Hurricane Smith

No, this is not a follow up to 88's Action Jackson. We just an average actor who's used in random films, and just happens to be an an ex Apollo Creed. This is a second attempt at this kind of thing, crime, sun, surf, sex, danger in the Gold Coast. The first was the little known tele movie, Shark's Paradise, which at least had a original and exciting plot, and hot Aussie stars to boot. Here, to me, the story is just so cliche'd, and one would say pathetic, and that goes too, for the unimpressive quality of this 92 actioner. which ran one week here in Adelaide cinemas. Go figure. Weather's character, who does construction in Texas, earns the nickname Hurricane, on the account of saving his sister, Sally from a nasty actual hurricane, years before. Now she's supposedly hooking for a mobster type guy (Procnow) truly and impressively evil here, it makes you angry, actors of this calibre, deserve much more better Aussie material. Weathers arrives, to not the nicest of welcomes, even from the local taxi driver. He soon finds Sally as disappeared, where of course, he ends up bedding her friend (hottie Cassandra Delaney) also caught up in the pro business with some other nice hotties. He starts to become a nuisance, where we bring on the big guns. The action is unimpressive, yet the actors deliver good performances. Weathers is well, you know, average, and minus the moustache doesn't suit the guy. I like Weathers as a person, and I was interested to see how, he'd bounce off our Aussie folk. He's one of the few good things about this, where Argue, as Delaney's watcher, and employee of Procnow's, is good for laugh fare. The fate of Sally is even cliched, where like at the start and the end of the movie, you'll wanna feed this director to the sharks.

The movie Hurricane Smith on its' own, well, isn't very good. You've seen the story before: A man seeks a lost one in a far off land and violence somehow ensues. It's a fish out of water story as a Texas roughneck battles Aussie rednecks. But the roughneck is Carl Weathers! (Apollo Creed to all you Rocky fans) Weathers exudes a determined and righteous presence that is very rare. And his intensity makes the movie great. The script could have played up the hostilities of this novel setting a bit more, but that may have been asking to much of such a movie. But Carl Weathers makes it worth watching. Why he has never risen above Apollo Creed is beyond me.

Buckle up and watch built badass Carl Weathers head down under to take on vicious Australian criminals in Hurricane Smith, a blast of saxophone laced, trashy 80's cheese that hits every beloved cliché in perfect chiming key. Weathers is an valued staple to the action genre, a memorable part of Predator and of course his thundering turn as Apollo Creed in the Rocky films. Along with his obvious commanding physicality, he has a likability that lends itself nicely when it comes to playing heroes out for retribution. His character got the nickname Hurricane after he pulled a friend out of a falling building during the titular meteorological event, cementing him as a tough guy worthy of carrying a ninety minute action flick on his shoulders. Hurricane is off to Australia, in search of his sister who has recently gone missing. He stumbles right into the midst of a hornet's nest of a criminal organization, led by Charlie O Dowd (Jurgen Prochnow), a stunningly evil pimp and drug runner. Prochnow loves to paint his villains in broad, garish strokes and he downright outdoes himself here, careening through a performance of wanton carnage and positively dripping malice. Hurricane is a massive thorn in his side, dismantling his operation in every attempt to learn what happened to his sister. He gets romantically involved with a kindly hooker (Cassandra Delany) leading to the obligatory 80's slow dance sex scene that everyone waits for in these type of flicks. There's bullets, car chases, an action scene on a helicopter and all kinds of trademark B movie lunacy. Weathers makes a damn good hero. Prochnow is one hell of a wicked villain. Fun stuff.

Boring starring vehicle for Carl Weathers, coming two years (though released, barely at that, four years) after his first such attempt, "Action Jackson", but without the same spark or budget; even Weathers himself, although still in peak physical shape, seems bored by the proceedings. Jurgen Prochnow is not an interesting villain at all - he's just disgusting. The film is set in Australia, which in the screenwriter's mind seems to indicate that people should say "mate" every two minutes. There is a 15-minute burst of action at the end (there is hardly any action until then), which does feature some good stuntwork and slightly redeems the picture. *1/2 out of 4.

Rifftrax needs to riff this one,, that's the only good that could come from this.