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Straight
to Video Movie Release, 1996
Text
by Harry Simon
Note
from Triple Kelly: Direct-to-Video Hulk Hogan
flick that took Harry Simon a month to finish
writing up for the site because he could only
watch it in 10 minute increments. We can't
blame him in the least.
Man,
was 1996 a great year to be a wrestling fan.
A wise king preached from the book
of Austin 3:16.
Humanity heard the call and bought
the t-shirt. Meanwhile, in Philly, a young man named
Tommy was quite literally unsuccessful in
his quest to pin down his archenemy, Raven.
So Tommy got revenge by knocking up
Raven's old lady, instead.
And way down south, pro wrestling good
guy icon-of-icons, Hulk Hogan, spoke into
a microphone at the Bash At The Beach PPV. Hulk suggested that his legion of fans 'stick it,' and thus,
turned heel on a shocked generation who had
grown up with the Hulkster, saying their prayers,
taking their vitamins, and trying to make
sense of that one episode of 'Hulk Hogan's
Rock n' Wrestling' where Junkyard Dog, Superfly
Snuka, and Andre The Giant wound up going
over a waterfall in a barrel. Seriously, what the hell was that?
The point is that like many other pro wrestlers,
1996 was a banner year for Mr. Hogan. That's probably why a certain 1996 Hulk Hogan movie slipped
through the cracks.
Almost. As any Hulkamaniac knows, Hogan has always
wanted to make it as a movie star ever since
he got a taste of the glitz and glamour with
a memorable small part as 'Thunderlips' in
1982's Rocky III.
(And given the fact that Hogan would
later admit under oath to a history of steroid
use, I'd suspect that more 'small parts' were
to follow.) You can easily access a list of Hogan's
movies at www.imdb.com,
www.amazon.com,
or better yet, use
the same webpage that I did.
Ah yes, like a terrible repressed memory,
it's all coming back to you.
Mr. Nanny, Santa With Muscles,
and Three Ninjas On Mega Mountain,
just to name a few.
Today, the Hulk Hogan wing of our video
library is joined by this thing I just watched
called The Secret Agent Club. Here's the propaganda
from the back of the video's box:
To the world Ray Chase (Hulk
Hogan) is nothing more than a klutzy, overgrown
toy seller whose wife passed away a few years
ago; and his only son Jeremy doesn't get to
see him very often because he's always away
on 'business trips.' What no one knows – not even Jeremy – is that his
dad is a secret agent who flies all around
the world, completing highly classified missions
for a top-secret peacekeeping agency.
Unaware of his dad's dangerous, yet exciting,
secret identity, Jeremy's world is utterly
normal.
But all that changes when Ray returns
from a mission, bringing with him a high-powered
laser gun he stole from a treacherous female
foreign guns dealer. Ray tells his son the gun is only a toy,
but his secret comes out when the dealer sends
her henchmen to capture Ray and retrieve the
gun.
The nasty henchmen get Ray, but Jeremy
escapes with the wanted firearm. After he learns how to use the laser gun,
Jeremy gathers his friends, and together they
hatch a clever plan to rescue Ray.
For the love of Bruiser Brody's bushy beard,
where do I even start?
For one thing, Ray's friends and neighbors
sound like a bunch of assholes. 'Ha! Look at the klutzy, overgrown toy-seller! AND HIS WIFE IS DEAD, TOO!! BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!' Then there was the fact that they saw
fit to tell us that nobody on earth –
'not even Jeremy' – knew of Ray's terrible secret.
Gee, thanks for clearing that up, guys.
Now the flame wars over whether or
not 'no one' does or does not include Jeremy
can finally come to an end and the healing
can begin.
Elsewhere, the box also threatens, 'True
Lies' meets 'Home Alone!'
Meaning what, exactly?
Joe Pesci does a seductive pole dance
in a hotel room?
That visual (you're welcome) is slightly
less appealing to me than a picture about
Hogan exploiting the trust of his motherless
son and stealing things from treacherous females.
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Anyway, we begin with Treacherous Female
peddling her wares, which happens to
be a clunky, junky 'laser gun' that
would have been laughed out of the 80s,
back when laser guns were the height
of kiddie action film cool. |
| But what's all this then? A masked interloper crashes the party
and chokes out a henchman in a manner
so precise, the dude went down faster
than Richard Belzer!
Who is this man of myster-- Oh,
it's just Hogan.
My first clue was when he unmasked
not four minutes into the flick (and
the first two were opening credits). I dunno, I've never tried my hand at espionage, but I'd think
that when one is clad head-to-toe in
black, trying to slither amongst the
shadows of night, one would at least
have the common sense to KEEP HIS FREAKIN'
MASK ON. |
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Way to go, Agent 00-Ego. From there, Hogan's stunt double climbs
a fence with ease, gaining access to
the perimeter while simultaneously insulting
the intelligence of anyone who happened
to see the infamous Hogan vs. Roddy
Piper 'Age In A Cage' match from Halloween
Havoc 97 (voted Worst Match Of The Year
by readers of the Wrestling Observer
Newsletter). |
| Meanwhile, at the auction house, Treacherous
Female summons Wrecks, who will be our
grunting, punting, big angry mean guy
for the evening.
The role of Wrecks was played
by the great Richard Moll, best known
as Bull from Night Court. However, many (okay, just me) consider
his finest work to be his superlative
voicing of Harvey Dent/Two-Face in Batman:
The Animated Series. |

