I have a soft spot for these things, because of the honesty that lies in deliberately eschewing drippy sentiment along with keeping the action and visual narrative a playful distance from reality.
That's what 'Bond' alumnus Hamilton accomplished here, using pieces of "Goldfinger" (the laser), and "You Only Live Twice" (scuba recovery).
The center of this is not 'martial arts' but dance -- Grey's perfectly cast presence is a dead giveaway. It's really all about teaching Ward, the "baboon with two club feet", to move correctly; the equation's complete when the pupil successfully pulls off the bullet-dodging dance.
So why didn't this catch on? "Rocky" and the "The Karate Kid" were both box office hits partly because of the tried and true construction of casting an audience in the movie -- when the audience within cheers, it validates the theater-goers sentiment. "Remo" didn't aim for this. Nor did it aim to create a character that men would idolize and women would swoon over.
No, it stuck to meat and potatoes, the sort that Stallone or Norris would give us -- but too few watchers appreciated how clever it was.
That's what 'Bond' alumnus Hamilton accomplished here, using pieces of "Goldfinger" (the laser), and "You Only Live Twice" (scuba recovery).
The center of this is not 'martial arts' but dance -- Grey's perfectly cast presence is a dead giveaway. It's really all about teaching Ward, the "baboon with two club feet", to move correctly; the equation's complete when the pupil successfully pulls off the bullet-dodging dance.
So why didn't this catch on? "Rocky" and the "The Karate Kid" were both box office hits partly because of the tried and true construction of casting an audience in the movie -- when the audience within cheers, it validates the theater-goers sentiment. "Remo" didn't aim for this. Nor did it aim to create a character that men would idolize and women would swoon over.
No, it stuck to meat and potatoes, the sort that Stallone or Norris would give us -- but too few watchers appreciated how clever it was.