Movies are usually made to be seen. That’s especially true
of Hollywood and the Hollywood-adjacent system of making movies. The only
reason that anything will get greenlit is for people to see it. It’s not about
a storyteller getting something out of their system so much as it’s about that
something being put in front of other people. Whatever must be done to secure
that distribution will be done, if only to ensure that people can see a movie.
The main way to get people interested in seeing something is
to cast a well-known actor in a major role. Tentpole blockbuster movies are all
about having the biggest stars. Casting Dwayne Johnson in a movie is a
sure-fire way to rake in millions upon millions of dollars. He’s a popular
commodity that people will go out to the theater (when it’s open) to see. He
gets movies greenlit. If they’re already greenlit, he gets them better release
dates, more marketing, more screens, and all that fun stuff.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, action stars were the big
commodity. There were people like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone,
Bruce Willis, and… Any of the older cast in the Expendables franchise,
really. They would be the faces in the big action movies. The classics that
people remember are the ones that starred many of these actors. Then there were
the other action movies.
When movies aren’t made by the big studios, they don’t tend
to bring in the same level of movie stars. Look at The Asylum, for example.
They can’t attract names like Tom Cruise or Dwayne Johnson to be in their
movies, so they look elsewhere. They’ll get people who had some star power back
in the day and use that little bit of recognition to bring whatever attention
they can to their movies. That’s why Ian Ziering starred in Sharknado.
He was a big star in his Beverly Hills 90210 days, but he wasn’t nearly
as big in 2013 when that first Sharknado film dropped.
The action movies made outside the big Hollywood studio
system in the 1980s and 1990s used that same sort of tactic when casting the
stars in their movies. They would go for people who used to be more popular, or
people tangentially related to more famous people. These actors would end up in
the leading roles as action heroes, if only because people might recognize them
from years before or because of their last name. If they were lucky, it was
because they were a supporting actor in something popular.
Street Corner Justice was a 1996 movie that used that
tactic. Mike Justice (Marc Singer) was a Pittsburgh cop who used a little too
much force when taking down bad guys. He was caught on film using excessive
force on an unarmed rapist. The police force put him on a forced retirement. In
response, he moved to Los Angeles and found something new to fight for. His
neighbourhood was being overrun by gangs and drug dealers. The local businesses
were being put in danger. The people were having their lives threatened. Mike
Justice took it upon himself to clean things up.
Marc Singer had found some popularity starring in the Beastmaster
movies and showing up in shows like V and Dallas. His popularity
peaked in the 1980s. It was all downhill from there. It’s not that he wasn’t
working. Beastmaster III came out in 1996. He just wasn’t anywhere near
his peak popularity. That made it easier to cast him in a leading role in a
lower-tier action flick.
This wasn’t the only time in the Sunday “Bad” Movies that
this type of casting was done in an action movie of that era. I’ve seen a few
lower-tier action movies from the late 1980s and the 1990s. Each one of them
featured casting of this kind. There were either stars who were on the fading
end of their popularity or actors who were related to other, more famous
actors. And each one placed those tangential stars into leading roles.
Let’s look into a few with the family connection. Terror
in Beverly Hills was a 1989 film that featured Frank Stallone. He was
clearly cast because his brother was one of the biggest action stars at the
time, Sylvester Stallone. You might recognize Frank Stallone for his supporting
roles in many movies, including Fred Claus and Hudson Hawk. He
was never a leading man in his own right. It just wasn’t something that was
going to happen for him. He got a lead role in this action flick about Hack
Stone saving the president’s daughter from terrorists, though.
Laser Mission was a Brandon Lee action flick that
came out in 1989 or 1990, a year or two before Showdown in Little Tokyo and
four or five years before The Crow. It was a movie that starred him just
because he was the son of Bruce Lee, one of the greatest martial arts stars of
all time. It became one of those action movies that would pop up in cheap box
sets of forgotten low budget movies. I think I have three copies of Laser Mission
because of that.
Squanderers, also known as Money to Burn, came
out 1996. It went for a double feature of famous family. The more well known of
the two was Chad McQueen, who had been one of the Cobra Kai members in The
Karate Kid. He was the son of Steve McQueen. His partner in extravagance in
the movie was played by Don Swayze, the brother of Patrick Swayze. Both of them
were clearly cast for their relation to popular actors. It wasn’t because they
were a big commodity.
I’ve featured action flicks with faded stars in them as well,
both from the 80s/90s era and more recently. Ice was a 1994 action flick
about a jewel thief going up against a gangster. The jewel thief was played by
Traci Lords, nearly a decade after the peak of her popularity in the porn
industry. The movie also featured Zach Galligan, who was most well known for
the Gremlins movies. He hadn’t been nearly as popular as Traci Lords,
but he was still someone whose career high was behind him.