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Wrecks' gimmick is that he has a metal
boot or cyborg leg or whathehellever
that causes him to limp/stomp menacingly.
Why only one leg?
Did they blow the prop budget
on the lamer gun? |
| Speaking of which, Treacherous Female
then demonstrates her new toy by vaporizing
a mannequin and thus, robs the scene
of its most charismatic character. |

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While outside, our Not-So-Secret Agent
knocks out a senior citizen with an
electric Vulkan nerve pinch, and proceeds
to remove the man's trousers.
Thankfully, they didn't show
that part in full, but still, not six
minutes into the thing and we already
seen Bionic Bull intimidate spectators
with his evil hobble, and now we have
Hogan pulling a JBL on some poor geezer. |
| So Hogan claims his victim's uniform,
and of course, it fits like a glove
despite the fact that their builds are
nothing like one another's.
Man alive, I did laugh hard when
Leslie Nielsen did the exact same gag
in The Naked Gun, which was eight
years before SAC. |

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| Scoffed
at by a skeptic, Treacherous Female
uses her lamer gun to blow up his helicopter.
Mind you, this was after she
already killed one of her own servants
to make a similar point.
The way I hear it, that's pretty
much how Nipple H handles her writers
meetings, too. Treacherous Female starts the bidding
at ten billion dollars, then leaves
the room with her buyers in tow. The gun is left under the protection
of her steel-toed sentinel.
Amidst all the inaction, Hogan cunningly
breaks away from the pack, knocks out
Wrecks with three punches, then gloms
the lamer gun and cheeses it. Yeah, okay, sure. He
can punch out Bullborg with his bare
hand, but he needed an electro-glove
to take down General Grandpa minutes
earlier. That's Hogan booking for you. |
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On the way out, our hero assaults another
goon, and – get this now –
proceeds to unravel the lad's turban
and use it as a rope to descend the
wall to safety. Ain't no comedy like ethnic slur comedy! |
| Hogan's escape is cut short by Treacherous
Female, who of course, is unable to
control her lust for the Hulkster and
begins seducing him.
Ye Gods, woman!
He just finished off an old man
outside the building not five minutes
ago! Hulk's not a machine! Treacherous Female is horrified to find
that Hogan is NOT happy to see her,
and in fact, that IS a gun in his pants!
Hogan eludes his would be attackers
amidst the world's slowest chase scene
ever. For a high-level spy, the guy sprints
like Yertle The Turtle.
Nevertheless, Hogan successfully
makes it to his hidden jetski and glides
away to freedom.
I'm sure there's a Thunder
In Paradise joke to be made, but I'm 14 minutes in, and I already just don't
give a rat's ass.
That's a new record, even for
Hogan. |
| Our minor-league movie then redundantly
darts to a little-league ballgame.
Hogan's son is crestfallen because
dear ol' dad has no-showedÉor has he?
Hogan does a drive-in, removes
the small woodland creatures from his
head and upper lip, and takes the field!
Wait a minute, since when are
adults allowed to drop by a little league
game and join it in progress?
What the hell is this, WrestleMania
IX?
What kind of umpire would allow
such madness?? |

