Tag Archives: Jan-Michael Vincent

Brad reviews BODY COUNT (1995), starring Robert Davi, Sonny Chiba, and Jan-Michael Vincent!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

In honor of Jan-Michael Vincent’s 81st birthday up there in cinema heaven, I searched Tubi to see if there were any of his films streaming that looked interesting. I came across this low-budget action movie named BODY COUNT, which apparently has also been known as CODENAME: THE SILENCER based on the poster I share above! What caught my attention is the solid B-movie cast that the film had assembled. Aside from Vincent, you also had Robert Davi, Sonny Chiba, Steven Bauer, and Brigitte Nielsen. For a guy who spent a lot of time at video rental stores in the 80’s and 90’s, I decided this movie was something I needed to investigate!

The story follows Detective Eddie Cook (Davi) and his partner Vinnie Rizzo (Bauer). After spending eight years trying to bust a couple of mobsters named the Gianelli brothers, one night the gangsters are assassinated by a hitman named Makato, played by Japanese action legend Sonny Chiba. Cook and Rizzo somehow manage to nab Makato and send him to prison. 1 year, 6 months, and 21 days later, with the help of his extremely tall and shapely partner in crime, Sybil (Brigitte Nielsen), Makato breaks out with nothing but revenge on his mind against the cops who put him behind bars.

I’m not going to sit here and pretend that BODY COUNT is some kind of forgotten gem. Because it’s not. For those that remember the era, it has the unmistakable look and feel of a mid-90s direct-to-video action film. The dialogue is awkward, the pacing is uneven at best, and there couldn’t have been much in the budget, but there’s still some nostalgic fun to be had in watching all those action veterans share the screen in the city of New Orleans, one of my favorite movie towns!

As far as the action, there are definitely some good scenes… the movie opens with one of those scenes where a guy walks away from a car in slow-mo and lights a cigar, while the car behind him explodes. That was cool! The scene where the cops confront the Chiba in a strip club, with the ensuing chase by foot spilling into the surrounding shops and rooftops was a lot of fun. The scene where Nielsen shows up to Chiba’s chain gang wearing a revealing shirt and daisy dukes and then proceeds to bust him out of prison was fun. There’s a scene where Davi is in hot pursuit of the bad guys, while hanging off of a Ryder moving truck, that eventually leads to a school bus flipping and exploding, and to be honest, it’s never made clear if a whole bunch of kids just died or not. The final scene involves runaway trolley cars. The action isn’t all perfectly handled, but there’s definitely enough here to bring a smile to your face… as long as you convince yourself that no one was on the bus!

Robert Davi is pretty good in the lead role as Detective Eddie Cook. After years of always playing supporting roles, usually as a bad guy, this had to be fun for him. He even gets to make love to his beautiful co-worker, special agent Janet Hood (Cindy Ambuehl). He takes full advantage of the scene by literally sucking on her toes, which I find somewhat awkward. Sonny Chiba looks great as the bad guy, convincingly killing with both rifles and swords. He may not speak the greatest English, but he doesn’t really have to, as he owns every scene he’s in with his charisma and intensity. The rest of the cast is fine as long as you don’t expect too much. Nielsen and Ambuehl both look great and engage in a pretty nice catfight at the end. I mentioned earlier that I watched the film in honor of Jan-Michael Vincent’s birthday. (Spoiler Alert) He doesn’t have that much screen time, and he gets pushed from a tall building about halfway through the movie and splats. I’m just saying don’t watch this if your enjoyment requires JMV to be the hero.  

At the end of the day, if you enjoy low budget action movies of the direct-to-video era, filled with lots of familiar faces, you just may have some fun with this one. It’s cheesy at times and unintentionally funny at others, but it also offers some game performances and crazy action. There are times when that’s just what I need!   

The “This Week in Charles Bronson Podcast” talks THE MECHANIC (1972)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I don’t know how many of you enjoy listening to podcasts, but I joined a Facebook group back in 2021 focused on the actor Charles Bronson. The group is called the “This Week in Charles Bronson: Podcast.” We focus on Bronson, but the page is really just a springboard for all kinds of pop culture discussions. Well, one of the things we do is periodically produce podcasts focused on Bronson’s movies, the actors who are in them, the directors, the stunt people… you name it, we discuss it. I’ve been lucky enough to meet actors and actresses who’ve worked with Bronson, authors who write about Bronson, and most importantly, people just like me all over the world who love Charles Bronson. It’s been such a fun experience in my life.

