Huh. Wow.
How to approach this one? Action Jackson is one of those 1980s action films that came from producer Joel Silver, most famous for Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Predator and you can immediately tell as you see all of these mainstays from those films in supporting roles. They are people that I couldn’t name if my life depended on it but you recognize them right away, folks who play the baddies in those other movies show up here as baddies here. Bigger names like Robert Davi and Bill Nunn show up here and in some of those films too. It is somewhat reassuring. Silver was the name when it came to 80s action films.
The big name in this one is Carl Weathers of Rocky and Predator fame, playing Jericho “Action” Jackson, a police seargent who has a vendetta with Craig T. Nelson’s Peter Dellaplane and is framed by Dellaplane for murder as he investigates Dellaplane whom he suspects of masterminding a murder spree of Auto Workers’ Union officials. Craig T. Nelson plays sleazy very well. His wife is played by Sharon Stone and his girlfriend is played by the late Vanity. Weathers does a decent job as Jackson but he is here to play the Action part as this film is just a film for the action aficionados.
We would call this a big, dumb 80s action film. In that regard, it is a lot of fun. The dialogue is corny and ridiculously expositional, the plot is barely hold together and the action scenes somewhat implausible but it is the way of all of them and it is fun. And it is truthful in that, it doesn’t try to be anything other than it is; I enjoyed it for that reason.
Stupid fun.
-all photos via IMDb.com.