“Avenging Force”, a largely Louisiana-set kung-fu romp with a fair amount of Mardi Gras pizzazz pumping through its veins, has more on its mind than you might imagine. As a product of Cannon Films, the eponymous film collective that churned out an unprecedented number of schlock classics of the 1980s, including “Cobra”, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”, and “Masters of the Universe”, the film would be expected to sideline any larger message behind the high kicks and masked katana wielding goons at the heart of this 1986 Michael Dudikoff picture. (The fact that it is a Michael Dudikoff-starring picture is, in and of itself, perhaps a reason to shrug it off.) To the contrary, for all the jaunty jingoism and flag-fellating that became a staple of Reagan-era cinema, a time when greased down commandos in tight t-shirts wielded hulking assault rifles and brought American hellfire upon anyone who had the ill-fortune of being not American, “Avenging Force”, in contrast, fosters something more liberally minded, an inherent understanding that the true corrosion of the country, then and now, was born long ago and festered from within. There is a sepsis curdling beneath the glittering frivolity of Carnival, one shielded by masks and class, of the “elite” remaking the world in their own aristocratic image, where they are the rightly heralded monarchs and everyone else is simply chattel who cheer in their presence and take the trinkets thrown from their glittery towers. That these traditional hierarchical roles are central to the legacy of modern Mardi Gras is no mistake, as is their forefronting in the otherwise bloody good time that is “Avenging Force”.
As a film that began life as a Chuck Norris vehicle, “Avenging Force” lays down its action trash bona fides from the opening sequence that shows a pair of men fleeing in terror as a masked, katana-wielding “ninja” stalks them through a Louisiana bayou. This caucasian ninja is, in fact, a part of an Illuminati-style right-wing, paramilitary group known as “The Pentangle,” featuring a collection of the dumpiest rich white dudes you can imagine play-acting as if they are masters of kendo karate. For sport, they have constructed their own version of “the most dangerous game,” setting human prey into the swamps of Louisiana to be hunted with all the sportsmanship of dropping napalm in a barrel of catfish. “The Pentangle” is focused on upholding their own brand of American racial purity by planning to murder a popular African American politician from New Orleans seeking a Senate bid, Larry Richards, played by the incredible martial artist/stuntman Steve James. Their plot is to gun down the former special forces officer, along with his wife and two sons, mid parade on Mardi Gras day. However, they did not account for the presence of Richard’s longtime friend and special forces comrade Matt Hunter, the cryogenically earnest Michael Dudikoff. What began as a simple Carnival time crossfire turns into a chase through the French Quarter, with Hunter pursuing “The Pentangle” leader through the city, only to lose him in the panic. When the dust settles, one of Richards’ sons is dead, which means former partners must join forces once again to take down the shadowy supremacist forces bearing down upon them.
The Mardi Gras shootout, which takes place near the end of the first act of the film, is more than worth the price of admission. Filmed on location featuring a huge crowd of onlookers, revelers, and floats, it stands as one of the more impressive sequences of its type ever filmed, with a full-bore action set piece laid out uninhibited in the long wrought iron canyons of the Quarter. Director Sam Firstenberg, a Cannon Films regular who worked with both Dudikoff and James on “American Ninja” several years before, showcases a flair for tension while knowing that the most cinematic way to watch a stunt-filled showcase is to see it play out in full, whether that be a motorcycle crash, squib hit, or a stuntman scaling a three story building via Carnival bunting. Dudikoff, for his part, does most of his own stunts, racing from roof to roof after the last of the gunmen, offering a tangible view of the 1980’s era French Quarter in the process. There’s something fun about a movie that has enough budget for a crowd and stunts, but lacks the good sense to realize that filming a parade sequence in the Quarter would be a logistical nightmare. So far as Mardi Gras action sequences go, “Avenging Force” might just be the gold standard; setting the stage for a film chock full of equally impressive stunt work, a promise it fulfills for at least the first half of the movie before petering out in a dull bayou-based climax.
