Nolte — Movies We Love: Carl Weathers Is ‘Action Jackson’ (1988)

At the too-young age of 76, The Mighty Carl Weathers is dead. His legacy goes beyond an impressive screen career — Rocky I, II, III, IV, Death Hunt (1981), Predator (1987), and Happy Gilmore (1996). His legacy is the legacy all stars should strive for: audience goodwill. We loved the guy. We still love the guy, so this one hits harder than most.

Not to take anything away from Sylvester Stallone’s Oscar-nominated screenplay, but Weathers is a primary reason Rocky and Apollo Creed become iconic. In 1976, with only three small credits to his name, Carl Weathers was asked to be Muhammad Ali when Muhammad Ali was still Muhammad Ali — and he did it without coming close to an impersonation. When you think about that, it’s a truly remarkable accomplishment.

In wrestling parlance, Weathers was cast as “The Heel” and rose so far above that single dimension that as much as we needed Rocky Balboa to win, we didn’t boo or hiss Apollo Creed. Weathers delivered what all great actors deliver: something unspoken. For all his masculine bravado, condescending trash talk… With his pride always on the edge of being wounded and ego trips, you could see the man was trapped in a Machine that was always ready to eat him alive.

As much as we wanted Rocky to win, that didn’t mean we wanted to see Apollo lose.

What Weathers and Stallone accomplished over the next three Rocky movies was equally impressive. Apollo evolved, but he was always Apollo Creed. That charming, confused, complicated masculine ego got Rocky Balboa past Clubber Lang, and then it took Apollo’s life.

That special thing Weathers created worked equally well in Predator (1987), in which he played Dillon, a CIA stooge who betrays his friend and fellow combat buddy, Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger). As the mission unravels, Weathers’ Dillon plays the vital storytelling role of creating tension within an otherwise tight-knit group. But once again, Weathers elevates “The Heel” into something more — into another man trapped in another Machine.

Weathers guest-starred in two episodes of The Shield as Joe Clark, a disgraced ex-cop. This time, the Machine of his own making. Clark destroyed his life, family, and career, and now he’s squeaking out a living on the edge of the law as a man whose pride is failing at convincing his conscience that it’s all okay. There’s a moment — and if you’ve seen it, you remember it — when Clark’s everything’s-cool front evaporates when he enters his shitty, one-bedroom Los Angeles apartment carrying his own laundry basket. What a moment. What a great piece of acting.

Did you know that in 1988, between its theatrical gross and home video proceeds, Action Jackson made $65 million off an $8 million budget? In today’s dollars, that’s a $168 million gross off of a $21 million budget.

According to Weathers, he created the original idea for the Action Jackson character. He pitched producer Joel Silver on the concept of bringing Blaxploitation into the eighties. Silver liked the idea enough to hire a screenwriter, and the result is one of the most eighties movies ever made (yes, that’s a compliment).

Generally, Blaxploitation movies feature anti-heroes. Shaft, Superfly, Black Caesar, Slaughter, and Foxy Brown operate outside the law. Jericho “Action” Jackson isn’t far off: he’s a Detroit cop who also works outside the law. Two years ago, he was busted down to sergeant from lieutenant after nearly tearing off a sex criminal’s arm. Jackson’s defense?

“He had a spare.”

Yes, it’s that kind of movie, and every one of its 96 minutes is pure 80’s glory.

• Heavyset, frustrated black police captain vexed by our hero: check.
• Overworked fog machine: check.
• Gratuitous pop songs filmed like a music video to appeal to the MTV crowd: check.
• Gratuitous nudity involving astonishingly beautiful women: check.
• Hero firing off catchphrases before dispatching bad guys (“Chill out.” “How do you like your ribs?” ): check.
• Salt and pepper cops engaging in gloriously inappropriate sexual banter: check.
• Hero physically abusing suspects while firing off jokes so we forget all about the police brutality: check.
• Synthesizer score: check.
• Utterly illogical plot twists: check.
• Over-the-top corporate villain with a blackbelt: check.
• This guy: check.
• Hero’s doomed best friend moving the plot: check.
• Bad guys flying through plate-glass: check.
• Hero drives a classic car: check.
• Divorced and lonely hero lives alone in a dingy apartment: check.
• Painfully obvious Los Angeles locations standing in for Detroit: check.
• Shirtless, oiled-up hero tortured by villains: check.

If that’s not enough, how’s this for eighties? A Predator reunion with Bill Duke and Sonny Landham? Action Jackson director Craig R. Buxley was the stunt coordinator on Predator. And, of course, producer Joel Silver.

Wait, because it gets better…

There’s a Die Hard pre-reunion with Silver, Robert Davi, Al Leong, De’voreaux White, and Dennis Hayden.

We get Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) from Back to the Future as the hilariously hapless “salt” cop.

How about Paula Abdul doing the choreography? Is that eighties enough for you?

If not…

Then comes the most eighties thing of all… Vanity. Poor, doomed, drop-dead-gorgeous Vanity — a walking, talking astonishment. The only creature who makes Halle Berry look like Chelsea Clinton.

It’s all there, and it’s beyond silly, but it works because if Carl Weathers is having a good time, we are all having a good time, and Action Jackson is all about delivering a good time.

Robert Davi makes a full meal out of his every tortured scene.

Although she won’t be fully ripe for another few years, even in the helpless wife role, you can feel the steel being forged that would make Sharon Stone a full-blown movie star.

Bill Duke is brilliant playing against type. He might be the heavyset, frustrated, black police captain vexed by our hero, but instead of yelling things like “The chief is chewing my ass!” Duke is having none of it. His every word is precise and NPR-calm.

As the arch-villain, Craig T. Nelson plays it perfectly straight and somehow sells a truly ridiculous role.

And then there’s Weathers, who effortlessly carries a movie that should’ve launched at least two sequels. Apparently, that became impossible after the rights were blown into a hundred pieces during a merger, acquisition, or whatever…

Action Jackson is a return to a pre-CGI Hollywood that is long dead — a Hollywood so desperate to entertain and transcend meaningless skin color that this blatant desperation breeds its own form of goodwill, one that glides us over the plot holes and cliches.

Above all, there’s Weathers — a leading man’s leading man: looks, charisma, intelligence, physical capability, and presence; a Star who projected something all his own —a larger-than-life ego filled with pathos and charm.

You know, Stallion, it’s too bad we gotta get old.

Just keep punching, Apollo.

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