Today, I’m sharing just a snippet from one of our podcasts where we discuss the excellent opening sequence of Bronson’s 1972 action classic, THE MECHANIC! If you like what you hear, listen to the full episode and our back catalogue of episodes on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc. Heck, we’d love you to join our Facebook page and get involved. That’s all I did! Before you know it, you could be part of the show! Enjoy my friends!

Ice Cream Man (1995, directed by Norman Apstein)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

When he was a young boy, Gregory Tudor was traumatized when he witnessed the gangland-style execution of the neighborhood ice cream man.  He was retraumatized when he was sent to an insane asylum.  Now, Gregory (Clint Howard) has grown up and he’s the ice cream man!  Everyone in the neighborhood loves his ice cream but the local kids suspect that he’s using human body parts to get the flavor just right.  It turns out that the kids know what they’re talking about.

Ice Cream Man almost feels like a zero-budget precursor to Stranger Things, with the kids knowing what’s happening in their town while the majority of the adults are too self-absorbed to notice.  One of the kids is a Macauley Culkin look-alike known as Small Paul (Mikey LeBeau).  He comes to admire Gregory and his murderous devotion to ice cream.  The movie’s really stupid but it’s clearly not meant to be taken seriously and Clint Howard really throws himself into his role.  One thing that makes Ice Cream Man enjoyable is that you know Ron Howard had to sit through it because his brother’s in it.

The most interesting thing about Ice Cream Man is the number of recognizable actors who appear in tiny roles.  David Warner is the town’s reverend.  David Naughton is a clueless father who is married to Sandahl Bergman.  Jan-Michael Vincent is a detective.  Olivia Hussey is Gregory’s former nurse.  Former baseball player and future senatorial candidate Steve Garvey plays another parent.  With the exception of Vincent, it’s hard not to believe that the members of the cast didn’t have anything better to do.  Never underestimate the appeal of a quick paycheck.

Clint Howard has said that a sequel is in pre-production.  The Ice Cream Man will return.

Brad reviews VIGILANTE FORCE (1976), starring Kris Kristofferson and Jan-Michael Vincent! 

Posted on by Bradley Crain

I’ve been a fan of actor Jan-Michael Vincent for about as long as I can remember. I was a grade schooler in the mid-80’s when AIRWOLF was playing on network TV. I loved the show and Vincent’s character, Stringfellow Hawke. It was also around that time that I began my obsession with Charles Bronson, and Vincent co-starred in the iconic 1972 Bronson film THE MECHANIC (1972). Fox 16 out of Little Rock played the movie often, further cementing my appreciation for his work. And I specifically remember renting his 1980 movie DEFIANCE where his character takes on a ruthless gang in New York. It was my kind of movie, and I still watch it every few years. There’s just something I’ve always liked about Jan-Michael Vincent. July 15th, 2025 would have been his 80th birthday so I decided to watch one of his movies that I’ve never seen, VIGILANTE FORCE from 1976. It was playing on Amazon Prime, so I fired it up for my initial viewing. 

In VIGILANTE FORCE, Jan-Michael Vincent plays Ben Arnold, a guy from the small town of Elk Hills, California. It seems that the discovery of oil in the area has brought about a financial boom, but it’s also brought in a lot of rowdy out-of-towners and a surge in violent crime. Ben convinces the local community leaders to allow him to bring in his brother Aaron (Kris Kristofferson), a Vietnam war hero, to help restore order in town. Aaron assembles a group of ex-military types, friends of his, to help the local police restore order in town. Successful in cleaning out the riffraff at first, Aaron and his team of vigilantes eventually become the riffraff and use their law enforcement powers for their own corrupt, get-rich-quick schemes. Realizing that he made a horrible mistake in bringing in his brother, Ben is forced to confront Aaron and his team of murderous mercenaries in order to reclaim Elk Hills for its citizens.

I had not read anything beyond the title VIGILANTE FORCE and the basic cast list when I sat down to watch this film. I guess that’s a good thing, because I wasn’t expecting this movie to pit the brothers played by Vincent and Kristofferson against each other. I thought the two guys would be working together to get rid of a bunch of rednecks, and we do get that for the first half of the film, but when Kris goes bad, he really goes bad! And nobody is safe. This is one of those movies where he just kills whoever gets in his way, no matter how important or attractive they are. Writer-Director George Armitage, who would direct the excellent MIAMI BLUES (1990) fourteen years later, has said that he was trying to make a point about America’s involvement in the Viet Nam war with the Kristofferson character. Armitage apparently enjoys his references, as the film was made during the USA’s bicentennial year, but his two main characters are named after Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr. While these ideas may have amused the director, his heavy-handed approach is not good for Kristofferson’s character in this film. His Viet Nam vet basically turns into an evil cartoon about halfway through the film and is no longer interesting, which is a shame because he gives a good performance.

