Double Take: Full Contact (1993)
After hearing Chris DePetrillo (Toyman for those in the know) talk about 1993’s Full Contact on numerous occasions over the years, he made it abundantly clear that it was a movie I needed to watch.
So it should probably come as no surprise that Chris was the first person I contacted when I recently found myself watching Full Contact for the first time. This caused Chris to fire back with a great idea… dust off the old Double Take concept to get the Full Contact reaction of a first time viewer (me) and a long time fan (him).
So with the preamble out of the way, let me throw it over to The Toyman himself so he can get this Double Take party started…
THE HERO
Toyman: All I can say is it’s about time! I’ve been pushing for you to watch this one for as long as we’ve known each other. This film has been one of my favorite action movies ever since I taped it off of Cinemax in the 90’s (a VHS tape that I still have, by the way, since this film has never been graced with a DVD release). It pains me to see Full Contact so easily overlooked or forgotten entirely by others, because I love this film and to me, it’s easily in the Top 5 of the direct to video action boom. Luckily for us, it popped up on Youtube recently which gave you the chance to finally check it out and co-write this column. Plus, you know I’m a big Jerry Trimble fan, so it’s nice to cover another one of his films for the site since my review of One Man Army is already several years old.
CTB: I am glad you brought up One Man Army because while Jerry Trimble always made for a quality action hero when called upon, there is no debate that Luke Powers is a MUCH better action hero name than Jerry Pelt. Trimble’s Luke Powers is something of a fish out of water, making the trek from Fresno to Los Angeles to meet up with his brother, who he believes is a big time Hollywood stuntman… but he will soon find out that truth about his brother and it ain’t good.
THE JAWARSKIS
CTB: Full Contact would have been a sad and depressing short film, if Luke didn’t have a lifeline thrown his way courtesy of Albert Jawarski (Raymond Storti). Luke and Albert meet in interesting fashion, when Luke is recruited to fake a bar fight with Albert in order to rip off a bookie. The two fast friends split the take so Luke has some much needed money in his pocket, but more importantly Albert offers Luke a place to stay once he is the one who unfortunately has to breaks the news to Luke that his brother was not a Hollywood stuntman, but worse his brother is dead. Albert goes on to provide some comic relief as the movie goes on, but there’s another Jawarski that plays a major part in Luke’s story… Tori Jawarski (Denise Buick). Tori is Albert’s sister and Luke meets her in interesting fashion as well. Luke happens upon Tori when she is “urban ballerina” mode out in the alley, that is right before she goes into “exotic dancer” mode… and it turns out the next time Luke sees Tori, it is on stage stripping! And not just stripping but stripping to the song “Rock Me With Your Love” a song I have now heard in three movies with the other two being Rage & Honor II and Moving Target.
Toyman: That old “fake a fight, grab the cash” gag might be worth a try one day. According to films like this one and Bloodfist, it’s got a batting average of 1.000. Speaking of Bloodfist, while the plot of this film is derivative of that one, I found the character of Albert in Full Contact much more entertaining than Baby Davies was in that flick. Baby was a little annoying at times in that film, while Albert is more of a blue collar screwball that you’d bump into at the bar after work and crack jokes with.
Trivia note regarding the Tori character: when she’s brought onstage at the strip club and they announce her stage name, it’s Denise, which according to the credits is her “shoot” name (that’s wrestling terminology for you, kids). Was that a goof, or just a lack of effort to find her a more fitting stripper name? The world may never know. And I get the lure of the strip club, especially for the street types like Albert, but why would he hang out at the club where he knows his sister is dancing? If I were him, I’d have found another spot to park my ass and have a beer. What we do know is that, according to Action Movie Law #96, awkward encounters between male and female leads means there will be romantic encounters between the two later on. Well, this film has not one, but two of them; Luke and Tori’s encounter in the alley during her dance routine, and later on when he sees her on stage at the strip club. Once they get past that, their fondness for each other is pretty much cemented.
