Fred Ward has been plucked from the supporting ranks to serve as the pulp-novel superhero of Warren Murphy's and Richard Sapir's "Destroyer" series. Something similar has happened to the hero himself, a Manhattan patrolman shanghaied into a government agency that officially doesn't exist, given a new face and name (from a bedpan trademark), and tutored in "sinanju" by a Korean martial-arts master (Joel Grey, unrecognizable) who dodges bullets point-blank, watches TV soap operas, and dispenses Oriental wisdom and wit: "You move like a pregnant yak!" All of this takes a lot of time, and postpones the pressing national-security matter for which the hero was recruited. An acrophobic (and acrobatic) set piece on the scaffolding of the Statue of Liberty, about halfway through, gives things a shove, but they immediately drag their feet again. Some good photography, especially of New York after dark, by Andrew Laszlo. With Wilford Brimley and Kate Mulgrew; directed by Guy Hamilton. (1985) — Duncan Shepherd
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