Fred Ward stars as a cop who's death is faked by a super-secret government agency run by Wilford Brimley. He is given a new identity and told he's now an assassin who kills people the justice system cannot deal with. He's trained by a Korean martial arts master played by Joel Grey ... yes, Joel Grey. This movie is based on the popular "Destroyer" series of pulp novels. It was meant to kick off a series of james Bond-esque movies. It didn't. Did it deserve to fail? Yeah ... kind of. What works works very well. It's funny at times, the cast is good and some sequences, particularly the Statue of Liberty sequence, are amazing. What doesn't work is that it's 85% set up and training montage and almost no real story. Most of the plot is established through scenes of Brimley sitting at a desk and looking at a computer screen. If it had got the setup and training sequences out of the way in the first 3rd and focused the rest on story and action ... the adventure may have continued.

I can imagine when they were developing "Person of Interest" they must have seen this film. It has a similar theme: a secret organization designed to ensure that justice is done.The concept was good, and it works very well on the TV show, but I would imagine that it was not good enough for a second movie.The interaction between Fred Ward (Gus Grissom in The Right Stuff) and Joel Grey (Caberet) was hilarious and kept your interest throughout.Kate Mulgrew ("Star Trek: Voyager", "Warehouse 13")added to the humor as a clueless Major.It's not award material, but it is good entertainment.

When Maj. Rayner Fleming gets confronted about "who's she working for?" while on her way of the general's office, she places the clipboard, she was carrying out, on the meeting desk, and picks up the photos, turns around and serves up a confident retort to accusations. However, when she demonstratively leaves the room after picking up her hat, she "forgets" the clipboard on the meeting desk. The movie itself is a great little flick I enjoyed many times. Although acting isn't much to speak of, it surely fits well in the era when flick was shot. Some of the props are legendarily funny, the "computer" was a joke when this was shot. Right now, I let a loud roar of laughter when I see it. Still, in a twisted way, this is a "feel good" movie to me and I am sure I will be seeing it over and over again in the future.

Screen writer Christopher Wood (who wrote the Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker) and director Guy Hamilton (who helmed the Bond films Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun) join forces for this amusing and wholly improbable adventure flick. Based on the "Destroyer" series by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy, there's a very real sense that this was to be the first in a series of films… but for one reason or another none of the proposed sequels were ever made. It could be assumed that the film isn't very good, hence the decision not to go ahead with any of the follow-ups - but that wouldn't be fair. Despite a degree of goofiness and some hammy performances, Remo Williams – The Adventure Begins is likable enough.Tough New York cop Samuel Makin (Fred Ward) is almost killed in an attack one evening. When he comes round in hospital he is bewildered to discover he has a new face, new fingerprints and new identity. He learns that he has been recruited into an ultra secret organisation dedicated to fighting crime. Makin is renamed "Remo Williams" and a Korean martial arts master named Chiun (Joel Grey) is entrusted with training him until he is skilled enough to be an agent. Chiun teaches Remo various strategies to improve his strength, speed and agility. Soon enough Remo is ready for action. He is sent by his boss Harold Smith (Wilford Brimley) to investigate a series of suspicious accidents involving army weaponry that have left a number of American soldiers dead. A shady company called Grove Industries, fronted by George Grove (Charles Cioffi), has been cutting corners in their production of military weaponry, making millions of dollars from inadequate products while placing everyday soldiers' lives in jeopardy. Grove will stop at nothing – including murder – to keep his affairs secret. But Remo has been assigned to bring Grove's organisation to its knees and, with his new martial arts skills and lightning agility, he means to do just that….Ward is a suitably abrasive, tough presence as the film's hero, while Grey has considerable fun hamming it up as his Korean trainer. Neither performance is a shining example of screen acting, but both men nonetheless bounce off each other with good-natured enthusiasm that upholds the spirit of the film. Particularly memorable highlights of the film include a dizzying action sequence on the Statue Of Liberty, which contains some hair-raising stunt work, and a fast-paced climax in the forests of the American Northwest. There are, it must be added, some ridiculously silly moments during the film. It's all good and well saying it is meant to be treated as light-hearted fun, but scenes of Remo running across sand and cement without leaving footprints, or dodging bullets fired at point blank range, topple into a realm of absurdity that is hard to accept. Also the very half-hearted attempts to create an element of romance between the hero and a hard-nosed lady army officer, played by Kate Mulgrew, are a woeful failure. Remo Williams – The Adventure Begins is no masterpiece, but if you're after a couple of hours of easy-going entertainment you could do a lot worse.