Stallone, Norris, McQueen. Baldwin. Penn. Swayze. Estevez (saved the best for last). Such caliber names to top the marquee of your local two-dollar theatre. Of course, I’m not talking of the likes of Sylvester, Chuck, Steve, Alec, Sean, Patrick, or Emilio. No. My eyes for audacious action film stars are like my stomach: they are too big, and nothing can satisfy the hunger! Only action stars like Frank Stallone (Fear – not with Mark Walburg, or Donny for that matter), Aaron Norris (Overkill), Chad McQueen (Death Ring), Daniel Baldwin (Dead on Sight) Chris Penn (Best of the Best 2), Don Swayze (Driving Force), and the ultimate, the all-time king of kid brother actor moves, Joe Estevez, the brother of famed actor Martin Sheen (Pick-up on 101). Since the very dawn of film, sibling rivalry has been a common staple in trying to trick audiences into thinking they’re getting more bang for their buck. By eliminating their first name from the VHS cover or Laserdisc slipcover (yes, there is a laserdisc for Beach Babes from Beyond starring Don Swayze), your naive father picked up a locked and loaded copy of a move like the 1992 Iron Eagle classic Armed for Action thinking maybe, just maybe Emilio would be making an appearance (shocker – he does not). However, the beauty of this little .45 is that even if the acting from the elder (or younger) Estevez cannot match the sheer powerhouse of his brother’s Badlands, little Joey gives a signature performance that will not only entertain audiences, but it will downright keep you in utter awe (and your mouth will drop open)!
Although his brother goes by Martin Sheen, once upon a time, the young Sheen was a small New York actor named Ramón Gerard Antonio Estévez, but, sadly, due to the bigotry of the times, he was asked to change his name to Martin Sheen. Although Joe did the same thing by sometimes going as Joe Phelon, eventually he stood proud of his last name and changed it (it had nothing to do with the fact Emilio Estevez was a household name, wink wink), embracing his heritage and never looking back as he roundhouse kicked his way into his cinematic family dynasty. Starting literally in his brother’s shadows, doing stand-in work on films like Apocalypse Now!, Joe would eventually branch out on his own, with over a hundred credits to his name (and hopefully counting). However, though many fans of his work would deem SoulTaker as his crowning achievement (“Can a movie really star Joe Estevez?” MST3K famously asked), we hope to counter you toward the 1992 Straight to Ma and Pa VHS heaven shooter-shocker Armed for Action, where Estevez rises from the ranks of guy number four in other sure-fire-duds to the head honcho as the villainous Mafia boss West! Is the acting good? No. Is the action smooth and stylistic? No. Will anybody buy the plot of the mafia invading a town of seven people? No way in hell. However, what the film does have is a good spirit, plenty of guns, blanks, and squibs, and a sheer desire to make you forget that Joe is not Martin. There are takes where his voice, hair, and even mannerisms resemble those of his more famous brother, and I have to think that director Bret McCormack and his fellow band of merry filmmakers had this in mind. Though the film opens up on a strong mark, with a great shot dream sequence by first time Director of Photography David Blood (what a great name to work in action movies), the film does get a little lazy towards the end, as if they filmed it in sequence and everyone was getting tired as the days went on… except for good ol’ Joe! He stays with it till the end, even having what can only be described as (spoiler alert) the best death stare in the history of direct-to-the-shelf entertainment! Neither a film that made a big bang or a film that broke the bank to make, Armed for Action does what the best of the 90s straight-to-video market tried to do: sell a decent enough production with a big enough name to slap on the front and trick your dad into having a good time on a Saturday night, which you know he did (even if he ate the leftover pizza at three in the morning you were going to have for breakfast – I forgive him)!
As Sgt. Phil Towers (David Harrod) wakes up from a scary dream to smoke a Marlboro (in a bedroom set right out of Roseanne), he must do what he can to get his current mafia thug transport across the country for trial. Knowing this might not be the safest assignment, he takes it anyway to know true justice is served. The only issue is that the Mafia also has GPS and knows where they are going, setting up an ambush in a small rural hunting town. It’s perfect, since the entire town is out for the first day of hunting, so the kills will be minimal for the mafia, which is good for West (Estevez), who needs a win to impress the bosses back home. But neither the mafia nor Sgt. Towers could have predicted how complicated this small town of hicks can be when they get involved. Will West be able to put a bullet to that 90s mullet, or will he not get away with it if not for Sgt. Towers and his meddling hunter buddies?
Backfiring your way at ninety minutes, the production did happen to go overbudget when director McCormick (who went on to pull the trigger for productions like Blood on the Badge and Repligator… don’t ask) let a flare stunt go off in the middle of a dry corn field that was torched to the point of the fire department arriving to put it out (talk about a corny move). You can find this little firecracker on most streamers like Prime and Tubi, but sadly, no physical copies are out there unless you shoot down an old VHS copy (with rental stickers). So, the next time you pick up the new action movies starring the likes of ‘Murray’ on the front, be sure to look on the back credits for Billy’s name, although I’d certainly be fine watching an action movie with a hero like Joel Murray (with the mullet, of course)!
