Over the Top (1987) review

 

OVER THE TOP 1987

Sylvester Stallone (Lincoln Hawks), Robert Loggia (Jason Cutler), David Mendenhall (Michael Cutler), Rick Zumwalt (Bull Hurley), Susan Blakely (Christina Cutler), Terry Funk (Ruker), Magic Schwarz (Smasher), Bruce Way (Grizzly), Randy Raney (Mad Dog Madison), Paul Sullivan (Carl Adams), Jack Wright (Big Bill Larson), Sam Scarber (Bosco)

Directed by Menahem Golan

"I'm gonna give you a world o' hurt, little man!"

The Short Version: Armwrestling has long been a staple of action films as macho window dressing, but for one strange moment in history, an entire movie was built around it (and a real life armwrestling tourney). Not since the Italian sword and sandal movies of the 1950s and 1960s has their been so much grunting, groaning, and mountains of sweat rolling off of biceps. Hell, one hairy man drinks a can of Valvoline before a match. It's ROCKY without boxing gloves. And a ring. It's a feel-good movie drenched in kitsch and 80s power ballad overload. There's an honest to goodness message suffocating underneath all that testosterone and outrageous "dialog" that often puts this minor league macho movie Over the Top.

 

Lincoln Hawk is a truck driver priming himself and pumping his right arm for a big armwrestling tournament in Las Vegas while trying to reconnect with his son, Mike after years of absence. Learning that his dying ex-wife's father has been instrumental in keeping Hawk out of touch with his kid, Hawk is determined to gain custody of Michael by any means necessary, and hopefully win the big prize in Las Vegas. Also dogging Lincoln is Bull Hurley, a big and bad man undefeated on the pulling circuit.

Sylvester Stallone was still riding the crest of his popularity by the time OVER THE TOP hit theaters in February of 1987. This was his second Cannon film after the gritty brutality of COBRA (1986), the actors second 'Tough Cop' role after 1981s obscure STREET HAWKS co-starring Billy Dee Williams. Directed by co-head of Cannon, the late Menahem Golan, OVER THE TOP is the polar opposite of COBRA, and essentially an arm wrestling version of ROCKY (1976). Stallone co-wrote the screenplay, and, considering his status as an action hero of the day, there's very little brawling; but there's lots of sweating. And grunting. And power ballads.

There's also a lot of potential here, and much of it is wasted on a head-scratching premise that ultimately ends up being a lot of fun for all the wrong reasons; many of those reasons revolve around uproarious, emphatically delivered tough guy dialog, and Stallone's facial squinting. Had this been WHITE LINE FEVER (1975) with arm wrestling, we'd have an epic macho movie; instead what we have is a trucker movie with a heart -- reminding us every ten minutes or so with Kenny Loggins's 'Meet Me Halfway'.

"Are you Hawk? I'm Smasher!" 

 
Armwrestling as an organized sport had been around since the early 1950s. The original story for OVER THE TOP was written as far back as 1979 by Gary Conway. Upon learning the film was finally becoming a reality, promoters, in collaboration with an energetic Menahem Golan, created the International Double Elimination Over The Top Armwrestling Tournament. 

The event began in August of 1985, and the finals, an 18 hour event with over 800 competitors, were held in July of 1986. Competition was a global one, with events taking place in Europe, Israel, and Japan. Footage shot at the finals in Las Vegas was integrated into the film, OVER THE TOP. Many of the real arm wrestlers -- male and female -- were seen in the picture, and one of the most famous, John Brzenk (whom Stallone based his character), has a brief cameo during the tourney. 

Sylvester Stallone and his then wife Brigitte Nielsen were at the New York event, as was martial arts legend and action movie star Chuck Norris.

Additionally, UFC, PRIDE Fighting, and K-1 martial artist Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge was among the arm wrestlers in the finals, but didn't make it onscreen, losing his first bout of the finals, and again later in the tournament to Rick Vardell. Goodridge is one of the few pullers to beat Brzenk, named the Guinness World Record Greatest Arm Wrestler of All Time. Brzenk won in the Truckers Class in the finals taking home the big rig prize worth $250,000. The truck was used to promote the movie.

The arm wrestler seen breaking his arm during a match was real (see above). Only 4 tables were seen at one time onscreen, but 8 to 10 were used to get all the matches squeezed into the 18 hour time frame. All the scenes with Stallone's matches were shot the following day after the tournament was over. 

According to the late Rick Zumwalt, he was in and out of the film; then the 6'7" 465lb puller legend, Cleve Dean was slated to be Stallone's nemesis, but he was swapped out with 6'10" pro wrestler Big John Stud. Reportedly, Vince McMahon decided against the idea, and 6'4" Rick Zumwalt was back in again as the main bad guy.

