''Action Jackson'' is a 1988 American

action comedy film The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the Americ ...

directed by Craig R. Baxley, starring

Carl Weathers Carl Weathers (January 14, 1948 – February 1, 2024) was an American actor, director and gridiron football player. His prominent roles included boxer Apollo Creed in the first four ''Rocky'' films (1976–1985), Colonel Al Dillon in ''Predat ...

Vanity Vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness compared to others. Prior to the 14th century, it did not have such narcissistic undertones, and merely meant ''futility''. The related term vainglory is now often seen as ...

Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress and film producer. Known for primarily playing femmes fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the ...

and Craig T. Nelson. Weathers stars as Jericho "Action" Jackson, a Detroit Police detective investigating a corrupt auto magnate (Nelson). The film was released in the United States by Lorimar Film Entertainment on February 12, 1988. It received mostly negative reviews, but was a minor box office success.

Plot

Detroit Police Department Detective Sergeant Jericho Jackson, known locally as "Action" Jackson, was a celebrated lieutenant in the police force. He had been demoted nearly two years prior, because of a case he headed involving the criminal son of successful businessman Peter Anthony Dellaplane. The fallout over the case also collapsed Jackson's marriage and put the

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

educated, star athlete and hometown hero at odds with the public. Even after his demotion, Jackson's continued interest leads to conflicts with his commander, Captain Armbruster, but he begins investigating Dellaplane's professional exploits, eventually uncovering a string of murdered trade-union members connected to Dellaplane's company. He discovers Dellaplane is secretly maneuvering into a "behind-the-throne" seat of power, and has been using a group of assassins, The Invisible Men, to murder uncooperative union officials. Jackson is assisted by Dellaplane's mistress, Sydney Ash, a local lounge singer and

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

addict, whom the businessman has assisted financially. He is eventually framed in the murder of Dellaplane's wife Patrice (who was actually killed by her husband, after her discovery of his plot, and her seeking help from Jackson). On the run from the police, Jackson is helped by friends from his old neighborhood: Kid Sable, a local hotel owner and retired professional boxer and Dee, a lively local hairdresser (and gossip informant) who gives Jackson a way to discreetly get to Dellaplane. Jackson and Sydney arrange a meeting with Dellaplane's figurehead replacement for the auto union, unaware that The Invisible Men had been tracking them and allowed the meeting so that Dellaplane could confront Jackson face to face. Before he leaves with Sydney in tow, Dellaplane arrogantly reveals the reasoning for his plans and intends to exact it using Jackson as a pawn. He intends to kill Jackson, put one of The Invisible Men in his place, have him kill an important union official, and then have Jackson's charred body discovered after he failed his getaway. Jackson is rescued by Sydney's bodyguard "Big" Edd and the pair battle the Invisible Men assigned to kill him. Jackson's escape leads to a fight at Dellaplane's mansion during the birthday party for the union leader Dellaplane plans to have assassinated. During the melee, the other members of The Invisible Men are killed by Jackson, Edd, Jackson's old partner Detective Kotterwell, and a rehabilitated young thief named Albert, with help from Kid Sable. However, Dellaplane takes Sydney hostage and hides inside a bedroom in his mansion. Jackson fights his way to the room Dellaplane is holding Sydney in. After a brief standoff, Dellaplane, a trained martial artist, challenges Jackson to hand-to-hand combat. At first Dellaplane has the upper hand, but after ramming Jackson into one of the car windows, an angered Jackson rallies and proceeds to thrash Dellaplane. In desperation, Dellaplane goes for his gun, only for Jackson to seize his own and engage in a crossfire exchange, with Jackson killing Dellaplane and receiving a wound in the shoulder. Captain Armbruster arrives with reinforcements, informs Jackson that he wants a full report on his desk in the morning and reinstates him as a lieutenant. Sydney reveals she plans to go "cold turkey" off of heroin, promising Jackson can have her "on Thanksgiving". Jackson replies, "Can I have you any sooner?" Sydney giggles and the two kiss passionately.