Allegories aside, at its heart VIGILANTE FORCE is B-movie, drive-in fodder, and it’s pretty good at being that. It’s got that unpolished look and raw, energetic feel that I like in my low budget 70’s action movies. As you would expect in a film at this time, Jan-Michael Vincent is impressive and believable as the tough, good guy of the flick. Highly motivated due to the actions of our evil, out of control villain, Vincent handles the action scenes well in the film’s explosive finale. And I mean that literally, it seems that everything blows up big time at the end! Besides Kristofferson and Vincent, the film has a very recognizable supporting cast, which is one of the things I love about 70’s movies. Producer Gene Corman put together a cast that also includes Brad Dexter, Andrew Stevens, Victoria Principal, Bernadette Peters, Paul Gleason, Charles Cyphers, Loni Anderson and a host of other familiar voices and faces who add their unique talents to the proceedings. Principal, still a couple of years away from her career defining role as Pamela Ewing in the DALLAS TV series, is especially beautiful as Vincent’s girlfriend. 

Overall, while VIGILANTE FORCE is not required viewing, I can definitely recommend it to anyone who likes 70’s redneck action cinema, or to fans of the main stars. I enjoyed it! 

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” – Jan-Michael Vincent and Charles Bronson shoot skeet in THE MECHANIC (1972)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Happy Birthday in cinema heaven to 1970’s heartthrob, Jan-Michael Vincent. It’s arguable that a 70’s Vincent was as good looking as a 1990’s Brad Pitt. In the 1980’s, Vincent would play Stringfellow Hawke in the iconic TV series AIRWOLF, where he was the highest paid actor on American television, bringing in $200,000 per episode. As a kid of the 80’s, I loved that show. My own extensive collection of physical media is filled with films starring Jan-Michael Vincent, especially his work from the 70’s and early 80’s. A few of my favorites are WHITE LINE FEVER (1975), HOOPER (1979 – with Burt Reynolds), and DEFIANCE (1980). Unfortunately, severe drug and alcohol abuse ultimately took its toll on Vincent’s career and his post AIRWOLF years were filled with straight-to-video B movies and walk on TV roles. Still, you couldn’t browse the inventory of Mom and Pop video rental stores in late 80’s and early 90’s without seeing loads of films with Vincent on the cover. A true cautionary tale of the damage that intoxicants will ultimately do to the human body and mind, Vincent’s final years were hard to watch, but his great work as a younger man still remains, and that’s what I’m choosing to focus on today.

In honor of what would have been Jan-Michael Vincent’s 80th birthday, I’m going to celebrate here on The Shattered Lens by sharing a scene from my favorite Jan-Michael Vincent movie, THE MECHANIC, co-starring Charles Bronson. Vincent holds his own with the veteran star in one of his most iconic roles!

Brad’s “Scene of the Day” features Charles Bronson on a Bulldozer!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

We’re watching THE MECHANIC (1972) on our #MondayMuggers live tweet tonight (see my prior post for the details). The film is a character study of an aging hitman, that just happens to feature some awesome action sequences. In case you’re on the fence about joining us, here’s a little taste of badassery to whet your appetite!

#MondayMuggers present THE MECHANIC (1972) starring Charles Bronson & Jan-Michael Vincent!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Every Monday night at 9:00 Central Time, my wife Sierra and I host a “Live Movie Tweet” event on X using the hashtag #MondayMuggers. We rotate movie picks each week, and our tastes are quite different. Tonight, Monday June 16th, we are showing THE MECHANIC (1972) starring Charles Bronson, Jan-Michael Vincent, Keenan Wynn, Jill Ireland, and Frank DeKova.

In THE MECHANIC, Charles Bronson plays a hitman who takes on a young apprentice (Jan-Michael Vincent) and trains him to be a professional assassin. But in their world, you never know when you’ll go from being the killer… to becoming the next target!

I reviewed THE MECHANIC for The Shattered Lens back on New Year’s Day!

THE MECHANIC (1972) – Celebrate the New Year with one of Charles Bronson’s most iconic roles!

