Welcome to Dave's Shrine of Remar

James Remar - Warriors, come out and plaaayyy...

Certain films are so potent andcaptivating that they fuck up an entire generation of kids.

The Warriors is one of those movies for me. During the early years of cable TV my friends would stay up late and watch violent movies like The Warriors and then, full of adrenaline and unreleased agression, we'd sneak out and vandalize a golf course or something. Along with movies like Enter the Dragon, Escape from New York, Excalibur, Mad Max, and Death Race 2000, The Warriors is one of those movies that launched my lifelong love of genre entertainment.

It is also directly responsible for Young Dave and his friends getting their asses kicked by mean older kids - but that's a story for another day.

One of the things that made The Warriors so damn cool was Ajax, the brash gang member played by a young James Remar. Ajax is all bravado and bad attitude - he's sort of the Han Solo of the group, and Remar plays him with a perpetual scowl. Ajax would suck if he was just a blowhard, but as he repeatedly demonstrates, his mouth writes the checks and his fists cash 'em. Ajax is a total bad ass.

He gets to prove how awesome he is when The Warriors (fourof them anyway) get attacked by the Baseball Furies, a gang of creepy silent guys in baseball uniforms and KISS makeup. They're outnumbered, so The Warriors queue up the John Carpenter synth soundtrack and make a run for it. Ultimately it comes time to stop running and start kicking the living bejeesus out of the Baseball Furies, which Ajax does with verve and elan.

Hey kids! Dave's favorite James Remar line is at the 3:32 mark!

Truly The Warriors represents a bigone age of cinema, when you could build a movie around a slightly subversive central idea and a couple of decent analog fight scenes. I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for The Warriors and its ilk, even if it was a bad influence and got me beat up. I don't blame James Remar, though. If anything, my relationship to The Warriors showed me that everyone takes a hit now and then. Sometimes you're the guy with the baseball bat, and sometimes you're the popsicle.

Thank you for that wisdom, Warriors. And thank you, James Remar.

My favorite James Remar quote

It's a tough call, but I'm going to have to go with the obvious choice for Best James Remar Line Ever. It's from the 1979 film The Warriors, where James plays a gang member named Ajax who utters this witty bon mot to a baseball bat wielding foe:

"I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle."

I'm not certain, but that may be my favorite line from any movie ever. The only problem with it is that it's very context-specific; it's not a line that you can quote in public with a reasonable chance of a) it being appropriate, and b) anyone knowing that you are indeed quoting James Remar in the first place. It's not like saying "Say hello to my little friend!" when you pick up a chicken skewer at a buffet table or "May the force be with you" before somebody does karaoke. These are movie quotes that people might actually know and that could be situationally appropriate.

But unless you're at a Little League game, there are very few scenarios in which you could say "I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle" and have it make sense. Come to think of it, while it might make sense to say that at a Little League baseball game, it should probably be avoided.

Anyway, it's still the greatest James Remar line of all time, even if it's not that handy.

James Remar - Guest Star

So the other day I was watching Eli Stone, a fine ABC television program that I enjoy viewing for my job, and lo and behold, there's James Remar. He played a ruthless real estate developer that was trying to evict a bunch of low-income people from their historic neighborhood. Did he succeed? Fuck yes he did! He's James Remar! Those poor people were thrown out on their asses. Nobody can go head-to-head with The Remar.

A quick look at James Remar's vast body of work will reveal the extent of TV work the man has done. The breadth and range of his work is impressive - you'd think that he would just be cast as cops or psychos, but no. Let's take a look at some highlights from James Remar's career.

Remar's most notable recent TV appearance was a recurring role as Harry Morgan on the Showtime series Dexter. His character recently died (ooops, SPOILER) but I'll bet you can still feel the lingering smell of awesome clinging to the Dexter soundstage.

Tough guy Remar has appeared on 7th Heaven, Walker Texas Ranger, and was a recurring guest star on Sex in the City, where he did not shoot or punch anybody even once.


For fans of genre TV shows, James Remar is representin'. He had a recurring role on the late, lamented Jericho, and he played opposite Richard Hatch on several episodes of Battlestar Galactica (the new series). Remar was also in the X-Files episode "Daemonicus."


So you see, James Remar has a little bit to offer everyone in the family. Watch a James Remar TV show today! Or so help me, he will totally shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle.

James Remar - Expository Cop

Sometimes you need a cop in your movie who will deliver big chunks of expository dialog to the main character in order to keep the plot going. Folks often think of James Remar when it comes to casting that cop. Occasionally he might play a military guy, but the purpose of the role is always the same: human info dump.

Here's James Remar mocking Blade with another officer in Blade: Trinity. And you thought Ryan Reynolds was the best part of that movie? THINK AGAIN.


And here's James Remar as Uptight Agent giving a briefing in the fine film 2 Fast 2 Furious. "Use extreme caution, this man has been known to use rats and blow torches to torture people. Yes, rats and blow torches at the same time."


Here's James Remar playing Expository Cop on CSI: Miami. Sometimes your episode gets so fucked up that you have to bring in somebody to help explain the plot to the main characters. James Remar is that somebody.

James Remar - Gesundheit!

Hey, even James Remar has to sneeze now and then. Or have a stroke - it's hard to tell from this picture.

James Remar - voiceover master

Like a lot of actors, James Remar picks up the occasional voice acting gig for animated projects. Remar enjoys the variety and change of pace that voice acting offers, but has been somewhat dismissive of animated programs in the past.

"They're basically for kids and stoners," Remar told Wizard magazine. "I mean, who watches cartoons? Little fuckin' kids and dopers, that's who. What magazine did you say you were from again?"*

James Remar has played Black Mask in the animated series The Batman.

James Remar also did the voice of Larousse in the Pixar film Ratatouille. Yeah, I don't remember which guy he was, either. I'll have to watch that movie again with a new Remarcentric mindset.

James Remar also did the voice of Carter Hall/Hawkman on the Justice League animated series. Suddenly Hawkman's looking a little bit cooler, isn't he? It's the Remar Touch - it's like Coolness Pixie Dust, Remar just sprinkles it around wherever he goes, making the world a little cooler.

*Oh, and I'm totally lying about that Wizard quote. James Remar loves cartoons. Really.