Cast

as Sergeant Jericho "Action" Jackson * Craig T. Nelson as Peter Anthony Dellaplane *

as Sydney Ash *

as Patrice Dellaplane *

Bill Duke William Henry Duke Jr. (born February 26, 1943) is an American actor, director, and producer. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. As a ...

as Captain Earl Armbruster *

Robert Davi Robert John Davi (born June 26, 1951) is an American actor, singer, and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing Jake Fratelli in '' The Goonies'' (19 ...

as Tony Moretti * Jack Thibeau as Detective Kotterwell * Armelia McQueen as Dee * Stan Foster as Albert Smith *

Roger Aaron Brown Roger Aaron Brown (born June 12, 1949) is an American character actor known for his role as Deputy Chief Joe Noland on the hit CBS drama television series ''The District'' from 2000 to 2004, and for his minor role in the 1988 science fiction fil ...

as Officer Lack * Thomas F. Wilson as Officer Kornblau * Edgar Small as Raymond Foss * Chino 'Fats' Williams as "Kid" Sable * Prince A. Hughes as Edd * Francis X. McCarthy as Oliver O'Rooney * De'voreaux White as Clovis * Dennis Hayden as Shaker *

David Glen Eisley David Glen Eisley (born September 5, 1952) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and actor. Personal life Eisley was born in Los Angeles, California and is the son of actor Anthony Eisley and Judith Tubbs Eisley. While in high school, he ...

as Thaw * Bob Minor as Gamble * Brian Libby as Marlin * David Efron as Birch * Jim Haynie as Morty Morton

Production

later said of the film: Robert Reneau, a friend of ''Predator'' actor and perennial Silver collaborator

Shane Black Shane Black (born December 16, 1961) is an American screenwriter, film director, and actor, known for his distinctive style of Action film, action and action comedy films. He is the original creator of the ''Lethal Weapon (franchise), Lethal Wea ...

, was hired to write the screenplay and submitted his original draft one month and a half later. It is his first produced script, although he had briefly worked on additional scenes for ''

Lethal Weapon ''Lethal Weapon'' is a 1987 American action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Shane Black. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan. In ''Lethal Weapon'', a pai ...

''. In addition to Weathers and Silver, supporting actors

and

Sonny Landham William M. "Sonny" Landham III (February 11, 1941 – August 17, 2017) was an American actor. He portrayed Billy Bear in ''48 Hrs.'' (1982), tracker Billy Sole in ''Predator (film), Predator'' (1987), and 'Chink' Weber in Lock Up (1989 film), '' ...

also returned from ''Predator'', as did stunt coordinator Craig R. Baxley, who made his directorial debut with ''Action Jackson''.

had already been featured in several films, but was not yet an established star and had to audition alongside many other candidates. Filming began on May 4, 1987, which Weathers estimated to have been 11 months after his initial conversation with Silver. Neither Weathers nor the production wanted the story to be set in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, but the majority was shot there for financial reasons, and most of the

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

footage was captured by the second unit.

Paula Abdul Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreographe ...

was the music choreographer. In 1988,

, who played the role of a drug addicted singer, discussed her actual cocaine use during filming: Vanity overdosed in 1994 and struggled with health issues until her death in 2016. A total of slightly more than 18 months spanned from pitch to release, a quick schedule for an action film. The budget was estimated at around . It is the first feature produced and released by the embattled

Lorimar Lorimar may refer to: * Lorimar Television, previously Lorimar Productions and later Lorimar Distribution, an American film and television production and marketing company from 1969 to 1986 * Lorimar-Telepictures, formed in 1986 after the merger of ...

following a regime change including the arrival of industry veteran

Bernie Brillstein Bernard Jules Brillstein (April 26, 1931 – August 7, 2008) was an American film and television producer, executive producer, and talent agent. He began his career in the 1950s at the William Morris Agency before founding his own company in 196 ...

as president.

Pre-release

''Action Jackson''s U.S. opening was scheduled on

President's Day Presidents' Day, officially Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February. It is often celebrated to honor all those who served as presidents of the United ...

weekend in 1988, concurrently with two other black-led films, the action-oriented '' Shoot to Kill'' and

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...

's ''

School Daze ''School Daze'' is a 1988 American musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Spike Lee and starring Lee along with Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry Fishburne), Giancarlo Esposito, and Tisha Campbell. Released on February 12, 19 ...

''. The latter nearly had its limited release pushed back by Columbia to avoid perceived competition from Weathers for the attention of the African-American public, although Lee scoffed at the notion that the black audience had such uniform tastes, and won.

Home releases

The film's U.S. home video debut was on July 13, 1988. Priced for rental, 200,000 copies were sold around launch in the domestic market. It is the 47th most popular video of 1988 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

''s yearly rental chart. The rights to broadcast television premiere were bought by Chicago-based

superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a broadcast television sign ...

