colintimberlake.comTell her it wasn’t you…

It is often reviled as the bastard creation that demeans the Rocky saga, but Rocky V is not entirely without its merits.

What we have here is an alternate take on the end fight from the film, complete with different lines, a different sequence of events, and some entirely fresh footage of Burgess Meredith (Mickey Goldmill) in one of his final film performances.

I can only say that had they put together the ideal combination of footage from the theatrical release and footage from this discarded workprint scene, they would have had a damn good end sequence, more than fully worthy of a Rocky film.

And, of course, they would have had to discard some crap from both versions…

It would probably be impossible for anyone to count how many workout sessions have either been inspired or enhanced by something related to the Rocky sage: the training sequences, the Bill Conti musical score, the parallel to Stallone’s real life rags-to-riches story.

Bill Conti is a film legend. He has scored countless big Hollywood movies and he’s the guy who conducts the orchestra at the Oscars every year. So you have to appreciate it when he takes a little extra time and effort to add to the soundtrack of the Rocky Legends video game.

The following track is “Overture” and it is pretty much a 10-minute combination of the best instrumental tracks from the first few Rocky films: Gonna Fly Now, Going the Distance and Redemption.

But it’s ten minutes of good listening and inspiration…and for the die-hards: from about the 2:15 to the 4:45 mark, there are some new arrangements that aren’t in the movies and appear to have been put together just for (what I presume to be) the most inspirational video game ever made.

The relevance to training? It’s tenuous…

But this is the opening track to the 1986 ice hockey film Youngblood, the track to which we first see Dean Youngblood (Rob Lowe) alone on a poorly lit sheet of ice, doing what needs to be done: practising nonstop and honing his skills.

The film catches a lot of people on their way up: Lowe, Patrick Swayze (RIP) and Keanu Reeves. Plus you get underrated character actor Ed Lauter as the no-nonsense coach, real-life hockey hall of famer Eric Nesterenko, and a young Cynthia Gibb (oh yeah) as the female lead…

So the next time you need a little imagery to fuel the demands of a hard training day, I offer you: Youngblood.

Does this have much to do with training, fitness or any social issues? Not really. I guess I could point to the fact that the film has Arnold Schwarzenegger and use that as training inspiration of some sort…

But the fact is, it’s just an action classic and it’s time to pay tribute to Schwarzenegger at his peak as he was kicking the asses of child-kidnapping terrorists. Here is the theme from the 1985 film Commando, where if Arnold likes you, that only means he will kill you last.

Okay, this is not really what I do here at Colin Timberlake, but I keep getting questions, given that I’ve provided a few posts on the great action montages and soundtrack songs of the 1980s, which means naturally that I can’t go without mentioning Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox, Mark Safan, Amy Holland, Win in the End, Styles, Shooting for the Moon or…Lorie Griffin, the hot chick who played Pamela Wells and then promptly disappeared into thin air when she could easily have parlayed this role into 20 years of moderate pay in B-list horror movies.

So first off, I don’t know where Lorie Griffin is, and no she won’t go out with you.

But just for the hell of it, here are a few classic Teen Wolf pictures…

Don’t say I never did anything for you…

This particular underappreciated actor is a man who worked his way up to significant supporting roles in major pictures, from the bottom of the ladder.

He is often referred to as “George Clooney’s cousin” because of the superstardom Clooney achieved much after they both hit Hollywood. But the fact is that Miguel Ferrer established himself in advance of Clooney getting his foot in the door, and he did so on the basis of pure acting talent and intensity, rather than his cousin’s matinee good looks.

Though his credits date back to 1981, with a guest appearance on Magnum P.I., Ferrer first made a big impression as one of the key characters in a film that was filled to the brim with underappreciated actors: Robocop. Stronger performances by supporting stalwarts Ferrer, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Ray Wise and Paul McCrane buttressed the work of headliners Peter Weller and Nancy Allen, and it was these strong supporting roles that helped the film become an enormous hit and a cult classic.

The removal of such acting credibility from the middle ranks of the casts also helps explain the lack of success achieved by anything else ever having Robocop in the title, be it sequel or television series.

Ferrer also played a critical supporting role in the Oscar-winning 2000 film Traffic and was a regular cast member of the series Crossing Jordan.

Other notable film credits include The Manchurian Candidate, Mulan and Star Trek III. To these he has added guest appearances in a litany of major television series: Miami Vice, CHiPs, Hill Street Blues, Cagney and Lacey, Twin Peaks, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and CSI.

BACK TO: The Wall of Underappreciated Actors

This particular underappreciated actor is a woman who emerged onto the screen in the type of vehicle that tends so often to breed and spawn horrible acting and performances that range somewhere from wooden to false to robotic to empty…sometimes rounding all four of those bases.

Yes, such was the case with the low-budget 1980s horror scene…and one can say pretty confidently that things have not improved in that regard over the intervening decades, particularly with the advent of home editing studios, $500 HD cameras, and the still-prevalent syrup-and-food-coloring blood mixture.

With that said, every now and then a measurable degree of talent can emerge from these waters. One really wouldn’t have expected a credible and reliable character actor like Tomas Arana to emerge from Dario Argento’s Demons 3, nor Johnny Depp from A Nightmare on Elm Street, nor Kevin Bacon from Friday the 13th.

