Inspired by and indeed part of the 1980s trend of buddy cop movies but by no means as original nor as ordinary, Samurai Cop is fascinating in it’s filmmaking ineptitude and tedious in it’s formulaic presentation.
It is, in all ways, brilliant fun.
It’s greatest inspiration seems to be Lethal Weapon 2 in that it features a team of foreign bad guys (in this case Japanese instead of South African) who come up against a rebellious pair of Los Angeles cops (a long haired white guy in jeans and a black guy in a suit) who will stop at nothing to halt their evil plans… especially when the bad guys get personal and start killing our hero’s buddies in blue.
Samurai Cop features awkwardly gratuitous sex scenes sometimes sandwiched uncomfortably between violent torture scenes; a continuing stream of mild racism (or not so mild) against Asians and African Americans; sexual harassment by both men and women; homophobia; and a flippant disregard for police procedure.
None of the above is too offensive, mind you, and should be taken as the naïve attitudes of a decade that probably should have known better.
The most offensive thing on display in Samurai Cop, though, is it’s awful… and I mean awful… writing, “acting”, directing, editing, sound design, continuity, set design, costumes, special effects, stunts… well, everything. I’d even go so far as to say that this feels like it was made by a softcore porno company that tried to break away from it’s seedy roots and attempt something more mainstream… but ended up making a softcore porno movie with some extreme violence and a samurai cop who doesn’t seem to know much about being a samurai or being a cop.
Watch it with some beers and some friends and laugh non-stop for 90 minutes… it’s a mildly offensive blast!
1/5
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