In response to aTomiK and Young Warrior's discussion about Jan-Michael Vincent movies in the 'What 80's movies did you just get' thread, i decided to remove my comment from that thread and make it a topic on its own.
Talking about Jan-Michael Vincent,
About a year ago, i saw this clip on Youtube and was shocked
It seems like alcoholism has taken a huge toll on Vincent's life and overall appearance. About 5 or 6 years ago i read an interview with filmmaker John Flynn who directed Vincent in Defiance (1980, i love that movie!), telling that by that time Vincent already occasionally had a bottle of hard liquor before even starting the day, but had no further problems with him because he still was a reliable actor at that time.
On the plusside, i must say that his current looks would be excellent for certain roles. The way he looks nowadays, i would love to see him in a gritty western or something. I really hope someone will give Jan-Michael Vincent another chance one of these days !
Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :
Just took a quick look on Youtube, but couldn't find a trailer for Defiance. However there was this clip with scenes from that movie accompanied by Michael Jackson's Beat It. If you have never seen Defiance, this clip does give a good impression of the movie (although it's in mediocre quality)
Defiance was released on dvd-on-demand by MGM in 2011.
[ 10. January 2012, 05:37: Message edited by: Johnny Roarke is reckless ]
Posted by Chris the CandyFanMan (Member # 3197) on :
One can only wonder how much longer Airwolf might have lasted on the air and stayed good with a sober Vincent still doing Stringfellow Hawke; suffice to say I agree with many that it was all down hill once he was no longer behind the copter's stick.
Posted by skatexedge (Member # 5712) on :
I first saw JMV in the movie White Line Fever back in the 70's along with Big Wednesday. Decent actor. I had heard he derailed his career pretty badly with substance abuse issuesall along and has never really gotten past that. Too bad.
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Just watched the interview and yes, it´s a bit shocking. I wish the man all the best.
I own Defiance and i´ll try to watch it later this week.
I own these J-M Vicent flicks:
The Mechanic (1972) Very good Charles Bronson movie. Jan-Michael gives a good performance. Big Wednesday (1978) Classic surfing drama directed by John Milius. Defiance (1980) Gonna watch it asap. Hard Country (1981) Coming soon. The Winds of War (1983) Watched this mini-series back in the 80s but don´t remember much. Last Plane Out (1983) Gonna watch it one of these days. Airwolf season 1 (1984) Never seen an episode. Don´t know when i have the time to watch this one. Hit List (1989) This is a good thriller directed by William Lustig. Sadly the Finnish VHS tape is cut.
Still lots of interesting 70s and 80s J-M. Vincent movies on the wish list
Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :
Thanks for the comments, guys !
Now that i've seen that interview clip a couple of times, i must say that it's pretty funny too.
'..Brad Pitt ? I don't even know who that is !..'
Toughguy actors such as James Coburn, Robert Shaw, Lee Marvin, Oliver Reed and Charles Bronson may be long gone, but Jan-Michael Vincent is still here.
Come on, give the man a movie to act in !
We don't wanna see poster-boy, red-carpet, United Nations attending, African child-adopting, publicity-hungry type actors anymore.. Bring back the real bad-boy actors ! The world needs real people like Jan-Michael Vincent with all their flaws, who we can hate and look up to at the same time !
Did i make a point here ?
[ 10. January 2012, 11:39: Message edited by: Johnny Roarke is reckless ]
Posted by the young warrior (Member # 9554) on :
great thread johnny,i did read a while back he was in a bad automobile accident that nearly cost him his live and also that he was an alchoholic,but still shocked to see his condition in the video.
be great to see him him back in the movies even if it was just in small cameo parts,the sad thing is though johnny in his current condition the only roles the hollywood studios would probably offer him is as the town drunk.
i thought he was excellent as the young and cocky hitman in michael winners early 70s classic the mechanic alongside the late great charles bronson.
http://youtu.be/8F0DJvuz8Go - trailer for enemy territory ,great movie in which jan michael vincent has a small part as a wheelchair bound viet vet,jan gets the best line in the movie when he says to the psychotic gang leader terrorizing his manhattan apartment block " back off squid lips" .
[ 10. January 2012, 14:30: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :
Yeah, back in the 70's Jan-Michael really had the potential to be Hollywood's next golden boy.
Well, you never know how it's gonna turn out. About 10 to 15 years ago nobody could have guessed that Mickey Roarke would ever make a serious comeback, but even he (..and apparently he really hit rock-bottom in the mid-90's..) managed to get himself an Oscar nomination for The Wrestler not too long ago. Quentin Tarantino is currently filming his spaghetti-western tribute Django Unchained, and i really think Jan-Michael Vincent would have been great for such project. Well, maybe next time he will get a call from Quentin...
Enemy Territory is indeed a good movie. It has been released here in Holland on some sort of bootleg dvd which is just an old video copy burned to disc. Unfortunately i've never seen Hit List, but i remember it from back in the day. I even have some original promotional materials for that one. I've never seen White Line Fever either , but apparently it has been released on dvd (on demand) by Sony only a couple of months ago.
[ 11. January 2012, 09:56: Message edited by: Johnny Roarke is reckless ]
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Just watched Defiance and it was pretty good revenge flick co-produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. This film was directed by John Flynn (Best Seller, Lock Up, Out for Justice) He has also directed Rolling Thunder (1977) which i believe is some sort of a classic. Defiance was written by Mark Tulin and Thomas Michael Donnelly, who also wrote the great Quicksilver (1986).