In addition to helping put the sport of armwrestling in the limelight, OVER THE TOP (1987) inspired Gary Gallo, Sr. and Jr., a real-life father and son armwrestling duo from New York.

"My whole body is an engine and this is the fire plug, and I'm gonna light him up!"

Golan's movie revels in its story of a musclebound truck driver trying to rekindle a relationship with his son, impeded by the father of his dying ex-wife. Again, lots of opportunity to turn this into the Monster Truck of 18 wheeler cinema, but the filmmakers jack-knife down the road a ways making this one of the more awkward movies on the Italian Stallion's resume. 

Trucker movies had left their appeal behind in the previous decade, so this movie, and the more violent actioner, ROLLING VENGEANCE (released later that year) felt like throwbacks. If only Stallone had pushed for a more atypical approach to the material, we might of had a minor classic to look back on. Still, OVER THE TOP is a valiant, if failed experiment with a big rig load of entertainment value.

"I drive a truck, break arms, and arm wrestle. It's what I love to do, and it's what I do best... being number one is everything, there is no second place. Second sucks." 

The last 40+ minutes is where the films machismo goes into overdrive with an onslaught of muscles, facial and back hair, sweat, and big burly men communicating in some long lost caveman lingo. You'd swear some of these guys were having a baby. The champion of cornball comes in the form of main antagonist Bull Hurley (real life arm wrestler, Zumwalt). Spouting off a litany of chest-beating mockery, Bull is the more colorful truck stop version of Ivan Drago. Bull competes not just against Stallone in the climactic arm wrestling tourney, but against Stallone's array of facial contortions that would make Sonny Chiba very, very proud. Below is a sampling of Bull's brand of recalcitrance.

• "I OOOOWN YOOOOOUUUUUU!!!"

• "GET IN HERE!!"

• "YOU AIN'T SHIIIIIIIIT!"

• "RRRAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!!!"

• "YYYYYYEEEEEAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" 

• "Come on, chicken shit!"

• "YOU'RE MINE, ASSHOLE!"

• "I'm gonna rip yer shittin' arm off, boy!"

Friendly fellow, ain't he? 

As silly as Golan's movie is, there's no denying the films message; and a message that nearly drowns in all the heavily perspiring beefcake. This was the 1980s after all, and the mantra of standing on your own two feet, and giving it all you've got whether win or lose was as strong in this movie as it was in so many others. Unfortunately, this sort of mindset is all but extinct nowadays; where winning is, or doing your best to succeed is frowned upon. 

The soundtrack, made up of a bunch of fist-pumpin' anthems and power ballads, even has some good ole American patriotism laid over it. Robin Zander (lead singer of Cheap Trick) belts out one helluva spirited rock song, 'In This Country'. It's played over the open credits amid some sweeping camerwork. It definitely gets the movie started right.

That air of determination is alive and well within Stallone's character, Lincoln Hawk (or Hawks; the dialog can't make up its mind). Once he finally begins to break through that impenetrable wall put up by his son, he begins instilling his spirited views of perseverance into the boy. This is exemplified in a silly scene where Lincoln gets Michael to accept an arm wrestling challenge with a bully and his distracting mullet. Michael loses the first time, but wins the second and third. By the films conclusion, the son turns this around on his father once he himself begins to doubt his own abilities after he's defeated (two losses and you're out) by a neanderthal who drinks a can of Valvoline before a match. 

Sylvester Stallone is/was often chided for his acting ability; but as has been said elsewhere, he, like Charles Bronson, was a much better actor than he gets credit for. He's good here, too; although it's difficult to come to his defense during the above-mentioned last half of the movie. The almost indescribable faces he makes during the hernia convention cum armwrestling tournament are so over-reaching, Stallone looks more like he's desperately trying to pass a kidney stone, as opposed to putting a man's arm down. Buckets of adrenaline and testosterone were spent that day.

"What I do, is I, I just try to take my hat and I turn it around... and it's like a switch that goes on... and when the switch goes on, I feel like another person, I feel, I don't know, I feel... like a truck, a machine."

Aside from Stallone's constipational facial tics, there's this section of the film where it reverts to a pre-reality show type segment where some of the arm-wrasslers are interviewed. Stallone tells the cameraman he likes turning his hat around backwards because it makes him feel like he's transforming into a different person. OVER THE TOP is quite possibly the only macho action movie to feature a hero with a possible case of multiple personality disorder.

Robert Loggia is along for the ride playing what is supposed to be one of, if not the main antagonist; slightly more villainous than a character in an After School Special, but a bad guy just the same. His contribution is choked out by Zumwalt's Bull Hurley and his macho mastery of insults and emotional beat-downs.