THE TRAINING
Toyman: The characters in Full Contact are all down on their luck and disenfranchised, so we don’t see Luke Powers training in a fancy gym and eating right. Since he’s about to enter the world of illegal street fights, what could be better than some rough around the edges street training? Luke’s new buddy Pep (Marcus Aurelius, who shows an amazing amount of charisma in this role) agrees to help him find his brother’s killer since he’ll be able to make some money if Luke fights well. Pep puts Luke through the ringer by having him do things like trying to outrun a city bus (complete with a creepy driver who is determined to embarrass Luke), dodge rotten fruit that’s thrown at him, and has him spar with Albert, a session that turns heated when Pep gets Albert angry by saying Luke has been banging his sister. It might not be formal, but it’s definitely humbling, and prepares Luke for the anything goes world that he’s just stepped into.
CTB: You forgot that a big part of Luke’s training is carrying Pep’s easy chair around from place to place… I do like that the outrunning the bus thing is a thread that goes through Luke’s entire journey and it isn’t until he outruns the bus that he is ready to fight and more importantly find out who killed his brother!
THE FIGHTS
CTB: We probably should point out that the guy promoting the underground fights in Full Contact is named Low-Ball and more importantly than that, Low-Ball is played by none other than Michael Jai White, who would go on to have quite the action movie career… The fights allow Jerry Trimble to showcase some of the skills that made him the PKC Light Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion, but honestly the moment I remember most from any of the fights did not involve Trimble’s Luke Powers, instead it was when Albert uses onion breath as some offensive offense!
Toyman: The fighters all had intimidating names like Black Ice and The Hulk (played by Matthew Willig of Young Rock fame), but nobody outside of Luke and Albert had any well-defined characters. The closest we get is Ahmed, the man that Luke is led to believe is his brother’s murderer, but things are not always what they seem. Everyone else is there to stand around and look tough. Then we even get Luke pulling a King Kong Bundy and winning a match in mere seconds against some sad excuse for an opponent! The alley fights are fun and truly are only there to showcase Trimble’s kickboxing prowess and build up to the ultimate end battle, when Luke discovers the person who is really responsible for his brother’s death and seeks his ultimate revenge in the best fight of the film.
THE VILLAIN
Toyman: Pep spent the whole movie quoting “The Art of War”, so it shouldn’t have surprised anyone when it turned out that “all warfare is deception”. The heel turn of Pep was to be expected, because that’s how things roll in films like Full Contact, and once the big reveal happens, everything we had seen previously made more sense. Pep being the one to chase after the guy that saw Johnny’s killer, only for the guy to wind up dead? Pep did that. Using Luke as his protégé in order to make money off of his fights and run with the whole “keep your enemies closer” motto? Pep did that too. But once that final confrontation happens, where Luke reveals what he knows and Pep just nods to acknowledge it, once that mask comes off… man, it was something sinister. A lot of times the villains in films like this are too over the top, or cardboard stereotypes. Pep killed Johnny, played Luke, and gloated about it until Luke gave him his comeuppance. Still, even though it was pretty obvious what was going down, you couldn’t help but love Pep and wish that he didn’t turn when the time came.
CTB: Pep really had to go through all those machinations to qualify as the movie’s main villain. Yes, he did kill Luke’s brother Johnny… but it wasn’t an unprovoked act. Johnny had hospitalized Pep’s brother and if we are going to villainize guys avenging their brothers would that not make Luke Powers a villain too?!?!
Toyman: That’s an interesting take on the plot, although I think Luke’s mission of vengeance was born more out of emotion and circumstance than any truly malicious intent, not to mention he was manipulated into doing his brother’s killers bidding under the guise of revenge! Pep was definitely the true villain here. Besides, as I mentioned when we discussed One Man Army, Jerry Trimble comes across as a naturally likable guy on camera and in real life, and the man plays the part of the hero extremely well.