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Oh, no wonder. The umpire is that Hulksuckin' Nasty
Boy, Brian Knobs.
It's probably my fault for asking.
I suppose I should just be grateful
that kids who struck out were not subjected
to the Pit Stop (aka Pitty City). |
| Junior dreads the idea of Hogan taking
the field.
His fears are reinforced by the
other parents laughing at Hogan's inherent
dorkiness. A pop fly goes sailing toward klutzy
Hogan and you're never gonna believe
this, but... |
| ...Hogan caught the ball and won the game
for his team. Come on, are you new around
here? Were you really expecting anything
other than Hogan going over and hoarding
the spotlight? Crap like this is exactly
why 'The Heatburglar' is just one of
the colorful nicknames out there for
Mr. Bollea. |

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Off
to Hogan's toy shop, where we meet Mr.
Yamata, a proverb-spouting lickspittle
in Hogan's employ, who comforts young
Jeremy by talking about his dead-ass
mama, and suggesting that he is a selfish
swine for not putting Hogan's feelings
ahead of his own. |
| So Jeremy makes a beeline for Hogan's
office and sees the top-secret lamer
gun in Hogan's briefcase, spread-eagle
on his desk. Once again, that's some
great espionagin' there, Hollywood.
A car chase ensues, with Jeremy marking
out for Hogan going all GTA on the city.
I dunno, for a super spy thriller action
sequence, I've seen nastier car chases
in Assisted Living parking lots. Hogan
finally kicks Jeremy to the curb, tosses
him a cell phone, and tells him that
he can trust Max Simpson. Jeremy then
grows to adulthood on the mean streets,
where he gives handjobs to strangers
to afford enough mac-and-cheese to stay
alive. Nah, not really. Now I'm just
being a prick (TM Sean Carless). |
| The chase comes to an abrupt end when
Wrecks lives up to his name. After Hogan
is apprehended, Wrecks makes an angry
face upon realizing that the laser was
nowhere to be found. Well, it would
have been found had his goons been arsed
to take a gander in the fake-ass looking
hidden compartment in the backseat,
where Hogan hid it. But instead, Wrecks
spots Jeremy, and decrees that for not
having the common sense to run away,
the boy must die. Actually, he's got
a point there. |

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Is
it just me, or is each chase scene actually
slower than the last? Wrecks tracks
Jeremy to a nearby rooftop where Jeremy
apparently plans to elude the behemoth
BY SODOMIZING A GIANT INFLATABLE
BEAR.
Despite being an inanimate object, the
horrified bear tries to escape by diving
off the building. Both Jer and bear
hit the pavement, and in a double tragedy,
the bear has committed suicide and Jeremy
is completely unharmed. |
| As with any Goonies wannabe, Jeremy
turns to his youth group for help. While
first they scoff at his story (join
the club, kids), they quickly come together
by getting loaded and trashing his place
in a drunken frenzy. |

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Meanwhile, Wrecks hunts down Hogan's toy
store and runs afoul of Yamata. Despite
Yamata displaying a mastery of the martial
arts not seen since Becoming The
Dragon, Robo-Bull soon gains the
upper hand and throws Yamata a whuppin'.
You know, just like how Zeus beat down
Hogan's little brother in No Holds
Barred. |
| Deciding to act before the buzz wears
off, our plucky young heroes abscond
off to Hogan's toy store, where they
are joined by Yamata's grandson, just
in time to find Yamata paying homage
to the Wicked Witch Of The East. |

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From there, we join Hogan and Jeremy at
the dinner table for a brief moment
of Rockwell-esque tranquility. But things
soon go to pot when Jeremy goes cuckoo
for Cocoa Puffs and starts screaming
at Hogan. |
| 'YOU UNCONVINCING,
OVERPAID, NO-BUMPING, WASTE OF LIFE!!
YOU PROMISED ME THAT I'D GET TO MEET
STING, BUT SO FAR ALL I'VE SEEN IS THAT
CREEPY BISCHOFF GUY SMILING AT ME IN
A DISTURBING MANNER!!! MY TESTICLES
HAVEN'T DESCENDED YET, AND MY CAREER
IS ALREADY OVER THANKS TO THIS PIECE
OF HELL!!!! I HATE YOUR ORANGE ASS,
HOGAN!!!!! I HATE YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!'
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One
cutaway later, and we see that actually,
Hogan is being tortured by a bizarre
virtual-reality whoosafudge that forces
him to suffer through a mind-numbing
experience from which there is no escape.
Whitey The Mad Scientist had a convoluted
explanation for this process, but I
can sum it up in one word.
'Karma.' |
| Wrecks phones home and informs a displeased
Treacherous Female that he has thus
far been unsuccessful in his efforts
to accomplishÉwell, anything in the
whole damn movie. Aggravated, Treacherous
Female vows to bring in 'Scarletti'
to do the dirty deeds done dirt cheap.
(Seriously, I found this thing in a
bargain bin for like $1.99.) |
| As Yamata does a stretcher job, Yamata
Jr joins the kids. More ethnic hilarity
ensues as the kids are vexed by YJ's
bizarre bowing. Now that their numbers
are complete, the rascals come up with
a master plan to save the day: They're
going to break into the car impound
lot and recover the lamer gun from Hogan's
Volvo! Wait, dowhutnow? |