Larry Richards should have been the main character of the movie. As a ripped former special forces agent who knows kung fu and represents a new hope for Louisiana, Steve James is a stunning and electric presence throughout the film. Compared to Dudikoff, a former model turned a more well-intentioned if less memorable Chuck Norris, James began his career as a stunt person in classics like “The Warriors” before graduating to supporting parts in Cannon Films (“Delta Force”), Blaxploitation classics (“I’m Gonna Git You Sucka”), and Hollywood gems (“To Live And Die in LA”). A dynamic performer who sadly passed from cancer in 1993 before being able to claim the leading man status he justly deserved, James carries “Avenging Force” with a charisma that even bleeds over into Dudikoff. The pair, a poor man’s Murtagh and Riggs for sure, make for a fun team as they take the fight to “The Pentangle”, most notably by leading a high-speed car chase that motors from Uptown, down Canal Street, before explosively ending atop a ship docked in the Industrial Canal. While Dudikoff leaps and zip lines across the ship in jeans and cowboy boots, James flexes his kung fu expertise shirtless, raining down relentless high kicks upon the malevolent minions of his son’s murderers. Sadly, around the mid-point of the movie, James is sidelined in favor of Dudikoff’s own personal vendetta against “The Pentangle” when his sister is kidnapped and held hostage among a clan of Cajun folk deep in the bayou. At this point in the movie, the tangible New Orleans energy of the film goes by the wayside, as does its novel charm, as we devolve into fairly generic white man karate antics where Dudikoff systematically takes out the leaders of “The Pentangle”, including a leather daddy muscle man and a young, blonde United States Senator. What could have been something special with James as the film’s central figure sadly falls into old tropes and predictable one-liners, which is a shame because “Avenging Force” was almost onto something more pertinent than its peers in the action-slop genre, something human and real in the midst of a genre often antiseptic to both.
“Avenging Force” is a film honest in its understanding of what America is and could be, blatantly presenting an uber-wealthy class eager to crush good people trying to right a world gone askew. “The Pentangle” are smug and erudite business titans who fetishize Asian influences, believing themselves to be superior in all things: racially, ethnically, intellectually, and physically. Their leader, the pompous Professor Elliot Glastenbury (John P. Ryan), is unashamed in his influence for a pure America, believing Hitler to be a visionary and that an apocalypse is coming where only whites should hold dominion. It’s easy to see accusations of “woke” being levied against “Avenging Force” were to be released today, as it dares to present the wealthy as more alien than human and the would-be Senator James as a new hope for the future. There is little subtlety here, but there is often an untapped power in bluntness. When people say recent movies are overtly political, it’s as if they’ve never considered the implications of the movies they grew up with. What would you call Stallone’s “Cobra” and “First Blood: Part II” or Cannon Films’ own “Death Wish II” and “Death Wish III”, where a beleaguered Charles Bronson fights a one-man war against “urban blight” one bullet at a time, if not Reaganomics made cinematic? That Cannon could make both conservative fantasy and something as quietly progressive as “Avenging Force” speaks less to their ethics than a desire to find the seam that would produce the most fruitful box-office return. Still, the movie deserves credit for daring to present the 1980s as an era being threatened by right-wing extremism, gun-toting hicks wearing masks, and a fanatical ruling class for whom gunning down American citizens in the streets was little more than sport. I suppose the more things change, the more they stay the same.
“Avenging Force” is more than meets the eye, despite its structural failings. It’s Mardi Gras set pieces and overall New Orleans sentiment feel more authentic than most films of its ilk, both homegrown and anachronistic in the best way. As Eden from Future Shock Video said when discussing the film, “it is a very fun action B movie, but it could have been a GREAT action B movie”. Still, sometimes fun B movies know just what to say in just the right way, with some explosions, bad one-liners, and a few well-placed kung fu kicks to a fascist’s face.
You can rent a copy of “Avenging Force” and a wide selection of other New Orleans/Louisiana-set films from Future Shock Video.
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