Samurai Cop (1991)

• Year: 1991
• Released: 30 Apr 2016
• Country: United States
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130236/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/samurai_cop
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/samurai-cop
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Unrated
• Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
• Runtime: 96 min
• Writer: Amir Shervan
• Director: Amir Shervan
• Cast: Robert Z’Dar, Mathew Karedas, Janis Farley
• Keywords: los angeles, california, exploitation, samurai, buddy cop, katana,

	4.6/10
	47% – Audience

Samurai Cop Storyline

As the brutal Japanese gang known as the Katana gradually spreads its tentacles throughout sunny Los Angeles, controlling everything from drugs and gambling to prostitution, no one is safe to walk the streets. To deal with the problem, the Los Angeles Police Department enlists the help of an expert: Detective Joe Marshall, an avid Japanophile trained in the way of the sword and the ancient Bushido code of conduct. As a result, protected by the unbreakable code of silence of the feared Yakuza, Katana boss Fuji Fujiyama and his lethal right-hand man Yamashita wage war on anyone who stands in their way. Joe and his new partner, Officer Frank Washington have no other choice but to bring out the big guns. Can Samurai Cop put an end to Fujiyama’s reign of terror?

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Samurai Cop Movie Reviews

Laughably inept, although not without charm

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 (!).

Simply astounding

Rugged Samurai police officer Joe Marshall (a spectacularly wooden performance by Fabio wannabe Matt Hannon, who occasionally sports a hysterically fake and unconvincing mullet wig) wages war on the evil Japanese gang the Katana in Los Angeles. Boy, does this hilariously horrendous hoot and a half possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a real four star stinkeroonie: Ham-fisted (non)direction by Amir Shervan (who also wrote the extremely silly script), groan-inducing tin-eared dialogue, continuity gaffes aplenty, ineptly staged action set pieces, a mechanically bouncy’n’redundant synthesizer score by Alen Demarderrossian, deliciously dreadful acting from a hopelessly cardboard cast (Mark Frazer’s sub-Billy Dee Williams antics as Joe’s laidback black partner Frank Washington in particular are a delightfully ghastly wonder to behold), an aggressively libidinous nurse, excessive cheesy gore, cruddy cinematography by Peter Palian, laughably mild soft-core sex (folks keep their undies on during the make out scenes!), a flamboyant gay waiter, and lots of ridiculous swearing. A bearded Robert Z’Dar, who’s uproariously miscast as a Japanese (!) hit-man, provides the film’s lone touch of professional. The chunky Gerald Okamura growls a lot and rocks a speedo. As a yummy bonus, buxom blonde bombshell Melissa Moore bares her beautifully bountiful breasts, ravishing redhead porn starlet Krista Lane shows the whole delectable package, and the insanely foxy Janis Farley looks mighty tasty in a black bikini (and even better topless). (Ladies will be happy to know that Hannon wears skimpy bathing trunks at one point which flaunt his fine muscular physique.) Essential viewing for devout aficionados of choice schlocky Grade Z cinema.

The hair and the chin faces off samurai style…

I knew that this movie was going to be bad, I just didn’t know how bad. And I must admit that I was expecting it to be bad in an enjoyable way.

It turned out that it wasn’t so…

This movie was just fundamentally bad on many levels, and there were so many things wrong with it. It was so hillarious that during the car chase scenes and the fight scenes that they just cranked up the frame rates per second which gave it all a laughable cartoonish quality, especially since everything in the background moved equally fast. And the scene where the van exploded after slowly rolling into an earthy hill was just preposterous. Then there was the scene where the driver caught on fire but it was so painstakingly clear to see that it was a different stunt guy and not the actor, and that he was fully covered in fire-proof gel. Or the scene where Joe engages with an opponent in an area where there are cacti, then as then suddenly it is a grassy area, and finally becomes a barren field with no vegetation, and they had not even moved – it just was such a horrible continuity error.

The dialogue in the movie was every bit as corny as the storyline, and the acting was equally so. It was so difficult to take the actor playing the samurai cop, Mathew Karedas, serious with that hair of his.

This is the type of movie you watch once and never again. And that awful sword fight scene at the end of the movie is the best thing in the entire movie, because it is so awful. And that alone is the one and only thing you really need to watch in the entire movie. The entire movie is just leading up to the climatic showdown between the hair and the chin.