 | MOVIE #1,515 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 04.04.24 Other than Blunt Movie (which I am deeming a LOST FILM until further notice), this might have been the hardest movie to track down, at least in the James Hong series. Shoutout to whomever uploaded it just one month ago right before I was about to give up hope trying to find it. This man is doing the Lord’s work: Totally missed this one growing up, seems like it hasn't been released since the VHS era. This was randomly sandwiched between a couple Disney Channel Original Movies on the same tape that I'll be posting as well. I see someone else has posted a ~10 minute clip from the movie and there is a lot of desire in the comments for the full movie. To my surprise it isn't getting blocked, bummer if you're in Spain though. |
And boy am I glad that I found it, because this movie is a treat! It’s a totally harmless family flick at first glance, but if you continue to pay attention, it’s actually got a fairly tight, mildly subversive plot. It stars the Revenge of the Nerds Carradine brother (Robert) who is not giving this material the attention it deserves, frankly. Look at his reaction to his son having thwarted an intruder with fruit…
But Carradine is really the only checked-out actor in this, and I thought the camera work and story were far and away better than your average Direct-to-Video faire. And best of all, we get a real-deal meaty lead role for James Hong, a rare pleasure. He plays Papa Carradine’s business associate "Larry" (LOL) who — SPOILERS — turns out to be a villain. Watch him encourage the young son Joe in his dreams of becoming an “eco warrior,” wait, what?...
"Eco Warriors don't need money. They live off the land." -Joe
"Even Eco Warriors need money. You know, for explosives, speedboats, hideouts and such." -Larry
One of the truly great scenes in cinematic history, folks.
This boy Joe is having trouble fitting into his new school but he befriends a pair of brother-sister foster kids (they mention they're foster kids about a dozen times). Unfortunately, the three of them get kidnapped by a trio of goofy bad guys wearing "Phantom of the Opera" masks. One of which is wearing Arab man garb, because as it turns out, these dudes are henchmen for the evil global oil industry (that’s why we get one white guy, one vaguely-looking foreign guy and one straight-up terrorist MFer).
The bad guys tell the kids that they were kidnapped because they need to stop their father and his evil invention (earlier, Joe overheard his dad talking with Larry and the end of the convo made it sound like they were manufacturing drugs). The parents receive a cassette tape from Joe saying that if he stops building this thing they will release the kids (but it turns out he's making a super battery for electric cars…hmmm). Oh it's Halloween night too.
This is a comedy so of course there are gags. I liked the running joke where the white guy in the baddies trio likes sappy songs on the radio and he makes the other dudes sing along? This IS comedy…
The kids escape by putting a shoe up the car's exhaust pipe and gum in the trunk latch lol. Then comes the major plot twist: the oil companies are behind stopping him from making the electric car battery because it will ruin their industry! But the kids stole the prototype of the battery back. So now that random conversation about becoming an eco warrior makes more sense. This is a movie with a message and, you know what? That’s cool, man. The film is surprisingly clever in between its interludes of goofball, mostly physical humor (which I’m also fine with). There’s a montage of the foster kids teaching Joe how to do karate in a field before they attempt to locate the kidnappers. Because all of his dad’s investors dropped out when they heard about the kidnapping, which they assumed was a prank. They use the electric battery prototype on a toy car and chase after the bad guys, and this shit rules...
They almost get hit by a damn train but catch up to them at an oil refinery ("Cabal Petroleum" LOL). Oh, they’re wearing sick-ass spy gear and they film the evil oil guys and this is where we learn that Larry is also a bad guy. Then we get some great stuff with the kids fighting the bad guys, just classic comic bits…
The showdown comes to a head when Larry (Hong) threatens to kill Joe first…
Hong really gets to ham it up here…
They almost get burnt alive but the foster kids show up just in time. The stupid cops finally show up and arrest the bad guys. The movie ends with them adopting the foster kids! They prank dad Robert Carradine one last time and drive their homemade electric station wagon to school...
Surprisingly fun and cohesive, Breakout has a good pace with lots of goofy ‘kids battling adults’ action. And it's always nice to see Hong in a rare lead role. Also, thee tracking is bad on this VHS rip which completely added to the experience. Thanks again to Kev The Ripper on YouTube for making this happen.
CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,514 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,516 ⫸
⫷ MOVIE #1,514 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,516 ⫸
When thugs from a major oil company try to sabotage a scientist's project that could make electric automobiles cheap and practical, his son and two of his buddies pool their skills in the martial arts to put the bad guys where they belong. It was released on October 27, 1998.
0 comments:
Post a Comment