After my friend at Movies in the Attic turned me onto Jerry Trimble's Live By the Fist, I was hooked. Trimble was the man, and that movie was amazing. I knew, since his others wouldn't have George Takei, they wouldn't exactly be as good, but I had a feeling they'd still be awesome. I mean he was no Takei, but Trimble was pretty sweet in it too.
One Man Army is a Walking Tall retread, only Trimble is way cooler than either Joe Don Baker or The Rock, so really this isn't a retread, it's more of an improvement. Anyway, Trimble returns to the small town he grew up in after his grandfather that raised him dies, and the town's in bad shape. In a move reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson, he runs for sheriff in an attempt to clean the county up, and wins. But the people making money off the poor townsfolk have other ideas, and Trimble needs to kick some justice into their heads.
No Live By the Fist, but what is? It was pretty sweet just the same. Why they made that stupid Walking Tall with The Rock, or it's bad sequels with Kevin Sorbo, when we have the model for how to do it properly right here, is beyond me. I'm not saying I don't like The Rock, and Sorbo's great as Hercules, but when it comes to guys coming back to their small home towns to clean up corruption, I want it done by Jerry Trimble in a low budget actioner. It's just way more fun.
What else can I say about Jerry Trimble? Two-for-two, and it's not even close. This guy just brings it every scene. You can't help but root for him. At the end of the movie, they release all the bad guys he's arrested and let them loose in the town. It kind of reminded me of when I play Mega Man, and I have to fight all the bosses one more time before I fight Dr. Wily. The only difference is, with Mega Man, I gotta do the work, and it sucks, while here I get to watch Trimble do the work, and it's awesome! He was in The Last Sentinel with Don "The Dragon" Wilson, and I think that'll be a good one to do next for both of them, because they're both world kickboxing champs.
I think this movie was shot in the Philippines. It definitely wasn't shot in the US, no matter how much they'd have you believe that. It didn't look like any American South to me. The best was they tried to pass the least Asian of the local population as Mexicans. Bringing Sorbo and Hercules back up, it was like watching all the local Maoris playing Ancient Greek thugs. Good stuff.
My one complaint was the use of the dog as his partner. Cheesy. Why go Rin Tin Tin on our asses, when you've got Jerry Trimble. I like having the dog there as his pet, but having it save his life? And more than once? Perhaps the most hilarious was when he was in a burning house, and the dog was helping to drag him out. Straight up ridiculous.
I was watching this with a friend, and I told her the moment the female lead showed up on screen that we would be seeing her boobs. I was right, but I don't think I'm gifted with powers of foresight more than I've just seen enough of these to know how they work. Her love scene with Trimble was set to smooth jazz, which was pretty funny. It was like The Weather Channel, and I was expecting a voice to come in and say "The current temperature is... 45... degrees under... PARTLY CLOUDY... skies." The woman's name is Melissa Moore, and she's been in some of the Vice Academy movies, which were an Up All Night staple with Gilbert Godfried and Rhonda Shear. I need to check some of those out again.
Get this. Get it with Live By the Fist if you haven't already seen that too. Trimble is a machine and there are very few lull points: it's constant action. I just wish all action movies were at least this good.
For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110733/
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