Join us tonight for #MondayMuggers and watch THE MECHANIC! It’s on Amazon Prime. The trailer is included below:

Happy Birthday to director Walter Hill, the guy who made my favorite film, HARD TIMES (1975)!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

Walter Hill celebrates his 83rd birthday on January 10th, 2025. He has made so many great films in his career, but the one that stands out the most to me is his directorial debut from 1975, HARD TIMES, with Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Jill Ireland, and Strother Martin. The film was known as THE STREETFIGHTER in some parts of the world, like England, but due to Sonny Chiba’s “Street Fighter” movie from around the same time, the producers decided to go with HARD TIMES in America.

Here are a few more interesting facts about Hill’s directorial debut:

  1. Chaney (Bronson) was originally supposed to be a much younger man, with Jan-Michael Vincent being considered for the role.
  2. Charles Bronson was 52 years old when he made HARD TIMES. According to Hill, Bronson “was in remarkable physical condition for a guy his age…. He had excellent coordination, and a splendid build. His one problem was that he was a smoker, so he didn’t have a lot of stamina. I mean, he probably could have kicked anybody’s ass on that movie, but he couldn’t fight much longer than 30 or 40 seconds.”
  3. According to Hill, Charles Bronson was easier to work with than James Coburn. Hill would say “Bronson was a very angry guy who didn’t get along with a lot of people. The only reason I can tell you he and I got along well was he respected that I wrote the script. He liked the script. I didn’t try to get close to him. Kept it very business-like. I think he liked that. James Coburn, who everybody liked and got along well with, he and I did not get along well. I think he was not in a good mood about being in a movie with Charlie, it was second banana. He had been up there more, and his career was coming back a bit. I don’t think he was wild about being second banana. But Charlie was a big star… and when things had seemed to not be working well, or there was some impasse, Charlie would come down hard on my side. That was a tipping point”.
  4. Walter Hill thought the project could become more “up market” if he made it more like a Western and set it in the past. Hill incorporated elements of an earlier Western he had written, “Lloyd Williams and his Brother”. He wrote it in a style inspired by Alex Jacobs–“extremely spare, almost Haiku style. Both stage directions and dialogue.”
  5. The settings for the Capcom arcade game Street Fighter are taken right from HARD TIMES. This film is titled “The Street Fighter” in Japan, and the game designer was instructed to take inspiration from this film. He did just that and copied many of them directly.

I’m so thankful for Walter Hill and HARD TIMES. In fact, it’s my all-time favorite film, as well as the first review I ever published for The Shattered Lens.

HARD TIMES – Charles Bronson & James Coburn take on New Orleans!

So, if you like movies like HARD TIMES, THE DRIVER, THE WARRIORS, THE LONG RIDERS, SOUTHERN COMFORT, 48 HRS., EXTREME PREJUDICE, and RED HEAT, join us in celebrating the great director Walter Hill on his 83rd birthday. He has brought me countless hours of joy over the years!

Here’s a trailer from the Masters of Cinema for HARD TIMES…

THE MECHANIC (1972) – Celebrate the New Year with one of Charles Bronson’s most iconic roles!

Posted on by Bradley Crain

THE MECHANIC features an iconic performance by Charles Bronson, a performance that would represent a blueprint for the type of character he would play in many films…the strong, silent, unstoppable, man of action.  Bronson plays Arthur Bishop, a hit man with a gift for planning and executing his hits in a way that make the deaths look like natural deaths rather than murders.  Facing health issues and loneliness, he takes on a young protégé named Steve McKenna, played by Jan-Michael Vincent.  This upsets his bosses in the underworld because he takes on the apprentice without asking them.  Will they allow him to train up this new protégé and complete tag team hits going forward, or will they decide that Bishop is no longer worth the risk?          

I’ll start off by stating up front that I love THE MECHANIC.  The first Charles Bronson movie I ever owned on VHS was a nearly unwatchable, 2nd hand version of the film, but I still tried to watch it.  The first Charles Bronson movie I ever saw on the big screen was a beautiful 35mm print of the film at the Mahoning Drive-in theater in Lehighton, PA.  I also believe that this film has the best ending of any Charles Bronson film.  Needless to say, the following review will be full of praise, so if you’re looking for a real critical take on the piece, this is probably not the place to look!

To start off, THE MECHANIC has a uniquely amazing opening sequence.  The first 16 minutes of the film features hitman Bishop going through the mundane tasks of setting up a hit.  We watch him set up shop across the street from the mark, we watch him break into the mark’s apartment to rig the things needed to accomplish the hit, we watch him squeeze a wax ball, etc.  Bishop speaks no dialogue during these 16 minutes, and the only things we hear are the sounds of the soundtrack and the street.  Bronson’s unique screen presence makes it mesmerizing.  Could you imagine an action film trying this strategy in this day and age?   

