In the mood for kickass old-school stunt work? John Stewart’s Action U.S.A. from 1989 will scratch that itch for you, right after it drops you off a helicopter from a hundred feet up into a lake below! Stewart spent most of his career as a stunt coordinator, and his directorial debut pays tribute to the underappreciated folks who put their bodies and lives on the line for our entertainment. The plot is paper-thin but who cares? It’s just the stuff that happens in between the jaw-dropping stunts. July 1st is the 35th anniversary of the film's direct-to-video release in the US (it received a theatrical release in the Philippines and South Korea).
The film opens by following Billy Ray (Rod Shaft, lol) and Carmen (bouncy Barri Murphy) as they tear ass around in a nitrous-injected modified Corvette. They eventually get home, but their tryst is interrupted when two beefy gun-wielding thugs kick in the door. See, Billy Ray stole some diamonds from cranky mob boss Frankie (Hollywood vet Cameron Mitchell) and the gangster will stop at nothing to get them back and punish Billy Ray in the process.
Carmen doesn’t know about the diamonds, but she becomes a loose end for the gangsters, so she’ll need the help of FBI agents Osborn (rugged Gregory Scott Cummins) and McKinnon (buttoned-up William Hubbard Knight). The situation becomes even more dangerous when Frankie calls in the ruthless Drago (gravelly-voiced Ross Hagen). We also get the awesome Hoke Howell as southern fried henchman Hitch and fan favorite heavy William Smith as an FBI boss. Boxing legend Larry Holmes makes a cameo.
David Reskin wrote the script (with additional material by James Desmarais and based on a story by Stewart and Reskin). Look, the story is about as straightforward as it gets, but I’d argue it’s well written, in that it facilitates all the bonkers stunt work and action sequences and still manages to be coherent. It’s essentially a series of kidnappings and rescues, but when you’ve got badass thundering cars roaring down highways and careening around corners, huge fireballs, exploding houses and cars, slow motion falls off of a helicopter and a high rise, and bodies being battered and tossed all over the screen set to the sound of near constant gunfire, I doubt you’ll be bothered. The dialog is, of course, littered with tough guy patter and quippy one-liners delivered with glee by all the career stunt guys and character actors. So yes, this is perfectly written, relatively speaking.
Thomas L Callaway’s lensing captures the relentless mayhem with aplomb. All of the stunts are shot such that we can see that real people are doing all of this insanely dangerous stuff. Locations were obviously selected for their cinematic potential to be ravaged. My favorite spot is the huge country-western dancehall where a gigantic barroom brawl erupts that features hundreds of extras. Del Casher, the legendary inventor of the wah-wah pedal, keeps the good times rolling with a fun and kinetic score.
John Stewart’s Action U.S.A. is thrilling as hell and endlessly entertaining. This is the epitome of “they don’t make ‘em like this anymore.” More muscular than slick, this is a stunning slice of pure action cinema. Highest possible recommendation for fans of chucking guys through walls, ramping your car over a school bus full of screaming kids, and dangling somebody off of a helicopter whilst hovering over downtown Waco.
Michael Cavender