s. A bazooka duel (to the death) at 20 paces seals the film. It’s a jingoistic exercise in excess with all the subtlety of a toe cap punt to the gonads. Norris retains perfect stoicism (let no one call it wooden) and only speaks to dole out threats and barbs. Richard Lynch is on top villainous form playing the most reprehensible baddie ever committed to celluloid. Like so many action films of the era, initially battered by critics and looked down upon, it looks really great in comparison to most lower, mid-level action films of today. These old films used to have great cinematographers, editors, directors, composers, stunt crews (performing acts of lunacy), FX crews and more, whereas the equivalents today are churned out without care, loaded with poor CGI and even visibly bore the often elder statesmen stars. You need only look at Chuck’s recent Agent Recon to compare.
Yes Madam
Why launch the career of one badass when you can launch two? That was the case with Yes Madam, helmed by the late great Corey Yuen, which featured the debuts of Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yeoh as a pair of reluctantly partnered cops joining forces to hunt a killer and track down a microfilm. It very much follows the booming formula of fast, frantic and physically comedic martial arts cinema that Jackie Chan was at the forefront of in Hong Kong.
Both Yeoh and Rothrock impress physically on screen in an assortment of incredible fight scenes with jaw-dropping stunts from the countless fighters the pair blaze through. It’s great fun and was recently given a deserving and lavish hi-def treatment.
My Lucky Stars
Okay, Police Story is more iconic in Chan’s oeuvre but we definitely have to fit in his cohorts, Sammo Hung and Yeun Biao, who join forces (one of many films with the three together) in My Lucky Stars. It has every element you expect from peak-era Chan, Hung and Biao. All three performers have their unique skills and traits and are great to watch in action. The comedic chemistry between all three is also clear to see with the trio playing former Orphanage buddies joining forces to rescue the kidnapped Biao.
The film actually spawned a sequel the same year, called Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars which is also great fun. When it comes to stunt-filled, wildly creative martial arts action, no one did it better than “The Three Dragons.”
Death Wish 3
It was at this point in the franchise that critics felt Death Wish had veered from icky exploitation to cartoonish trash. With the benefit of time, it’s easy to appreciate just how daft yet entertaining, Death Wish 3 is. It’s really kind of terrible but oh so brilliantly so. By this point in the franchise too, Michael Winner was running out of ways to inspire Paul Kersey to take revenge.
Here he tries to help out an old pal who is being terrorised (along with everyone else) by a gang. Bronson uses an array of weaponry and spends large portions of the action just standing stationary out in the open as he picks off criminal scum with consummate ease. Like Norris, Bronson also finishes his baddie by bazooka-ing him out a window…because why wouldn’t you?
Commando
Run and gun, one-man army action films hit their apex this year. We’ve already talked about Invasion U.S.A, and now it’s Commando that probably represents this type of action movie as well as anything. Schwarzenegger is a behemoth waging a war on the criminal organisation that kidnapped his daughter. Along the way, he picks up Rae Dawn-Chong who accidentally fires a rocket launcher backwards.
Commando borders close to spoof with everything dialled right up but it’s a brilliantly made film. Mark L. Lester knows his onions, backed by a great James Horner score, Mark Goldblatt in the cutting room, Matthew Leonetti on cinematography and the great rogues gallery who Arnold must work through. Bill Duke, David Patrick Kelly, Dan Hedaya and the inimitable Vernon Wells. Forget subtlety and revel in a perfect 90-minute display of guns, gags, explosions and liberal use of steel drums.
Rambo: First Blood Part 2
If Commando isn’t the definitive run-and-gun action classic, then it’s Rambo: First Blood Part 2. Sylvester Stallone dominated the year with not just a second outing for Rambo but a fourth for Rocky. Only two films grossed more than either Rambo 2 or Rocky 4 and those were Beverly Hills Cop and Back to the Future.
First Blood was a great film with nuance, characterisation and a slightly more understated commentary on Nam and the postwar treatment of veterans. Rambo 2 throws subtlety out the window, which was becoming a trait in the genre in the mid to late 80s. Still, as an all-out, non-stop action film, this is great. Like Commando, every technical facet is brilliant and given the fact Rambo 2 had one of the highest production budgets of the era, it’s fair to say that it feels huge. It’s rare with CGI-driven action these days to feel that sense of scale because nothing looks real. Rambo 2 is spectacular, with masses of practical destruction, helicopter dogfights and Stallone so shredded he looks like a walking visual effect. Julia Nickson is great, even if she suffers with the terrible dialogue given to her, but it’s not half as bad as Sly’s final, clunky diatribe on the government’s attitude to military vets and lost P.O.W’s.
No Retreat, No Surrender
Another first breakout role in 1985 saw Jean-Claude Van Damme play the villain and steal the film from the main star, Kurt McKinney. Not that McKinney was lacking as an on-screen fighter and certainly had a shade more charisma than many of his contemporaries in the genre, but JC just had the X-factor.
After taking a battering, Kurt seeks guidance from Bruce Lee’s ghost who teaches him how to kick ass. It’s silly but it’s great fun and has some cracking fight sequences. You’d expect nothing less from Corey Yuen (back on our list once again).
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Once maligned and shat upon from great heights, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome has had something of a second wind in the past two decades. Appreciation for the film has certainly grown, perhaps since George Miller breathed new life into his franchise with Fury Road. I must have been one of the few, of the few who saw Furiosa, who thought it was a bloated and frustrating mess and I’ll say it right now, Thunderdome ranks higher in the franchise for me.
Miller’s grand opus, which first took Max into the realms of big budget, is glorious eye candy which is great in the opening and final acts, if a little bogged down by the film becoming akin to Spielberg’s Hook in the mid-section. Still, the setpieces in this are jaw-dropping with some of the greatest vehicular carnage ever seen on screen and Gibson is great.
To Live and Die in LA
Gloriously stylish with a killer 80s soundtrack and score from Wang Chung. If that’s not enough, the late great Friedkin’s pulsating action thriller also features one of the all-time great car chases.
It’s a nice subversion of the darker, grittier, almost docu-style of Friedkins French Connection, with him ramping up the 80s aesthetics. To Live and Die in LA is still under the radar and really deserves more appreciation, not least because any film with Willem Defoe as a villain is worth watching.
Gymkata
Gymkata isn’t a particularly good film, in fact, it borders on so bad it’s good at times but the idea of turning a gymnast into an action hero is bonkers. It’s a wild cocaine fuelled idea put into practice but somehow, the sight of a dude taking out bad guys via pommel horse just works.
For the late Kurt Thomas, it was a chance to showcase his Olympic talents on the big screen in a film from the director of Enter the Dragon. The goofy concept has helped make this one a cult favourite, and action icon, Richard Norton also appears. This is a film only the decade of the 80s could have produced.
Honorable Mentions:
American Ninja, Legend of Billie Jean, Ninja Terminator, The Last Dragon, Pale Rider, A View to a Kill, Runaway Train.
What’s your favourite action film of 1985? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