And, though it was the late 1980s and 1990s action that
pioneered this tactic, it still happens to this day. There are the big tentpole
blockbuster movies that get released on a regular basis. As long as people are
able to go see them, that is. Then there are the under-the-radar action movies
that get released to television, to streaming, or direct-to-video. They are the
ones that don’t get the promotion of the bigger movies. They are out there for
people to see, but they aren’t the big event movies.
This is the place where you find the faded action stars of
yesteryear. People like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven
Seagal, and Dolph Lundgren live in this area. Legitimate action stars who have
made a name for themselves in this area, such as Scott Adkins and Michael Jai
White have managed to become a way for lower-budget action to earn an audience.
Then there are the relatives and faded stars, fighting for a new path to some
sort of success and paycheck.
There are also people like Dominic Purcell, who was a star
on the popular television show Prison Break before his career turned to
direct-to-video action movies. He has starred in things like Ice Soldiers,
In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission, and Assault on Wall
Street. Lou Diamond Phillips went from a healthy big film career in the
1980s and 1990s to a direct-to-video Cop and a Half sequel in 2017.
David Hasselhoff pops up periodically in things like Piranha 3DD and Anaconda
III: Offspring. It’s not uncommon to see former stars slumming it in
direct-to-video or television movies.
Casting a major star in a movie can bring a cachet that it
wouldn’t otherwise have. It can pique the interest of potential audiences,
which will lead to more butts in seats and a larger box office revenue. Studios
know this. That’s why movie stars are a thing. People like Vin Diesel, Chris
Pratt, and Tom Cruise can bring with them a built-in audience. Their movies
become the big blockbuster movies frequently in the year’s biggest
money-makers. The studios trust them, and they stick with the studios.
Smaller films don’t have the same opportunities to scoop up
the big stars. A low budget action flick won’t have the money to pay for Tom
Cruise to star in it. But they still want to have the opportunity to make back
the production budget, and hopefully get a profit on top of it. They do that by
getting the fading stars or the people related to the more popular actors. Maybe
someone perusing the shelves at Walmart or looking through the streaming
service menus will remember the person and decide to check out the movie. It
gives them a slightly better chance to be seen. Isn’t that what movies are for?
To be seen?
These notes don’t need to be seen, but they’ll be here
anyway:
- A bunch of movies from the Sunday “Bad” Movies were mentioned in this post. They were Sharknado (week 190), Terror in Beverly Hills (week 78), Hudson Hawk (week 232), Fred Claus (week 265), Laser Mission (week 139), Squanderers (week 245), Ice (week 365), Ice Soldiers (week 71), In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission (week 220), Cop and a Half: New Recruit (week 340), and Anaconda III: Offspring (week 80).
- Clint Howard played a rapist in Street Corner Justice. He was previously in House of the Dead (week 59), Blackwoods (week 115), Blubberella (week 189), Santa with Muscles (week 211), and The Wraith (week 355).
- Street Corner Justice was Greg Bronson's introduction into the Sunday "Bad" Movies five-timers' club. He was previously in View from the Top (week 83), Money Train (week 109), Batman and Robin (week 138), and Jingle All the Way (week 160).
- Tommy 'Tiny' Lister made his fourth Sunday "Bad" Movies appearance this week. His first three appearances were in The Human Centipede III (week 180), Santa's Slay (week 263), and The Wash (week 303).
- Street Corner Justice featured Kevin Sifuentes, an actor who also appeared in Steel (week 127) and Gotcha! (week 357).
- Juan Garcia and Peter Vasquez returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Street Corner Justice, after first showing up in Robot Wars (week 37).
- Ron Soble, from Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (week 20), was in Street Corner Justice.
- Beverly Leech was in Surf School (week 42) and Street Corner Justice.
- Street Corner Justice saw the return of David S. Kaufman, who had previously been in Jack Frost (week 54).
- Finally, Shelly Desai was in both Street Corner Justice and Sandy Wexler (week 231).
- Have you seen Street Corner Justice? What do you think of this action b-movie territory? Do you like the casting of faded stars? What about relatives of stars? I’d like to hear from you. Just leave any of your thoughts on the movie or the post in the comments, or contact me on Twitter.
- Any suggestions for movies I should be checking out are welcome. Twitter and the comments are the places to find me if you have suggestions.
- I would like for you to check out the Sunday “Bad” Movies account on Instagram. I try to regularly post things on there. Give it a look see.
- Next week, I will be jumping into the 1980s to take a look at a sex comedy. That’s right. The sex comedy is back in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. It has been a while since I featured a straight up sex comedy. What better way is there to get back into the subgenre than with 1984’s Hardbodies? That’ll be coming up next Sunday, and I hope you’ll join me for another post.
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