WGN rather than by one of the main

networks Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

. The musical score was composed by

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer. He started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. Hancock soon joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he helped to redefine the role of ...

and

Michael Kamen Michael Arnold Kamen (April 15, 1948 – November 18, 2003) was an American composer (especially of film scores), orchestral arranger, orchestral conductor, songwriter, record producer and musician. Early life Michael Arnold Kamen was born in ...

. The '' Action Jackson'' original soundtrack album features a theme composed by Hancock, and songs by various artists including

Sister Sledge Sister Sledge was an American musical vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed in 1971, the group consists of sisters Joni, Kim, Debbie, and Kathy Sledge. The siblings achieved international success at the height of the disco era. I ...

The Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American female vocal group from Oakland, California, who achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. They have had a repertoire with many genres, they have sold around 50 million records throughout their ...

and co-star

who is featured three times. Weathers and Vanity are in the promotional video for the Pointer Sisters single "He Turned Me Out".

Reception

Box office

The film grossed $4.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing in third place behind '' Good Morning Vietnam'' and '' Shoot to Kill''. It actually marked the first time Lorimar had cracked the weekly box office top 10 in the U.S. The picture went on to gross $20.3 million in domestic theaters. The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it a "reasonable" performance for the studio, which did not have a track record of theatrical success, deriving most of its revenue from TV series.

Critical

''Action Jackson'' had a largely negative critical reception. It has a score of 19% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

from 16 reviews. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

it has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews. Walter Goodman of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' was largely indifferent to the film, mentioning that Jackson's vaunted Harvard degree did not prevent the dialogue from sounding like "junior high school locker room" talk, and that " ke lots of kindred movies, ''Action Jackson'' ..is about shattered glass and fiery explosions. There may be a few more car bodies sent to the junk heap than usual, but, then, this is Detroit."

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' gave the film one star out of a possible four and wrote: "some of the parts are good, but none of them fit and a lot of them stink". Ebert described Weathers as a good actor in supporting roles, but also believed he "doesn't have the necessary charisma" to be a leading man and was often out-shined by co-stars in ''Action Jackson''. Michael Wilmington of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' was perhaps most negative. Although he acknowledged the film's commercial potential, he lambasted its "almost pornographic fascination with guns and weaponry" and summed it up as " d in that dispiritingly well-mounted, press-all-the-buttons way that occasionally pulls in big audiences." Among more positive opinions, Eleanor Ringel of Cox News Services called the film a "minor-league action movie" but praised the level of care that went into it, embodied by the casting of distinguished actor Craig T. Nelson as the main antagonist. She said, "Weathers has weathered into a decidedly more palatable action hero than his former co-star Sly Stallone." Buzz McClain of ''

The Buffalo News ''The Buffalo News'' is the daily newspaper of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area, located in downtown Buffalo, New York. It was for decades the only paper fully owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. On January 29, 2020, th ...

'' conceded that the film "follow dthe familiar formula" of contemporary action films, but found that Craig Baxley "handle ''Jackson''s action with panache" and Weathers offered an "affable presence". The

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th ce ...

agency deemed that ''Action Jackson'' was "a brisk action film that's sure to spark a sequel" and that "Weathers comes off well."

Awards

Vanity was nominated for a

Golden Raspberry Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic failures. Co-founded by University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John ...

as Worst Actress, but lost to

Liza Minnelli Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, ...

for her performances in '' Arthur 2: On the Rocks'' and '' Rent-a-Cop''.

Legacy

Weathers said he hoped the film would become a franchise "but

sold the lot to

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

and sold the library to

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

, and that was that. It never resurfaced again, unfortunately." The unrelated 1990 film ''

Dangerous Passion ''Dangerous Passion'' is a 1990 American made-for-television crime thriller film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may ...

'', also starring Weathers, was released in Germany as ''Action Jackson 2''.

References

External links

* * * {{Craig R. Baxley 1988 films 1988 action films American independent films 1980s English-language films Blaxploitation films Films about terrorism in the United States Films directed by Craig R. Baxley Films produced by Joel Silver Films scored by Herbie Hancock Films scored by Michael Kamen Films set in Detroit American police detective films Fictional portrayals of the Detroit Police Department Silver Pictures films Warner Bros. films African-American action films 1980s chase films 1988 directorial debut films 1980s American films English-language action films English-language independent films English-language action thriller films