Number One With A Bullet

The fun part about seeing a Cannon film for the first time is basically reliving what it was like to see those films during the studio's peak in the mid-80s. By that I mean the constant promise of what Cannon was promoting and creating. Of course it rarely worked, which is what I think made the studio so appealing and relatable to the every day person. They promised a lot and rarely delivered, but the hope and the effort were there.

Number One With A Bullet is one of the lesser-known of Cannon's output, which is interesting since it was released during Cannon's peak as well; something always gets lost in the shuffle. So yet again, in seeing this today for the first time, I get fooled by the advertising. Great poster, intriguing cast, Jim Belushi was one of the film's FIVE writers? I was hoping for a hidden gem of a low-key action flick. And maybe Robert Carradine can shake the Revenge of the Nerds stigma. But nope, this is most definitely a Cannon film, and there's definitely a reason it's lost even amongst the Cannon die-hards. Carradine is .... oh I don't know I think I have to blame everything on the script. But no, he still deserves some blame for his own performance because despite the terrible script, it was a DELIGHT to see Billy Dee Williams in his role as "Hazeltine" (!!!!), so perhaps the terrible script isn't fully to blame. But what you get here is a weird, aimless mix of action with sometimes intentional and sometimes unintentional flashes of humor that fall flat either way. They almost seem to be trying slapstick humor at points, which makes the whole thing just a really bizarre situation from beginning to end. So, very, very Cannon. I'd recommend it to those aforementioned Cannon diehards but even that comes with a warning.