Action: The Complete Series (1999)

Now I want to see "Beverly Hills Gun Club"

"Action" is yet another one of those great TV series that you've never heard of because it got cancelled almost as soon as it began. The 13 episodes of this series tell the continuing story of Hollywood movie producer Peter Dragon (Jay Mohr) and his attempts to make the seemingly doomed action film "Beverly Hills Gun Club" (the description of which sounds so incredibly bad and trashy that if it really existed I would be the first in line at the cinema to see it) by "selling his soul to the devil one piece at a time".

"Action" is an incredibly funny series. It skewers all of the top names in Hollywood (at the time it was made - 1999), as well as the film industry in general, and doesn't hold back in doing so. Each episode targets a different aspect of showbiz - from actors, to directors, to investors, to writers. No one is spared. The show is completely offensive and is up to its eyeballs in coarse language and sex and drug references, not to mention jokes that are just in plain bad taste - I don't mean gross-out humour, I mean jokes that make you stop and think "I can't believe they just said that", right before bursting out laughing.

The reason why I didn't give this show five stars is because, even though I thoroughly enjoyed this series, the show did start to run out of steam towards the end. The episodes on disc two just aren't as funny as the episodes on disc one, and Illeana Douglas, as child star turned prostitute turned film executive, Wendy Ward (my favourite character in the series, played by one of my favourite actresses) "vanishes" from several episodes on the second disc. Nevertheless, by the time I got to disc two, I was so interested in finding out what the next disaster to befall Peter Dragon would be, that the story kept me going in place of the jokes.
August 8, 2008

Oh, the lines!

"I don't know if I have a price for that" - Wendy Ward, working girl, as Peter Dragon says he's going to throw up on her feet. (At that point in the first episode, I knew they were on to something big!)

"I prefer to think of the sack being half full" - Buddy Hackett in his deadpan innocence.

"You're threatening me? That's a laugh... I'm seventy-nine years old. I've got one kidney, one ball and one lung. I take Viagra just to keep from peeing on my shoes, and you're threatening me? Who are you frightening? " - Uncle Lonnie (Hackett)

"Look, Wendy, I want you to come work for me. Not as a prostitute, no, no, no. I want you to work for me as a motion picture executive, which is just a different kind of prostitute. " - Jay Mohr as Peter Dragon

"You can be a prostitute and humiliate yourself as a job, or you can work as a motion picture executive and humiliate yourself as a career! " - Peter Dragon

"Is that the gun I gave you for Hanukkah?" Illena Douglas as Wendy Ward

The director's commentaries were equally biting. A brilliant piece of comedy that does begin to wander in the final episodes, but absolutely worthwhile nonetheless. August 8, 2008

ACTION!

Although the series starring Jay Mohr was short-lived, it was packed with non-stop funny. Illeana Douglas was terrific as a bright, witty call girl-turned production executive. Both Jarrad Paul and Jack Plotnick are perfectly cast in supporting roles as is Lee Arenberg who always excels. As this is a racy, raunchy, sexy take on the movie industry, it is definitely for adults only! August 7, 2008

Action was too good for television

In the first minute of "Action", producer Peter Dragon dresses down a caterer with a series of F-bombs. The caterer's crime? He told Peter Dragon that he was in his parking spot.
Jay Mohr was born to play the part of Peter, a producer whose latest action film has just become a complete flop. Now Peter needs to make a hit film, and fast, so that he can regain all of the perks of being a hot Hollywood producer. Along the way he will hire a prostitute as his assistant director, court financing from questionable foreign sources, and give his all to a newly 'out' leading man. There is no lie big enough for Peter Dragon, and we get to watch him discard any principles that he might have had in order to make his film.

Action is simply one of the most biting satires of Hollywood that I've ever seen. It includes cameos of actors playing themselves, but only a couple degrees exaggerated from real life.

Although the later episodes lag, I'm convinced that Action was removed from the air because it hit some nerves in Hollywood. This stuff had to be drawn from someone's real life experiences. Its too funny to simply have been made up. April 22, 2008

TOO FUNNY!

TOO BAD THIS ONE WASNT MADE ON HBO AS IT MIGHT HAVE SURVIVED LONGER. PETER DRAGON CHARACTER IS ABOUT AS FUNNY AS IT GETS. ITS AMAZING THIS ONE AIRED ON NETWORK TV BUT ITS UNEDITED HERE AND NO BLEEPS IN IT. IT ONLY LASTED 13 EPIDSODES SO THIS IS COMLETE. I WILL WATCH THIS ONE DOWN THE ROAD AGAIN CAUSE IT WAS FUNNY. SO THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE PERFECT AMOUNT OF EPIDSODES AS IT WAS JUST TOO FUNNY TO CONTINUE THAT HILARIOUS PACE. I ENJOYED IT ALOT AND THE EXTRAS ARE GREAT. IT YOU WANT TO SEE A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENS OF MOTION PICTURES AND LAUGH ABOUT IT....THIS IS IT. October 22, 2007

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