Lawbolisted Powerful

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Leofwine_draca SAMURAI COP is another hilariously inept action B-movie from the guy who brought us Killing American Style. I think Amir Shervan's earlier film has the edge in terms of out-and-out cheese and comedy, but SAMURAI COP comes a close second. The title's a misnomer, brought about because there are a couple of samurai swords in the film; otherwise this is the usual cops and robbers stuff as upstanding heroes battle gun-toting criminal gang members.This film is so much like Killing American Style it feels like they were shot back to back: the movies share cast members and look and feel exactly the same in terms of staging, fight scenes, etc. The staging is staggeringly inept, with most scenes shot in single takes, and the acting is quite horrible. The main actor, Mathew Karedas, has a long hair style that swaps from being real to a woman's wig and back again as the story goes on (the story is that he had his hair cut short halfway through the production so had to wear a wig for the rest of the filming).SAMURAI COP is a film that nobody can take seriously, so the best thing to do is to sit back and laugh at it. In this respect it becomes something of a gem, an example of so-bad-it's-good entertainment. As with Killing American Style, Robert Z'Dar plays in support as the chief villain. Others must have enjoyed this movie, because a sequel followed in 2014 (!).

Scott_Mercer I guess I was behind the curve on finding out about this messterpiece, but about a year ago I was clued in and have seen it several times since, as well as seeing the Kickstarter fueled Samurai Cop 2 in its theatrical run, no less. But let's get back to the original. A highly incompetent Lethal Weapon ripoff mixed with a ninja film, this was barely released direct to video in 1991 and thereafter floundered in obscurity. It may have actually gotten a theatrical release in some lesser nation; I know there was a movie poster from Poland which served as the basis for the first DVD cover. Years later, some hipsters dug it up and thanks to the internet, it developed a well-deserved and appreciative dedicated cult fandom. Although plagued with nonsensical writing, bad acting, non-existent direction, hack-job editing and video-game level musical score, Samurai Cop is actually a hilarious entertainment experience, unlike the even worse action/exploitation flick also made by an Iranian immigrant, the diabolical Dangerous Men. Where Dangerous Men is filthy, difficult to watch and depressing as hell, Samurai Cop is rollicking, goofy and insane. A lot of this appeal is due to the good will engendered by the two leads, Matt Hannon and Mark Fraser, who ended up doing very little after this film, career-wise, which is a shame. Half the script makes no sense as it is an impression of American films and American culture written by an outsider, English-as-a- Second-Language auteur, director Amir Shervan. Lead actor Hannon wears a cheap ladies' wig through much of the film as he had gone off during a break and cut his hair short (to be fair, Shervan told him the film was done and called him to come back for more shooting about six months later). Special effects are bargain basement, fight choreography is nearly non-existent, and the Japanese gang with only one Japanese person in it must be seen to be believed. At this point you probably don't need my recommendation to go see this as the film's reputation for hilarity is probably up there next to Tommy Wiseau's The Room by now. I'd even recommend repeat viewings as there's probably more laughs to be mined after the first go round. See it before you get shipped back to Tokyo in a garbage bag for fertilizer!

Martin Popov Alright, this movie is pretty horrible. It's horrible in so many aspects, which is honestly all of them, to the point where it's actually pretty entertaining.You can just sit there and laugh, goof after goof after goof, it never gets boring. Okay,let me explain how horrible it is.-Cinematography: This movie is ripe with something I like to refer to as forehead shots. There are a lot of scenes in this movie that feature a close up of a character's face. But it isn't a normal close up, rather, 40% of the screen, the distance between the top of a character's head and the top of the screen, will be nothing but empty space, meaning that your eyes will naturally center on a person's shiny polished forehead. Aside from forehead shots, we've got scenes that are filmed in different times of the day and in different places, not natural day to night/place to place transition within the story, but different places for one scene! Imagine this: Main character meets bad guy. Camera switches to bad guy. Daylight. Camera switches to hero. Nighttime and different interior. Overall video quality is poor, as in, old VHS tape poor.The video quality, for a movie that came out in 1991, is sub par. -Audio: The music sounds like something from the Sega Genesis. Music aside, 50% of the entire audio of the movie, is dubbed in a studio. I kid you not.Two guys are going in a car, there is about a 50 meter distance between the camera man and the actors, and when they talk, the audio is perfectly clear. There's also a scene where 3 people have the same identical voice, saying the same identical lines."HEY WAIT UP I WANNA TALK YOU!". Just an example.-Acting: The whole movie feels as if it was shot on one take.The performance is so bad, so generic and more often than not over the top, to the point where the whole movie, turns into one big blooper. The main character, Samurai cop ( who, although the movie states he is fluent in Japanese, he can't pronounce the most basic of Japanese names even if his life depended on it), you just can't relate to him; he is a hulking mass of polished muscles, that is immune to bullets, who has no character development. In fact, all people have no character development. They are the same throughout the movie. There are plenty gun fights in the movie, and whenever somebody dies, the death scenes are really, really exaggerated, and if you pause and look at the "wounds" ,there are no bullet wounds, no ripped cloth or anything, it's just ketchup. The two main characters, Samurai Cop and his buddy, look a lot like the duo from Lethal Weapon, and I mean a lot. -Story: Well, the story is about two detectives investigating a Japanese crime gang, who for some reason, have only one Japanese member, and that's the main boss. Well, they don't do much investigating. In fact, half of the movie is just filler. As in super long needless sex scene filler. ( For some strange reason, the sex scenes are the ONLY part of the movie where the cinematography is okay.). The plot is so simple, linear, and underdeveloped, to the point where there is no plot at all. The film makers knew it, it'll become obvious within the final 20 minutes of the movie; it's like the director said " You know what? We've got nothing, might as well make them go on a rampage and kill everybody. Because that's what normal people do". -Other things to consider: It's offensive to women. The vast majority of female characters, and I mean literally the vast majority, are portrayed as sex objects, nothing more.The poster for the movie, at least the original one, bears heavy similarity to a previous movie poster called Maniac Cop. It's also worth nothing that the two movies shares the same main actor, Robert Z'Dar. I've come to believe that Samurai Cop tried to leech of the popularity of Maniac Cop, which came 3 years earlier. And that's pretty much it. It's horrible, but it's so horrible, you can laugh at it.

Scott LeBrun Joe Marshall (goofy beefcake actor Matt Hannon) is a detective trained in the ways of the samurai, and together with his affable partner Frank Washington (Mark Frazer), he goes after the many goons and thugs working for big time Japanese mobster Mr. Fujiyama.That's about it for plot in this knowingly cheesy, sloppy, and silly martial arts action movie mess, written and directed by Amir Shervan. Obviously he knew exactly what kind of movie he was making, and just had fun with it. Often, "Samurai Cop" offers plenty of bad movie charm, as it clunks along from one inept sequence to another. The acting is hilariously, endearingly dumb across the board, with Hannon as one majorly wooden hero. Frazer has many great facial reactions. The ladies present are delicious eye candy: Melissa Moore as horny cop Peggy, Jannis Farley as leading lady Jennifer, and Krista Lane as a henchwoman. Robert Z'Dar is great fun as Yamashita, the primary henchman.Marshall dispenses with inept bad guys left, right and centre; ultimately, the movie isn't always terribly funny, and gets a little tiresome, but it's still amusing enough to make it pleasant if not uproarious fare. It could have used some better pacing, but still delivers enough laughs for those B cinema enthusiasts looking to have a night of bad movies and beers.Six out of 10.