Hurricane Smith

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.

Until now, I had no idea this film even existed. I always felt that Carl Weathers deserved a better shot at being an action star, so when I see this randomly, I kind of got really excited. I thought "maybe he was bigger in the DTV circuit and I just wasn't aware?". I mean, look at that cover, and just the title alone sounds awesome. I was hoping for something along the lines of Action Jackson, but in a low-budget way. Who wouldn't?!

Billy "Hurricane" Smith is in search of his sister, who has gone missing in Australia. When he heads over there to find her, he's met with resistance from the community, and discovers she may have been mixed up in a drug-smuggling and prostitution ring.

While all the right ingredients are here, Hurricane Smith, sadly, resulted in a very tame affair. In fact, there's virtually zero action until the final 30 minutes. And while the action was fairly straight forward and competent, ultimately it couldn't save this film, which is sad really because this should have been a slam dunk.

Carl Weathers really deserves better than this. He does a fine job in the lead, but he's just completely wasted in this effort. It really carries more of a Made-for-TV vibe than a low-budget action flick because of the lack of well....action. And when it comes down to how he got his nickname "Hurricane", it's nothing like you expect. I also have to admit, it's really weird seeing him without a mustache. It's so weird in fact that it's distracting. The only other notable face in here is Jurgen Prochnow, as the always reliable screaming villain. You have to admit, the guy can scream well. His work in Judge Dredd 3 years later is another solid example of that.

It's hard to get past so many of the films absurdities because had the film been at least fun, or full of action, those little things could easily have been forgiven. But being null of any sort of excitement whatsoever, you can't help but notice. For example, there are never any cops around, ever. Even during this one sequence with a car chase where the main bad guy chases down a bus full of passengers, crashes both vehicles causing them to flip over, gets out of the vehicle, turns it right side up, gets back in and continues a chase all while shooting his gun while dozens of people are crawling out of the bus. No cops anywhere. There's another scene where he's (the villain) chasing a woman through a hotel with a large butcher knife screaming that he's going to kill her, and nobody says or does anything. The film is full of moments like this and as I mentioned, could easily have been overlooked or even gone unnoticed if there was action to distract you.

All in all, a wasted effort in my opinion. Cool title, great actor in the lead, and a very early 90's vibe that's marred by a dull script that doesn't offer up any of the things you want to see in a low- budget action film titled "Hurricane Smith" and starring Carl Weathers until the final act, and by then, you're kind of over it. I will say that the action, when it finally appears, was done competently well enough to be interesting. It won't blow you away or anything, but at least when it does finally show up, it's not bad. But really, Carl Weathers deserves better than this.

robotGEEKSCultCinema.blogspot.com

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.

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