So yes, Sho Nuff was kind of a ridiculous character in some regards since this 1985 cult classic flick featuring a villain that was so over the top was kind of cheesy. But Sho Nuff was much more than the frizzy-haired nutjob with anger issues that he might look like. He was a villain that was at the top of his game, had power to to spare, and was the absolute MAN in his neighborhood. He feared no one and was regarded by everyone as the one cat you didn’t want to take on unless you thought you were that tough. Of course as everyone that challenged him learned he was just awesome and didn’t even have to try to beat up most people, it just kind of happened. The whole movie is kind of cheesy really when you look at it through a modern filter, but back in the day this was the kind of film that you would watch over and over in an attempt to find out just how they did everything and, well, because it was flat out awesome.
Sho Nuff was the epitome of a movie villain.
He was the guy that seemed impossible to defeat simply because he was that tough and he had a power that others just didn’t possess. In terms that gamers can understand he was the boss character that had abilities that you’d likely never heard of and had no defense for, and was just so ungodly tough that his strength levels might be displayed in question marks rather than being given any identifiable quantity. Sho Nuff was the bad guy that knew he was bad and relished in it. There was no moral quandary with him when it came to what he wanted and what he could do to others. He fully embraced his nature and wasn’t shy about letting other people know that he was this awesome. Too many villains today have the need to justify their actions and to explore their inner feelings in an attempt to explain why they do the things they do. Sho Nuff was the guy that would tell you just why he was stomping you into the ground, and that it was because he felt like it, not because a hard life had forced him into it. That kind of honesty from a villain is hard to find anymore.
He got beat in the best way possible.
When you look back at the 80’s movies there were only two ways of going at it when you were out to defeat a bad guy. You either made sure that they weren’t going to hurt anyone any longer by finishing them, or you showed mercy and just humiliated them in front of everyone. There weren’t that many calm and peaceful resolutions between the hero and the villain, which made the story that much simpler. Sho Nuff wasn’t about to shake hands with Leroy and bow with respect once the fight was all said and done. He was there to fight to the end and to make sure that he looked good while doing it. When he started getting his butt kicked it came as a surprise to the character since he was confident that he was the biggest and baddest martial arts master on the block. But the point is that he got his comeuppance in the end and didn’t have to examine his life or humble himself before Leroy. The death he suffered was all it really took to put an end to his part of the story.
There was a plan to remake The Last Dragon.
The hype for this started in 2008 and it was announced that Samuel L. Jackson would play the part of Sho Nuff, which would be nothing but awesome since if anyone could pull off this character it would be him. But now that a full decade has passed since its mention and nothing has happened it’s kind of being assumed that nothing WILL happen. If a movie is left to sit for this long then the chances of it getting made are next to nil since it means that the level of interest has gone way down. There might still be a glimmer of hope, but quite honestly it seems slim since some people tend to think that it should be left alone. The film was such a great cult classic that a lot of folks are concerned that remaking it could damage the legacy of the film and possibly kill it off for good. Honestly a lot of folks don’t even know about this film, but upon seeing it for the first time it’s very obvious that while it’s campy and kind of awkward in places it’s still something that, back in the 80’s, was loved by a lot of people.
Who’s the master? Sho Nuff!
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