Three laughs: Action Jackson

 
It is hard to rate some trashy films. Films can be really good entertainment in spite of themselves, and it is an even better pleasure to find some trash that keeps surprising you than watching most quality films. My friend says that he knows a trash film is worth something if it gets three laughs out of me. I mean proper, good belly laughs when you can't believe what the film is showing to you. That's as good a rating as any for these movies. Any film that has these three laughs has a special place in my heart.

Action Jackson (1988)
Director: Craig R. Baxley

There's a certain question on whether to include knowingly ridiculous action movies on this column. But I figure, why the hell not, they give me joy. So a disclaimer to this that this isn't a "so-bad-it's-good" movie, whatever those are. Action Jackson is a good romp and meant to be. It just doesn't get the attention it deserves.

Noted Burger King enthusiast Carl Weathers should have been a bigger action star. He has the charisma to carry multiple franchises, and held his own against Stallone and Schwarzenegger (in Rocky 1-4 and Predator, respectively). But sadly, in the 80's the world wasn't ready for an action hero that wasn't Eddie Murphy. Even though Action Jackson has as much ridiculous over-the-top action as anything this side of Commando does, it has largely been forgotten. It does make me laugh in multiple parts.

Three laughs (SPOILERS):
1. The movie opens as sleazily and explosively as any 1980's Joel Silver movie. A future #metoo cancelled rich dude tries to seduce a model girl in his penthouse apartement when a group of SWAT dudes jump through the glass ceiling to kill him. In a move that could not be any more discreet, they shoot him up with a rocket launcher, and get him to fall through the glass to his death. Off to a good start!

2. Action Jackson lives up to his name by running into action by running up to a fleeing cab and jumping onto it while everything explodes in the background for some reason. Jackson is almost supernaturally fit. In the end of this escapade he has a standoff with the car, and he manages to jump up so high that the car drives through under him. Even Captain America would raise his eyebrows to that one. The car promptly drives through a ramp to its explosive destruction.

3. I must give a shout-out to the climax of the film, that is as close to live-action version of a Simpsons McBain bit as anything. Action Jackson goes to his final face-off to a wealthy businessman's mansion by driving a Ferrari to his house. And not only that, to minimize walking, he also drives it up the stairs. Good thing the main villain had maximalist architects working for his home and base of operations.