Holy crap! Action U.S.A.!!! If the name doesn’t tell you, Action USA is a crazy over-the-top B-movie from the 1980s. It was directed by stuntman John Stewart in his feature debut, and basically the movie just languished in obscurity. You couldn’t find it anywhere until this year, and only on VHS. But now you can watch it in all of its digital glory thanks to the folks at Alamo Drafthouse.
Okay, that last bit might steer some people clear of this, but I’m not here to litigate Alamo’s sins. Action U.S.A. is a rare find, full of nutty car chases, crazy stunts, and more all done with practical effects. The plot is simple and just as stupid as we would want it to be. Here’s how it was laid out by the folks at Fantastic Fest, who debuted it earlier this year…
When you think of the broad panorama of VHS-era action, your mind detonates with fast cars, helicopter chases, profanity, nudity, cocaine-ity, fisticuffs, stolen diamonds, FBI agents, defenestration, shotgun castration, men on fire and Casio soundtracks. But what if we told you there’s one single movie that impossibly squeezes all of the above into 89 minutes, not to mention sunroof gunfights, a car jumping over a school bus packed with screaming children, honkytonk brawlin’, bathroom kissin’, plus exploding cars, houses AND recreational vehicles?
That doesn’t actually tell you much, does it? Essentially, it’s about a woman whose boyfriend is murdered by the mob, and a pair of FBI agents, one very reluctant, who must escort her to federal headquarters. They’re besieged by armed goons the entire way, running a gauntlet of insane genre proportions. Bullets fly, blood flows, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg in a total stunt-fest gone wild.
Gregory Scott Cummins, Cameron Mitchell, William Hubbard Knight, Ross Hagen, and Barri Murphy star. Action U.S.A. is available to watch right now for $9.99 through Alamo on Demand, and will be there until October 12th.