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Oh oh, here comes trouble! As Wrecks storms
the lot, his cybernetic roach-stumper
suddenly makes perfect sense. To understand
a Hogan film, we must think like Hogan.
When it comes to giving your villain
a finisher, what could be more devastating
than the BIG BOOT? |
| As Wrecks closes in, the kids begin to
panic. I can only imagine the stark
terror when a murderous half-bailiff-half-machine
comes after you and you're completely
and utterly defenseless except for the
ENORMOUS DEADLY F**KING GUN IN YOUR
HAND. Trust Hogan's son to be the one
youth in modern-day America who doesn't
know how to cap one's ass.
And you thought Brooke and Nick led sheltered
lives. |


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| In a fiendishly clever plan, Sly (the
black kid) amcrays with the gun, leaving
the other four kids behind as decoys.
In doing so, Sly instantly became the
second likable character in the picture. |
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The kids can only stall Wrecks for so
long before they're saved by a friendly
fella in a white van who rolls up and
does a drive-by on Wrecks. 'Quick, into
the van!' orders this mysterious marksman.
Not thinking twice, the kids excitedly
pile into the stranger's white van.
Great message to send to your young
fans, Hogan. |
| Jeremy concludes that this just be Max
Simpson, and even long after 40 minutes
worth of SAC turned my mind to pudding,
I could still see the swerve coming
a mile away. Anyway, Chester takes the
kids to his home and entertains them
with black magic. |

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| Oh,
and while Jer was marking out for Papa
Shango II, his pop was still hallucinating,
this time featuring Jeremy blaming Hogan
for his dead-ass mama. Yamata was right;
Jeremy is a selfish little bitch!
Meanwhile
meanwhile, 'Max' casually tells Jer
about his dad's secret double-life.
You'd think that Jer would question
why Uncle 'Max' would be so nonchalant
in blowing his dad's cover in front
of him, two of his friends, and Yamata
Jr, who they met for the first time
about 10 minutes ago. But hell, anything
that inches this turd closer to the
finish line is a good thing. Like a
pig in a shootfight against the Iron
Sheik, Jeremy squeals, revealing the
whereabouts of the lamer gun. 'Max'
reassuringly tells the kids to sit tight
and bamfs away with a sinister giggle.
I was actually hoping that the giggle
would turn out to be Chucky, who would
then cut a promo on Rick Steiner, but
no such luck.
Meanwhile
meanwhile meanwhile, Whitey grows increasingly
frustrated with his inability to find
out just what's going through Hogan's
mind. Dude, how do you think we've
felt for all years? Anyway, it is here
that Whitey decides to bam it up a notch,
which would turn out to be his undoing.
You see, Whitey's last resort to break
Hogan was... |
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...sticking
a gigantic needle in his arm. Um, aren't
scientists supposed to be smart?
Whitey might as well have tried to tried
to drown Popeye in a swimming pool full
of spinach. One Hulk-up later, and Hogan
is on the loose!
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| Alas, Hogan's emancipation lasts all of
49 seconds before the big dummy gets
corralled in a laughable trap that wouldn't
have caught Wile E. Coyote unaware. |

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Treacherous Female then uses Hogan's
cell-watch to make a prank phone call
to Jeremy.
'I'm sorry, Mrs. Gruberman,
but I can assure you that we don't have
an Adolph Hitler costume for you to
rent. Have you tried calling JBL?' |
| But the action doesn't stop (or start)
there! A guy who bears slight resemblance
to Jason, The Sexiest Man On Earth,
from ECW fame, comes bursting in on
the children! Alas, his mercenary training
and gun-that-shoots-bullets is no match
for Yamata Jr's anti-gravity educated
feet! For the sake of bandwidth, I'm
going to leave out how this was the
real Max Simpson while the friendly
driver-byer was the nefarious Scarletti.
'Sides, if anyone hadn't already figured
that out by now, how much would an explanation
really help? |