OVER THE TOP wants to be a dramatic action movie; and in some ways, it is. The rest of the time, it's a comedy of the unintentional sort. However, the film is very important to those partial to the armwrestling circuit. Stallone would headline comedies in the early 1990s, but in 1987, he gave it a dry run; even if a comedy isn't what was intended, it's what we got. There's some good things tucked away in Menahem Golan's movie; but unfortunately, the bad things refuse to meet them halfway.

***Assorted armwrestling sites were sources for this review***

This review is representative of the Warner Brothers DVD.

The Killing Machine (1975) review

 

THE KILLING MACHINE 1975 aka SHORINJI KEMPO

Sonny Chiba (Doshin So), Makoto Sato (Otaki Kentaro), Yutaka Nakajima (Kiku Sakamoto), Makoto Naoya (Hiroshi Tomoda), Etsuko Shihomi (Miho), Kyoichi Sato (Kaga), Tetsuro Tamba (Police Chief Nobuyuki), Rikiya Yasuoka (Takehara), Kinji Takinami (Akamatsu)

Directed by Norifumi Suzuki

The Short Version: Bone-breaker extraordinaire Sonny Chiba returns to the screen essaying the real life martial artist, Doshin So, the founder of Shorinji Kempo. There's elements of Master So in this film, but sensationalism dominates; especially in the last 40 minutes. Suzuki tries to take things seriously most of the time, but the urge for breaking arms, geysers of blood, and scissoring off a rapists penis for a hungry dog is just too much to resist. Arguably one of the Bad Man From Japan's bests movies, it sits stoically alongside other brute-tastic, body mangling movies like THE STREET FIGHTER (1974) and THE EXECUTIONER (1974).

After Japan surrenders in 1945, Doshin So, an undercover agent behind enemy lines in China, goes back home to Osaka. Upon arriving there, he rescues a young lady sold into prostitution by a Yakuza gang, and takes in a band of orphaned children. Running into trouble with some American GI's, Master So cripples two of the MP's and is arrested. The Japanese chief of police is sympathetic to the martial arts master, and allows him to leave quietly. Leaving for Shikoku, Doshin So sets up a martial arts school, and soon runs into the same Yakuza mobsters from Osaka. Along with corrupt lawmen, the mob begin taking lands for their own use, and So's school is highly prized by them. A violent war between Doshin and his students versus the gangsters litters the landscape with blood and broken bones.

So far the only movie based -- as loose as it is -- on the life of Nakano Michiomi, later to be known as Doshin So (or Kaiso, 'the founder'), the man who brought Shaolin martial arts to Japan. Filmed in cooperation with Japan's Shorinji Kempo Federation, Isao Matsumoto's script inserts small chunks of the real Master So's experiences, using these bits and pieces to build the action portions of the story around them. These autobiographical moments are gotten out of the way rather quickly so as to make room for three sub-plots that are all connected to Chiba's character. Throughout the picture, Doshin So acts as a problem solving Karate savant; a martial arts Moses, if you will. These three arcs are modestly peppered with violent interactions with the villains who will feature heavily in the last half of the picture when the exploitation portions of the film set in. 

Taking place during a three year period in Master So's life (1945-1948), the film begins at the end of WW2, and So's job as a military intelligence agent is done after Japan's surrender. Returning to his homeland, he sees a devastated, demoralized Japan. He then makes it his mission to aid in rebuilding Japan by rebuilding the crushed spirits of its citizens. He founds Shorinji Kempo in 1947; and that's the extent of the historical connections. There's also a brief flashback to So's childhood when he visits his mother's grave. As for accounts on the real man himself....

According to sources, Michiomi enlisted in the military at 17, and eventually found himself stationed in Manchuria as a secret agent. It was also during this time he became heavily influenced by Chinese martial arts, particularly the kung fu styles of Shaolin. Taught an array of locks, grappling, and throwing techniques (which makes up a lot of the martial arts seen in the film), Michiomi learned faster than the average student. His master, Wen Tai Zhong made him his successor, granting Michiomi the title of Grandmaster; and changing his name to Doshin So (Religious Servant of the Way). He returned to Japan and began his efforts of reinvigorating the Japanese by reaching out to, and eventually training the youth of the day.

One of the most fascinating aspects of Doshin So the man was his abandoning of ideological, religious, and political polarities in favor of individual qualities of a person; pushing his students to do their best, and find the confidence within themselves to re-establish their sense of purpose and self-worth; this, too, is touched on in the movie on a handful of occasions; particularly when he is forced to get physical with the now one-armed Tomoda (one of the three dramatic arcs presented in the film). Drunk and wishing to die, Master So throws him out into the rain and begins wailing on him, tossing him around like a rag doll to try and anger Tomoda to the point he'll realize he can't let his crippling injury allow him to give up.

Racism is an issue that's espoused upon; it's not a subject the script dwells on, but it makes its presence known a few times. There's disdain from the Japanese towards the Americans, and an even more palpable sense of prejudice from the Japanese towards the Korean population residing there. This discrimination is the catalyst for two of the three expositional branches Suzuki's movie uses to tell its story.

