“A golden B-movie oozing with nostalgic greatness”
By Adam Keith
B-movies are a treasure for film buffs. When we need a break from the moving dramas, gripping thrillers and brilliant comedies, we like to take some time to turn off our thinking caps and find entertainment in sheer absurdity. If a senseless comedy doesn’t fit the mood, a half-assed action film that makes no effort to even capture a sense of quality usually gets the job done. 1987′s lost B-movie Miami Connection is a goldmine in this sense. When I was a kid, my uncle had a specific way of selecting movies at the video store. He would browse the cover art and often chose the first thing he found that displayed a protagonist with a gun standing in front of an explosion. Upon coming home with the film, I would be called over (I lived down the street) and we would have a movie night showcasing an action film with no sense of plot or acting, but certainly had a lot of over the top action sequences, shootouts and chase scenes to entertain a kid with no concept of cinematic storytelling. Some of these titles throughout my adolescence included Snake Eater, I Come In Peace, American Ninja and Braddock: Missing in Action. These films were not masterpieces, but I sure dug the amount of action they offered. Miami Connection is very much in the spirit of those types of films, but let me tell ya… this is some of the worst writing, acting and directing I have ever seen in a film and for that reason, I love it. 2003′s The Room has vaulted its way to the top of the modern cult classic list, playing on a once-a-month basis at various independent theaters across the country, drawing in hundreds of costumed film nerds with the appropriate props to throw at the screen when the moment calls for it. At various screenings, the audience has had the privilege of having star and director Tommy Wiseau and the film’s other actors present in the audience with them and a Q&A to follow. While The Room was an inexperienced filmmaker’s attempt at creating what he believed was going to be a moving drama, only to have it be turned into a beloved unintentional comedy (Wiseau now claims the film was never supposed to be taken seriously), Miami Connection is a TaeKwonDo master’s failed attempt at breaking into the action film business.
In the mid-80s, TaeKwonDo grandmaster Y.K. Kim wanted to break into the foray of film and together with fellow TaeKwonDo man Richard Park set out to pitch a martial arts action package about a group of blackbelt orphans who play together in a synth rock band and fight off a gang of motorcycle riding cocaine kingpins who moonlight as ninjas. Sounds epic enough to me. After a long line of film studios rejected their pitch, the film was made independently with none of the cast and crew really having any idea what they were doing. The film was eventually purchased for $100,000 and began a run in just a small number of central Florida theaters before being pulled after just three weeks. The film was critically panned and was a commercial failure, almost bankrupting Kim. The entire experience left a rather bitter taste in his mouth and he left the entire film behind to be lost and forgotten.
Fast forward to 2012.
Drafthouse Films had just established itself a film distribution studio over the last year or so and apart from picking up contemporary indies for distribution, they also specialized in restoring lost nostalgic films, aiming to market them to a cult film fan base. Around this time they found a lost classic from Australia titled Wake In Fright. The cerebral 1971 thriller revolved around a reserved school teacher with a demonizing thirst for alcohol and gambling who stumbles into a small Outback town and after losing all his money drinking and betting, comes across a group of disillusioned townsfolk with their own set of dark demons which involve uncontrolled alcoholism and a disturbing joy for senseless hunting. At the same time, the company had found Kim’s Miami Connection and saw an opportunity to christen a new cult classic. Initial conversations with Kim were difficult as the now martial arts master and modern philosopher could not bring himself to believe that a film company wanted to redistribute his film for the home video audience after it had been so coldly rejected 25 years prior. After a few more attempts and a proper understanding of the impact and selling point for cult films in the American film industry, Drafthouse Films was able to acquire the rights to Connection for a run at the annual Austin, Texas genre film festival Fantastic Fest (with appearances from the cast and crew) and a DVD/Blu-Ray release. That’s one of the gems of how important the cult film movement is in this industry. A film that during its time was looked at as pure garbage has resurfaced a quarter of a century later and found a fan base among audiences who were just kids during its release. With an appreciation for absurdity and a love for nostalgia, this is the audience that would bring the film its obviously satirical, but well-deserved recognition. Not only that, but also an appreciation for exactly what the film is… A romp of effortless fight sequences matched by senseless shots and acting completely devoid of any emotion or personality. Even the ad-libbing will make you shake your head. With an epic trailer to promote it, a new life for Miami Connection as a B-movie treasure would begin…
Just know… those songs are going to be stuck in your head for days. What you see in the trailer is exactly what you are going to get. A ridiculous piece of cheesy 80s cinema that never really knows what it wants to be. It has an almost juvenile sense of establishing its heroes and villains. The shots are poorly chosen and synced horridly together with the senseless, repetitive dialogue that lacks any form of sense. These are obviously not professional actors and its clear the film relies solely on its efforts to garner interest in the TaeKwonDo sequences which are only relatively performed properly by Y.K. Kim on screen. You see one actor in a ninja suit and in the next shot, its clearly a stuntman. Its plagued with mistakes and at times I wonder if all the actors were random citizens of Orlando that the crew just found on the street and asked, “Hey, would you like to be in a movie?”
Even with every single clear flaw the film has, you can’t help but love it for what it is. Its not meant to be taken seriously and should never be critiqued by the standards of a professional film. Its simply something you pop on while drinking or performing other recreational activities and have a good, entertained laugh. Folks like myself who grew up on cheesy action films from the 80s will certainly get the biggest kick out of this. The film is available for streaming on Netflix and can be streamed in its entirety on YouTube. This is a great B-movie for any senseless movie night where the audience would just like to leave all thought and logic at the door.