Once Bishop has successfully completed the first hit, we’re introduced to Bishop’s world outside of what we’d observed during the opening sequence.  We meet Harry McKenna (Keenan Wynn), the “uncle-like” figure who has gotten himself in trouble with the organization.  We’re not surprised who’s given the job to eliminate this problem.  We meet Harry’s son Steve (Jan-Michael Vincent) who hits it off with Bishop at the funeral where their relationship really begins.  On a side note, the film’s script featured these two characters as gay men, and the sexuality element was going to be a major way that Steve would get close enough to Bishop to gain his trust.  That part of the script was changed to get Bronson and secure financing for the film.  Since that element is not part of the movie I’ll move on.  We meet a prostitute (Jill Ireland) who’s visited by Bishop.  This is a very interesting scene that gives us a strong insight into just how lonely Bishop is and also helps us understand why he’s open to the idea of bringing on an apprentice.  I think Jill Ireland is quite effective in her one scene.

Once the various characters are introduced, the film settles nicely into a mentoring relationship between Bishop & Steve.  The experienced hitman shares his knowledge, and we follow along with them as they complete various assignments.  The movie seems most interested in the relationship between the men, but this is an action movie, so we have a couple of very solid action sequences in the middle portion of the film, as well as the end.  Director Michael Winner, who directed Charles Bronson in six different films, stages these sequences extremely well, especially the sequence that ends the film in Naples, Italy.  We see necks snapped.  We see faces knuckle punched.  We see a motorcycle chase ending with a motorcycle flying off a cliff and exploding into a ball of flames upon impact.  We see boats exploding.  We see Bronson using my favorite weapon, the pump shotgun, with expert precision.  We see cars chasing each other along the Italian coast.  We see bombs being dropped out of moving cars with precision timing to blow up the cars behind them.  We even see a bulldozer pushing a moving car off the side of a cliff.  It’s some amazing stuff, with Bronson & Vincent appearing quite badass at times.  And then the ending, the ending that proves just how awesome Bishop truly is!  I won’t say anymore about that.  Just watch and enjoy! 

**BONUS CONTENT** – We dedicated an episode of the “This Week in Charles Bronson” podcast to THE MECHANIC. It was one of the most enjoyable episodes for me to record. If you’re interested in learning more about the film from a group of guys who love Charles Bronson, give it a listen!

Defiance (1980, directed by John Flynn)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Serving out a six-month suspension, Merchant Seaman Tommy Campbell (Jan-Michael Vincent) rents an apartment on New York’s Lower East Side and passes the time painting and trying to learn Spanish in hope of getting assigned to a ship that is heading to Panama.

Tommy just wants to be left alone but he finds himself being drawn into the close-knit neighborhood.  He becomes friends with Carmine (Danny Aiello) and more than friends with his upstairs neighbor (Theresa Saldana).  He becomes a mentor to a street kid (Fernando Lopez) who lives with a punch-drunk boxer named called Whacko (Lenny Montana).  Abe (Art Carney), who owns the local bodega, agrees to let Tommy use his phone.

Tommy also finds himself drawing the attention of Angel Cruz (Rudy Ramos), head of the local street gang.  Tommy doesn’t want to get involved in any trouble.  He just wants to serve his suspension and sail to Panama.  But with Angel and his gang terrorizing the neighborhood and even robbing a church bingo game, Tommy and his friends finally stand up to the gang.

Defiance is more intelligent and realistic than many of the other urban vigilante movies that came out in the 70s and 80s.  Tommy never becomes a cold-blooded killer, like Charles Bronson did in the Death Wish films.  Instead, he spends most of the film trying to stay out of trouble and, when he does stand up for himself and the neighborhood, he does so realistically.  He fights the gang members but he doesn’t set out to the kill them.  About as deliberately destructive as he and Carmine get is that they destroy Angel’s car.  Rather than being a typical vigilante movie, Defiance is a portrait of a neighborhood where everyone takes care of everyone else.  Angel and his gang mistake the neighborhood’s kindness for weakness.  The neighborhood proves them wrong.

Defiance stars two actors who never quite got their due.  Theresa Saldana’s promising career was derailed when she was attacked and nearly killed by a deranged stalker in 1982.  Though she recovered and went on to do a lot of television, she never became the star that she should have.  Jan-Michael Vincent did become a star in the 70s and 80s but he later became better-known for his struggles with drugs and alcohol.  Both of them are very good in Defiance and leave you thinking about the careers that they could have had if things had just gone differently.