Movie · 1985 · Action, Adventure, Comedy · 2h 1m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 1.5/10 (22.4K ratings)
A hero who doesn't exist must save America from an enemy we never knew we had.
Overview
Tough Brooklyn street cop Sam Makin is unwillingly recruited as an assassin for a secret United States organization known as CURE, who fake his death and give him a new identity: Remo Williams. With his appearance surgically altered, Williams is trained to be a human killing machine by his aged, derisive and impassive Korean martial arts master Chiun.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.5/10
IMDb: 6.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.00/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 41%
Metacritic: 46
TMDB: 6.3/10
Director
Guy Hamilton
Production
Orion Pictures, Dick Clark Productions
Cast
Fred Ward, Joel Grey, Wilford Brimley, J.A. Preston, George Coe, Kate Mulgrew, Charles Cioffi, Patrick Kilpatrick, Michael Pataki, Davenia McFadden, Cosie Costa, J.P. Romano, Joel Kramer, Frank Ferrara Sr., Marv Albert, Reginald VelJohnson, Jon Polito, Jeff Allin, Tom McBride, William Hickey
Where to watch
Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A breezy, oddball 80s action-comedy with a strong premise, a few memorable set pieces, and a charmingly offbeat lead, but it never fully clicks as either a sharp spy thriller or a satisfying adventure. Its tone is inconsistent, and some casting and cultural choices are dated in ways that can be hard to ignore.
Best for
Viewers who enjoy quirky, low-key 80s action curios
Fans of secret-agent pulp with martial-arts training montages
People who like cult films that are more interesting than polished
Audiences open to uneven but inventive genre hybrids
Skip if
You want nonstop action or a fast pace
You’re looking for a fully coherent spy plot
You’re sensitive to outdated racial/cultural casting
You prefer slick, modern action-comedy timing
Overview
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins is one of those mid-80s studio gambles that feels like it was built to launch a franchise and instead became a fascinating one-off. The setup is pure pulp: a dead cop is remade into a secret weapon, then trained by a stern martial arts master in a movie that wants to be Bond, comic-book adventure, and deadpan comedy all at once.
Worth noting
What works best is the film’s weirdness. Fred Ward gives Remo a weary, blue-collar bluntness that keeps the movie grounded, and the training sequences have a playful, almost mythic quality. The Statue of Liberty material and a few stunt-driven moments give it real visual personality, even when the plot is meandering.
Bottom line
What holds it back is the same thing that makes it memorable: the tone never settles. The comedy is uneven, the pacing is sluggish, and the film’s cultural insensitivity around Chiun is impossible to overlook now. It’s a cult curio with flashes of charm, not a lost classic, but it’s interesting enough to reward the right kind of viewer.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Eric Szyszka (1.5★) · 98 likes
I’d recommend this film to those “true” Star Wars fans out there. A man (finally!) trains (see he earned it!) for 90 minutes then nothing much happens!
Kevin Majestyck · 62 likes
REMO is a Bourne-meets-Bond-meets-Green Hornet cocktail of pulp adventure that shows great potential, but maybe Ward just couldn’t compete with Arnie and Sly at the box office on release. It was the era of the mass-muscle action star, after all. Admittedly, the film itself could be better; it struggles a bit nailing the right tone and takes a while to get up and running. Still, worse films have had sequels!
I like the humour found in Ward’s cop character receiving… more
shookone (2★) · 61 likes
Remo Ninja Hero Turtle Karate Remo
the first random superhero film?
Christian Di Leo (1★) · 51 likes
A complete dumpster of a film 🚮
🇵🇱 Steve G 🐝 (3.5★) · 50 likes
Remo: Unarmed And Dangerous is a bit of an 80s curio. Certainly, it wasn't a decade that was short of action comedies and whilst the type did, for the most part, focus on the 'buddy' formula, you did get the occasional film that really didn't fit any category like this.
New York cop and Vietnam vet Fred Ward has his death faked so that he can be trained as an assassin for a top secret government organisation - training undertaken… more