Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins

Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) — watch online on iFILM — is a fast-moving action comedy directed by Guy Hamilton, the man behind seven James Bond films. New York cop Sam Makin is declared dead by a clandestine US government outfit called CURE, gets a new face courtesy of surgery and a new name to match. Fred Ward plays him as a blue-collar everyman shoved into an assassin's role with no say in the matter.

His trainer is Chiun, aged grandmaster of the Korean martial art Sinanju. Joel Grey, hidden under heavy prosthetics, steals every scene. Chiun loathes western food, is addicted to soap operas and runs his student ragged across rooftops and scaffolding. Once the mismatched pair takes on their first real assignment, they go up against a corrupt defense contractor cutting lethal corners on US Army equipment.

Based on Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir's long-running Destroyer pulp novel series, the film was designed as the launch of a franchise. The sequel never came, but the original holds up as a breezy 80s genre piece with genuine chemistry between its leads. Stream Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins (1985) in good quality on iFILM.