Things that make you feel old

Random Cannon movie I just remembered: Dangerously Close. Starring future director John Stockwell, with a soundtrack that had at least one Smithereens song on it.

 

Wait. So there was a character (his kid?) named Mike Hawk?

That is up there with Mike Hunt from Porky's.

 

Today's bad movies are as ironic as they are big-budgeted. Even the SyFy schlock, made on a Cannon-esque budget, has irony to burn. But in the '80s, the Cannons and Atlantics just made fun, dumb movies starring people too nice and earnest to be ironic. They weren't good movies, especially in retrospect, but they also weren't laughing at the audience all the way to the bank.

 

Wow, that is some catalog.
List of The Cannon Group films - Wikipedia

A lot of the Emmanuelle films are in there, too.

 

Always enjoyed the movies that were knock-offs of bigger and better films right down to the title and cover art - and people being too dumb to figure it out when they rented it.

 

Over The Top is undeniably the best Arm Wrestling/Truck Driving/Child Custody Battle film of the 80s. I won't even debate it.

 

Over the Top (1987)
Trivia
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Years later, Sylvester Stallone explained why he agreed to appear in this movie, saying, "Menahem Golan kept offering me more and more money, until I finally thought, 'What the hell - no one will see it!'"

Sylvester Stallone was reportedly unhappy with the final film. In an interview with the Ain't It Cool News website, he said that if he had directed the film he would have made it with a darker tone - changing the setting to an urban environment, using scored music instead of rock songs, and making the Las Vegas finale more ominous.

John Wetton, lead singer of the rock group Asia, sang "Winner Takes It All" for the movie, but after performing the song, it was felt that his voice wasn't "mean" enough, so the song was offered to Sammy Hagar, whose version ended up being the one on the soundtrack.

Pro wrestling legend Scott Norton has an uncredited role as one of the arm wrestlers in the tournament.

David Engelbach was appalled at the changes made to his script. He remarked that his original draft wasn't nearly as dumb as the final film and that it was more about truck driving and arm-wrestling than it should have been. He recalled having tears in his eyes upon seeing the film.

Rick Zumwalt, who played Bull Hurley, was actually the studio's third choice for Sylvester Stallone's rival. They originally wanted Arm Wrestling Champion Cleve Dean, but he was too massive as compared to Stallone that it wouldn't have looked believable, so they went with Professional Wrestler Ox Baker. When Baker didn't pan out, the role went to Zumwalt.

As an inside joke, the writers named David Mendenhall's character Michael. With his father's last name, that meant that his character's name is Mike Hawk.

Rick Zumwalt was paid 10,000 USD to shave his head for the film. He liked it so much he never went back to having hair.

Includes uncredited cameos by notable arm wrestling champions John Brzenk, Cleve Dean, and Allen Fisher. Brzenk's appearance was discussed in his documentary Pulling John (2009).

John Brzenk, the real-life armwrestler who inspired the Lincoln Hawk character, won in the Truckers Class of the actual "Over the Top" tournament and won the Volvo White Truck and Trail-mobile Trailer that was the grand prize in the movie. It was worth about 250,000 USD. Brzenk took the truck on tour across the country to promote the film. He later sold it and bought a 1987 Corvette with some of the money.

In one of the final matches Sylvester Stallone goes up against Mad Dog Maddison, played by Randy Raney. Interestingly, they would come up against each other again in Rambo III (1988). Rainey played the Russian Special Forces soldier who perished in the final scenes with a snapped neck and then blown to bits.

Don Johnson was the second choice for the role of Lincoln Hawk.

A billboard ad for Howard the Duck (1986) can be seen in the background when Hawk chases the kidnappers in the pickup truck.

Professional wrestlers Manny Fernandez and Sione Vailahi (a.k.a. The Barbarian) were flown to the set by the production company, but ended up not being used in the film. The wrestlers were given some money from the production staff and told they could go eat and drink. The wrestlers headed to a bar for drinks. According to Fernandez, Barbarian got so drunk that, after being insulted by a patron, Barbarian smashed his and Manny's mugs of beer over Barbarian's own forehead. Barbarian then laughed as blood poured down over his face. Even though Sione did not assault anybody else, the patrons were shocked and scared by Sione's actions, so they called the police, who arrested Sione and put in him jail overnight. Manny called Sione's wife Seini to tell her about Sione's ordeal, so she came to the jail to bail him out and fly him home. Sione later told Manny of how Seini had cooked him a nice big Tongan meal when they got home. When Sione started eating, Seini blindsided him with a skillet, chastising him for his actions, and yelling at him not to get drunk again. Sione said, "Brother, I crawled on all fours, and she kept hitting me."

The truck was a 1967 autocar model a64 three trucks were purchased from a local logging company and used in the film

"Over The Top" was the name of an actual arm-wrestling tournament that came about once the movie was approved for production. Organizers worked closely with producers at Cannon Films in hosting the tournament while the film was getting made. The contest was described as "the biggest event in armwrestling history." Beginning with the first qualifier in Beverly Hills in August 1985, the competition lasted a year throughout North America and included qualifying events in Europe, Israel and Japan. The finale took place on July 26th, 1986, with an 18-hour marathon tournament at the Las Vegas Hilton. The movie featured many real-life armwrestlers and footage from the Vegas finals. The only exceptions were the scenes that featured Sylvester Stallone, whose matches were filmed the day after the real finals. However, the same location was used, and the extras who made up the audience in those scenes were the same fans who had filled the venue the day before.

Riffed by Michael J Nelson from MST3K under the Rifftrax name.

 

I enjoy Manchester Orchestra's tribute to Over the Top and listen to this song whenever I need to run through a wall, which is more often than you might think.

 

Don Johnson was the second choice for the role of Lincoln Hawk.

A billboard ad for Howard the Duck (1986) can be seen in the background when Hawk chases the kidnappers in the pickup truck.

Peak 1980s, right here.

 

You know what makes me feel old? Movies based on superheroes that didn't appear in comics until after I was born.

 

Dangerously Close is a 1986 action thriller film directed by Albert Pyun. The film was noted at its time of release for being part of a wave of teen vigilante films in the 1980s exploring the right-wing jingoism that was gaining popularity in the United States.[3]

Who wants to start a GoFundMe for a Dangerously Close remake?

 

Yes, if only so many people didn't see Over the Top, Stallone would be in the discussion with DeNiro, Hackman, Brando, Nicholson etc.