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| Meanwhile, back at the Hall Of Indifference,
Sly is using his master-hackery skills
to, um, hack. And what he hacks up is
a bio on Hogan. You know those neverending
promos where HHH runs down the list
of wrestlers he's buried? Well, this
is almost as bad. Turns out Hogan is
the baddest mofo on the planet and he's
also responsible for promoting world
peace. How? By stealing weapons? That
defense didn't work for Ollie North,
and it ain't gonna work for Hollie Wood. |
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A tense standoff ensued as Scarletti forced
Sly to lead him to the hidey hole where
he stashed the lamer gun. Well, I wasn't
feeling the 'tense,' but I sure was
relieved when it made it to 'past tense.'
To wit, after a mishap with the lamer
gun, Scarletti met his demise, but not
before amusing the viewers with an impression
of this movie's plot. |
| Jer enthusiastically led the gang to Hogan's
rescue. As the final climatic battle
took place, Jer found himself going
midget-y-mano with Wrecks. With no bears
to play catch with (ahem), all seemed
lost for Jer. But don't count him out
just yet! When all seemed lost, Jer
pulled out a slinky and lobbed it atop
a conveniently-placed high voltage generator.
As the slinky um, slunk, downward, it
zeroed in on Wrecks' mecha-leg and electrocuted
the sumbitch.
Slinking a guy to death? That's hardcore.
I now understand that Pearl Jam song. |


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This all leads to a standoff where Treacherous
Female holds Jer hostage in demand for
the lamer gun. National security be
damned, Hogan folded like layers of
Nipple H's flesh after a jaunt to Krispy
Kremes. |
| Sooooo...after
the gang escaped to safety by using
a slip-n-slide, they – Hey, stop
looking at me like that. I'm not making
this up.
Blame
Hogan. |

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Anyway, they learned that that sneaky
Hogan switched on the lamer gun's auto-destruct
feature! (Hey, just like he did to WCW!)
The evildoers perish in an explosive
fireball, but not before Wrecks does
a tasteless impression of Kerry Von
Erich. |
| After sharing a hearty laugh at their
mass murdering rampage, our tale ends
as the kids are honored by the President,
receiving the distinguished 'Intelligence
Cross' medal. Sadly, the fact that I
voluntarily sat through this thing permanently
disqualifies me from ever achieving
that honor myself. |

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Wanna hear something pathetic? This induction
should have been finished a month ago. The
reason it wasn't is because it was THAT HARD
TO SIT THROUGH. Y' see folks, before I was
officially opening the velvet ropes to induct
WrestleCrap into our hallowed halls, I was
shoveling the 'Crap into compilation tapes
for archiving and fun. Thus far, I've logged
over 200 hours of the golden brown. Yet throughout
all the Gookers, Shockmasters, and Art Donovans
in the world, IT TOOK ME AN ENTIRE F**KING MONTH TO
SIT THROUGH 'SECRET AGENT CLUB.' That's how bad it truly was.
Still though, I learned something from today's
crash course in Hulk Hogan filmography. Like
most famous geezers, Hogan has endured his
share of 'old man' jokes over the years. People
happily swipe away at Hogan's recurring flare-ups
of Alzheimer's, senility, and complete loss
of contact with reality. But credit where
it's due, the Hulkster has squashed one aspect
of senior-citizenship like it was a young
up-and-coming WCW wrestler. I speak, of course,
of incontinence. By the grace of God, I hope
that when I reach 163 (or however the hell
old he really is), I can still plop 'em out
year after year like Hulk Hogan.
Harry Simon is a trivia-fueled
wisenheimer who has been writing about pro
wrestling off and on for 16 years and counting.
In addition to writing trivia columns for
both the Wrestling Observer and Live Audio
Wrestling websites, Harry has also written
for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, and even contributed
a ton of research to fellow Las Vegan Mike
Tenay in preparation for the first NWA TNA
PPV in 2002. Harry has also done play-by-play,
color commentary, and ring announcing for
indy promotions. Harry's disturbingly popular
column, Clustershmazz, appears at http://www.thewrestlingfan.com/clustershmazz.html.
(WARNING: Clustershmazz contains foul language
and tasteless humor, and should not be handled
by pregnant women.)

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