An officially "dead" cop is trained to become an extraordinary unique assassin in service of the US President. An NYPD cop is 'killed' in an accident. The death is faked, and he is inducted into the organization CURE, dedicated to preserving the constitution by working outside of it. Remo is to become the enforcement wing (assassin) of CURE, and learns an ancient Korean martial art from Chiun, the Master of Sinanju. Based on the popular pulp series "The Destroyer," by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy. A cop who answers a call is ambushed. The next day he is buried. But in reality he is in a hospital and his appearance has been altered.<br/><br/>He is then told by a man named McCleary that he now belongs to "them". "Them" being CURE an organisation whose job is to battle corruption.<br/><br/>They give him the new name of Remo Williams. He then meets the head of CURE Harold Smith, who spends most of his time sitting in front of a computer and perusing over reports of individuals that have to be dealt with.<br/><br/>They then give him to Chiun, a Shinanju master, which is the art of killing someone and making it seem like an accident or natural causes.<br/><br/>Chiun's regimen is hard on him. Smith then discovers a man named Grove, who is a defence contractor. It seems that whenever there's a case against him, the key witnesses and investigators disappear….<br/><br/>Plot wise, the film isn't very original. It's the same old story about good guys who behind closed doors just want money, blah, blah…<br/><br/>But thanks tho the chemistry between Ward and Grey, this film excels in the training scenes, which are the heart of the film.<br/><br/>The banter between Chiun and Williams is priceless, and at first it's because they dislike each other, then toward the end of the film, it's out of a father/son relationship.<br/><br/>It's a shame that the rest of the cast are so very poor, and add nothing to the rest of the film.<br/><br/>Set pieces are good, the statue of liberty scene is filmed amazingly, but what else would you expect from a director of so many Bond films.<br/><br/>It drags a little toward the end, but it's well worth two hours of your time. Obviously the director needed to be informed of the series. This pale piece of a screenwriter's attempt at converting the powerful series to film left much to be desired.<br/><br/>Joel Grey portrays the Master of Sinanju, Chiun with perfection (how else could he be portrayed?) and Fred Ward does an admirable job at playing Remo, but the cast is restricted by a screenplay that doesn't have a real villain. This guy wouldn't last one chapter in a real Destroyer series.<br/><br/>If they would have added a bit of science fiction to the movie, adding The Matrix bullet dodging and involved a REAL villain (Nuihc or The Dutchman), this would have been the summer hit of 1985.
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371 weeks ago