For example, Otaki Kentaro (frequent Chiba co-star, Makoto Sato) returns home from the way only to find his wife has remarried, and to a Korean. Thinking he was killed in battle, he's stunned at his wife's admission; and upon discovering she has a son now, he's even more devastated. Things get no better when Otaki learns the son is actually his. Instead of breaking up this new family, Otaki decides to go his separate way. He contemplates suicide till his friend Doshin convinces him otherwise.

Known for his sleazy pinky violence movies, and artistically unsavory films along the lines of SCHOOL OF THE HOLY BEAST (1974), Norifumi Suzuki mixes Karate action with heavy doses of drama in SHORINJI KEMPO. It's an unusual pairing that periodically mimics the outrageous antics seen in Shigehiro Ozawa's THE STREET FIGHTER (1974) the year prior. However, Suzuki's film enters Ozawa's nihilistic arena in a big way after the 50 minute mark -- highlighted by one sequence in which Master So punishes a Yakuza for raping a young girl. He pulls out a pair of scissors and severs the man's penis! Tossing the sausage to the ground, the meat attracts the attention of a dog who then makes a meal out of the malcontent's member. 

The Doshin So of Suzuki's film, and of Chiba's portrayal likewise mirrors THE STREET FIGHTER's Tokuma Tsurugi's penchant for bone breaking. Director Suzuki tries to one-up his colleague by having Chiba bend, twist, and contort his victims limbs till they no longer resemble functioning appendages. In addition to all the crushed bones and fractured ribs, there's a gory dismemberment with a LONE WOLF level of arterial spray.

The real Doshin So worked with lead star Sonny Chiba in preparation for shooting this picture. The martial arts may be there, but the movie was the opposite of So's teachings. A disclaimer at the beginning somewhat confirms this; but then an ending title card tries to justify all the onscreen brutality with a Blaise Pascal quote, "Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is violence". The quote is applicable to this movie, only it's fickle about being a serious story, and one riddled with violence and Karate fights. The films American release as THE KILLING MACHINE only pushed the movie further away from the philosophical underpinnings of Shorinji Kempo, and reinforced the action and brutality quotient stamped into the film like a hellfire missile of Chiba combos.

Regarding the violence, much of it is foisted upon Sonny Chiba and those close to him in this, one of his best movies. Playing a man prone to passivity, the Cheebster keeps that patently mean visage in check, evoking just enough intense vexation to know that he's bringing the pain, and someone else will be feeling it. He actually gets to emote a bit, and expand on his range as an actor for this sort of picture. Chiba would star in a similar movie released in August of that year, KARATE BULL FIGHTER; a film based on the life of his martial arts teacher, Masutatsu Oyama. It was the first of a trilogy. Coming on the heels of his iconic THE STREET FIGHTER (1974) and the similar THE EXECUTIONER (1974), SHORINJI KEMPO was released in February of 1975. It was one of nine(!) movies the actor appeared in that year.

This was Suzuki's first outing with the martial arts superstar. Six years later, he'd be working with JAC again with the wild SHOGUN'S NINJA (1980), the modern day bizarro martial arts actioner ROARING FIRE (1981), and KAGEMARU, THE NINJA (1983), a live-action adaptation of the anime IGANO KAGEMARU. 

Composer Shunsuke Kikuchi's riffs have that standard Chiba sound to them like many of the actors other Karate pictures around this time. Kikuchi composed some of those too, like KARATE BULL FIGHTER (1975). There's nothing remarkable about the SHORINJI KEMPO score, but the cues suffice in their usage. One of the best pieces is the wa-wa guitar heard in the finale. Kikuchi was incredibly prolific -- to  a degree that might make Morricone blush. Just some of the man's genre works include the music and theme song for many of the KAMEN RIDER series', IRON KING, and the MESSAGE FROM SPACE television series; his movie work includes GOKE, BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL (1968), the last four Showa Gamera films from GUIRON onward, and the SISTER STREET FIGHTER (1974) film series.

SHORINJI KEMPO is sometimes lost in the shuffle, or on down the list when Chiba's available filmography is discussed; this is unfortunate as it's one of the man's bests pictures. It features some of Chiba's best martial arts sequences displaying a level of control that was vastly different from his more famous roles as the STREET FIGHTER Tokuma Tsurugi and Koga of the two EXECUTIONER movies. It's another martial arts film, but the character Chiba plays is multi-layered; something he hadn't played yet in these pictures up to this point. While many would immediately recommend THE STREET FIGHTER, this pseudo-biographical actioner is an engaging introduction to The Killing Machine, Sonny Chiba.  

This review is representative of the BCI/Ronin Blu-ray.