In like fashion, the formulaic Slumber Party Massacre (a quintessential tribute to scantily clad teen girls being stabbed and slashed) produced Debra DeLiso, a credible actor who would go on to some memorable theatrical performances and also to become one of California’s respected acting instructors.

She parlayed her experience and talents as a dancer to secure a position in Outrageous Fortune with Bette Midler and Shelley Long, and also guest starred on the cult 1980s sitcom Sledge Hammer! Though less active in front of the camera in recent years, DeLiso nonetheless stands out as one of the more authentic and genuine acting talents to emerge from the 1980s teen-hack-and-slash scene.

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Well, when I said Robert Davi was born to play movie villains, I forgot to leave a little room for him to be topped by Rick Aviles, a man you most definitely would not have been seeing as a Hollywood protagonist, even if he had not tragically passed away far too young in 1995 (at age 42).

But the man did evil and he did it well.

Aviles had the good fortune to both kill Patrick Swayze, and to attempt to murder (but be murdered by) Al Pacino.

Aviles achieved the former feat in the Oscar-winning film Ghost, and the latter in Carlito’s Way. As Willie Lopez in Ghost, Aviles was utterly disgusting as a low-rent murderous louch who would just as soon take a human life as not. You were all too happy when the shadowy helldemons came to take his warped spirit to the underworld with them.

As a murderous low-rent drug dealer in Carlito’s Way, you weren’t too sad to see Aviles take a bullet to the face either, as he fired away at Carlito Brigante (Pacino). Aviles had a knack for making you hate him and was surely on his way to becoming a Hollywood staple in a role he was pinning down with authority.

Indeed, Aviles has been referred to as “the poor man’s Luis Guzman,” another underappreciated actor who also appeared in Carlito’s Way (as Pachanga, Carlito’s bodyguard). In the years since Aviles’ passing, Guzman has gone on to greater heights and fame, possibly in part by absorbing the roles that may have gone to his primary competitor (and performing them quite well in his own right).

Aviles also appeared in several other notable projects, with roles of varying size. They include Street Smart, The Godfather III, The Cannonball Run and Waterworld.

BACK TO: The Wall of Underappreciated Actors

This particular underrated actor has given a string of good performances, but in some ways, hasn’t done himself any favors by giving them in a string of terrible movies.

Richard Gant may be best remembered as the Don-King-inspired ruthless promoter, George Washington Duke, from Rocky V. As the man who turned rookie actor Tommy Morrison against Sylvester Stallone, while Sylvester was trying to win back the affection of his son (rookie actor Sage Stallone), Gant put in a colorful and interesting turn with his performance…but much like the handful of underappreciated actors in the film, turned out to be bailing water on the Titanic as the film sank.

As it turns out, however, the much maligned fifth installment of the Rocky series was actually one of the better films in which you can see Gant play a notable role. He may perhaps have scraped the absolute bottom of the barrel for a working actor of significant ability by appearing in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, the 9th chapter of the Friday the 13th franchise, in which the spirit of Jason escapes his body and possesses various people, starting with Gant.

Along with William Forsythe and Lance Henriksen, who gave an incredibly strong performance for such a film, Gant was again left to scoop out water in the sinking ship that was the Brian Bosworth-fueled undercover cop film Stone Cold.

Gant was also entertaining as Baa Baa Ack, an African political figure in the Chris Rock comedy CB4 and has also actually appeared in some quality films such as City Hall and The Big Lebowski.

Richard Gant also sports a long resume of guest appearances on memorable television series, among them: Miami Vice, The Cosby Show, Beverly Hills 90210, How I Met Your Mother, Deadwood, Smallville, NYPD Blue, ER, Friends, Chicago Hope, Seinfeld, Murphy Brown and L.A. Law.

BACK TO: The Wall of Underappreciated Actors

One of the attributes that makes the great directors great (or the great movie stars), is that they know when they have something good and they take advantage of it. In Oliver Stone’s case, he always finds a way to use John C. McGinley in his films if the role fits. Sylvester Stallone knew he could rely on Frank McRae and Joe Spinell for supporting roles. Charles Bronson films aren’t complete without Ed Lauter, nor is an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie right without Sven Thorsen.

And for James Cameron, there was always Lance Henriksen. After the two worked together on the unknown 1981 film Piranha 2, Cameron knew he had something good in Henriksen and brought him back for major roles in both Aliens and The Terminator, two of the most successful and revered action films of all time.

Henriksen would follow up his work as Bishop in Aliens by reprising his role (or playing related ones) in Alien 3 and Alien vs. Predator.

He cut his teeth with a small role opposite Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, and other early film appearances included Network, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Damien: Omen II, The Right Stuff, Jagged Edge and Johnny Handsome. Over these films, he began to show his chameleon-like ability to take on any role.

He would guest star on several major television shows on his way up, from The A-Team and Cagney and Lacey to Beauty and the Beast, before ultimately landing his own series-lead in the cult favorite Millennium. Following the end of the show, he would reprise his Millennium role with a guest appearance on The X-Files.

The list of significant film roles is long and varied, from a Wild West villain in The Quick and the Dead to salt-of-the-earth cops in Jennifer 8 and Powder to the sadistic patriarch of a violent motorcycle gang in Stone Cold. He plays a different kind of patriarch, a reformed felon bringing peace to an abandoned penal colony in No Escape and, along with Sven Thorsen, takes his best shot at killing Jean-Claude Van Damme in Hard Target.

BACK TO: The Wall of Underappreciated Actors