American Warships is about an EMP attack on warships in the Pacific by a mysterious actor. Could it be the North Koreans? The Chinese? Either way, General Hugh McCracken (Weathers) and the Secretary of Defense need to get to the bottom of it before World War III breaks out. Fortunately the USS Iowa, a World War II warship, has been restored to its WWII glory in anticipation of it becoming a living museum in California, which means it survived the EMP burst and is still functional. Led by Captain Mario Van Peebles, it's our only hope against an all out war. But when he sends a group of Navy SEALs onboard the enemy ship, what they find will change everything. The problem is, will everyone believe them?
This is pretty standard Asylum fare. Lots of CGI, to the point you kind of can't always make out what you're seeing; a story that's uneven and probably could've used a few more rewrites, but no one had the time; and some big names who are giving you as much as they can, but also possibly imagining how they're going to be reading their agents the riot act when this is all done. On the other hand it feels like it's trying to mimic the 50s sci-fi slogs you'd get on an MST3K, or that might be on TV on a weekend afternoon growing up. The thing I'd say about that, is the film techniques those movies used actually looked nicer. There are scenes where raiding parties are trying to board the stealth enemy ship, and there's fake water splashing everywhere, to the point that I couldn't make out anything that was going on. No 50s sci-fi flick would do that. There are ways though that The Asylum improves on the 50s model though. You wouldn't see a person of color in a command role back then, but here we have two in Van Peebles and Weathers; plus we have women in prominent roles, and more than one. Ultimately, I think like those 50s sci-fi flicks that you might see on a weekend afternoon to kill time, this film fills the same niche, whether you're watching alone or with friends, and maybe that's not such a bad thing.
Where do we even start with Carl Weathers? For me, like most movie watchers, Apollo Creed was where I first saw him, and that would've been in Rocky III on The Movie Loft, which would've been followed up soon after with Rocky IV and The Predator. From there, it would've been Street Justice in the early 90s. Friday nights on WNDS in Derry, NH, we had Renegade and Street Justice--a much better line-up than ABC's TGIF shows. Weathers and Genesse were a great pair, and it was one of my favorite shows at that time. Then I saw Action Jackson, where not only was he amazing, but the fact that we had Coach as a baddie was great too. And I think that really cemented Weathers as an all-time great for me, so whenever I saw him in anything else after that, like Happy Gilmore or Friday Foster, or heard his voice in a Regular Show episode or saw him in The Mandalorian, there was a sense of "this is awesome just because it has Weathers in it," he had attained that level. Even though he's not in this as much, I do think you can say that about this, or at least that it's better just by virtue of the fact that he's in it. And I think that's what we'll miss the most about Weathers leaving us, the fact that we'll no longer have anything new coming out that's awesome just because it has him in it. Here's to you Mr. Weathers, you truly were one of the greatest to ever do it, and you'll be greatly missed.
In addition to Weathers, we had Mario Van Peebles as the ship's captain. I had just seen him a little while back in a rewatch of Highlander: The Final Dimension, so obviously this role was a departure from that. I joked above that he was probably mentally dressing down his agent for getting him this part, but I will say too that Van Peebles may have also considered that 50-60 years earlier his part wouldn't have been available to him due to his ethnicity, and that may have factored into him signing on. This is where representation matters, because for him growing up in the 60s, when these old sci-fi movies would've been on TV or showing in local theaters, he would've only seen white guys, especially in leadership roles, but now a kid flipping through the channels or browsing Tubi on a Saturday afternoon could stumble upon this and him leading everyone into battle against the baddies--and not just African American kids either. Compare that to the blockbuster this was ripping off, Battleship, where Van Peebles's part was played by Alexander Skarsgard and Weathers's part was played by Liam Neeson. With that in mind, maybe Van Peebles saw more in this than a paycheck.
Speaking of Battleship, I'd totally forgotten that movie even existed. As with many Asylum Mockbusters, I try to find the movie they were mimicking if it's not obvious, and I only found it when I read in the trivia that they originally wanted to call this "American Battleships," but Universal threatened to sue if they did. It's easy to understand why I would've forgotten that Battleship even existed, because 2012 was full of big movies that all pulled in a ton of money. That early 2010s period, where everyone was scrambling to find the next big franchise, Marvel Studios was totally changing the game with The Avengers, but at that time, no one, including The Asylum, knew that was going to happen, so when they saw Battleship was being made they scrambled to get their own Mockbuster version out there, which has now becomes like an inside joke that people would only get if they remembered the moment it was referring to. The thing about the Asylum is they can never quite get a movie like this all the way right, which seems odd, because these movies feel like they make themselves. Like we have a scene where a Navy SEAL comes back from the enemy ship and he's all charred, and they find a roll of film he stuck inside himself by carving a hole in his abdomen. Why did we need that? I guess because The Asylum is always gonna Asylum. Anyway, this is now 35 films for them, meaning they're closing in on the 40 Club. I don't know if they're make it this year, but they'll definitely get there eventually. You almost have to admire their stick-to-it-iveness.
Finally, one aspect of The Asylum film I enjoy, is that one supporting character we get that I want to root for. In this case it's Nikki McCauley's Dr. Julia Flynn, a quirky WWII expert who's leading the overhaul of the ship to make it a living WWII museum. When the EMP first strikes and knocks out all of the ship's electronics, she points out all of the retro-fitted elements that still work. Van Peebles isn't sure he can trust her, but with only 90 minutes, they can't mess around with that too much, so she ends up playing an integral part in their success against the baddies. Unfortunately, in true Asylum fashion, her character is severely injured and we see her at the end, forced to walk with a cane and with a scar on her face--again, Asylum gonna Asylum. I think the Asylum goes into things expecting all of the characters to be like Dr. Flynn, that we want to root for everyone on the side of good, but usually due to how the script falls, the editing, and the performances, we're lucky if we get one like that, and fortunately we did here. Here's to all the Nikki McCauley's out there, making Asylum films more palatable.
And with that, let's wrap this up. As of my writing, you can get this on Tubi here in the States. I don't know that it's one you want to go out of your way for, and if you're looking for a film to watch in tribute of Carl Weathers, all of the Rocky films are on Max, and The Predator is on Hulu; but for a weekend afternoon time killer, this will do the trick. As far as Weathers, one of the true legends of the film world, he will be missed, and I think he's worthy of a second toast, so here's to you again Mr. Weathers, you were one of the greatest.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2175927/
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