Jan-Michael Vincent is solid as a restless seaman who moves in East Side New York, neighborhood overrun by a gang called the Souls. The co-stars are Teresa Saldana, Danny Aiello, Rudy Ramos, Lenny Montana and Art Carney.
"The Souls" isn´t among the most menacing bunch of punks i´ve seen throughout the years but i wouldn´t want these guys anywhere near my neighborhood, that´s for sure Rudy Ramos is cool as the gang leader Angel Cruz.
Gritty New York City streets, believable characters and few nice tunes performed by a dude called Gerard McMahon.
Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :
I've always considered Defiance to be a slightly more realistic take on the Death Wish formula. Don't get me wrong, i love the Death Wish movies, but where Death Wish has its emphasis on violence, Defiance pays more attention to drama and characterization. In some peculiar way Death Wish 3 (1985) feels somewhat like a parody of Defiance.
aTomiK, thanks for decorating the thread with another collection of terrific artwork !
For even more Jan-Michael Vincent, check out last year's dvd- and blu-ray release of Damnation Alley (1977), released by the excellent Shout! Factory.
[ 12. January 2012, 04:16: Message edited by: Johnny Roarke is reckless ]
Posted by Logan 5 (Member # 1467) on :
There was a cheesy sci-fi movie starring Jan-Michael and John Philip Law called 'Alienator' from 1990, in which Jan Michael is clearly drunk in several scenes. It's both hilarious and terrible to watch.
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
I second your thoughts on Defiance, Johnny. I know about the Damnation Alley release but the R1 dvd´s are so darn expensive compared to stuff sold here.
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
I believe that he did some erotic thrillers in the early 90s and i love that stuff! Totally fitting career move I would love the get few of those flicks.
Posted by Spreadking (Member # 7280) on :
Enemy Territory is a must see film. Jan Michael is really good in his small part. When JMV and Ray Parker Jr look at the "ghost" very disapproving because he never served in the military. Tough room.
Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :
Alienator most definitely isn't one of his erotic thrillers.
Doesn't really look that bad to me. Then again, my standards may not be that high anyway. Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Watched Hard Country yesterday and it was a good drama. Kyle (Jan-Michael) is a cowboy who works in a fence factory in a small Texas town. Kyle has a rich and sleazy brother Royce (cool Michael Parks). He got his fortune selling mobile homes. Kim Basinger plays Kyle´s girlfriend Jodie in her feature film debut. She´s from a religious family. Daryl Hannah is her sister Loretta in her second movie.
Life is boring and all the action happens in a country club called "Stallion". I´m pretty sure that i saw J.R., Bobby and Ray there somewhere Tanya Tucker (saw her in Georgia Peaches a while ago) performs two full songs. Guys drink heavily all the time and have all kinds of fun. Jodie decides to leave to California but Kyle wants to spend rest of his life in Texas.
This was a real down-to-earth drama which i liked very much. The cast did a great job. If you liked Urban Cowboy, i´m sure that you like also this one. I´m not a big country music fan but i guess that the tunes were ok.
There´s a fun drinking contest between Kyle and a character named Top Gun played by Richard Moll. You can see that Jan-Michael sure can drink Nice little flick!
Posted by Logan 5 (Member # 1467) on :
quote:Alienator most definitely isn't one of his erotic thrillers. Doesn't really look that bad to me. Then again, my standards may not be that high anyway.
Trust me, the ad makes it look like standard straight to video junk from the late 80's. But Jan Michael's speech will change from scene to scene. In some scenes he'll be clear and lucid, in others he'll be leaning on the set so as not to fall over. Sad Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Just watched The Return (1980) aka Earthright.
"Two young children and an adult in a small town have an encounter with an alien spaceship. 25 years later the children are reunited as adults in the same town which is now beset by strange cattle mutilations. Matters become worse when the cattle mutilations are joined by human murders and mutilations." (IMDb)
This was an entertaining small town b-scifi flick directed by Greydon Clark (Without Warning, Joysticks etc.) and written by brothers Ken and Jim Wheat (Pitch Black etc.)
The Return stars Jan-Michael Vincent, Cybill Shepherd, Martin Landau, Raymon Burr and Vincent Schiavelli.
Vincent plays a cop and is drinking beer all the time I liked the old school special effects, especially the "shining" knife Schiavelli uses looks cool.
Crazy characters, lots of unanswered questions and great late 70s-early 80s feel.
Posted by the young warrior (Member # 9554) on :
This sounds pretty good atomik,I'll have keep an eye out for this.
So his character's a cop who drinks beer all day,may be that's why they hired Jan Michael Vincent for the part to save on the budget because they know he will always turn up on set with his own beers Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Haha, good one warrior
Yeah he´s a small town deputy (Little Creek, New Mexico) The sheriff´s (Landau) a drinker too, he even dips his donuts in beer Posted by the young warrior (Member # 9554) on :
Makes you wonder atomik if martin Landau once had a job at dunkin' donuts Posted by the young warrior (Member # 9554) on :
On another note atomik try and see if you can get hold of enemy territory,I reckon you would seriously like it. Really good movie.
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Yeah, i want it but it´s exteremely hard to get. It was released here on VHS but i´ve never seen the tape.
Posted by Bernie_Lomax (Member # 8571) on :
Enemy Territory is on Youtube although it has some sort of European subs on it. I think it might be Dutch:
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