The Enjoyability of Samurai Cop (1989)



There comes a first time for everything in life.  There’s the first time that a person rides a bicycle.  There’s the first time that a fire is started.  There is the first time that an animal goes on the hunt for food.  The same idea of first times for everything can be shown in terms of the Sunday “Bad” Movies as well.  The first time a movie was watched for this blog series was when Starcrash was watched.  The first time a retrospective was written was for the twenty-fifth week.  The year anniversary was the first time that a movie was rewatched within the blog series.  This week marks the first time that a buddy cop movie is covered in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.

The buddy cop movie being alluded to is a movie called Samurai Cop.  It’s not a particularly well known buddy cop movie, but it fits the genre all the same.  Samurai Cop was released in 1989.  It stars Matt Hannon as samurai-like police officer Joe Marshall from San Francisco who is brought to Los Angeles to help bring down a drug cartel.  He is paired with Frank Washington (Mark Frazer), and the two go up against criminals including samurai Yamashita (Robert Z’Dar).  Lots of gunplay and fisticuffs occur as the crime is fought in Los Angeles.

I classify Samurai Cop as a buddy cop movie because it has the makings of one, albeit a low budget one.  There are two police officers of different races, from differing police backgrounds.  They get thrown together to stop a criminal terrorizing the city.  The main character is more of a wildcard than his experienced partner.  The police chief wants to throw them off the job, but they take down the criminal anyway.  The only difference is that the police officers get along from the beginning.

Samurai Cop has a lot to like for a movie of its low budget.  For a movie that doesn’t look like it cost a lot of money, there is great action throughout it.  There’s gunplay, car chasing, martial arts, and explosions.  It’s a truly entertaining low budget film.  It might not be the best directed, acted, or scripted movie I’ve ever seen.  It’s lower on the spectrum in terms of quality filmmaking.  But all of these elements come together to create a whole that is much better than its parts.  Samurai Cop is an entertaining thrill ride.

The two biggest comparisons to Samurai Cop are Lethal Weapon and The Room.  From Lethal Weapon, the movie takes all of its good elements.  The buddy cop relationship between an older black police officer and a younger, tougher white officer comes straight from Lethal Weapon.  The memorable villain that must fight with the white police officer in the climax of the film is also present.  The Room is comparable to Samurai Cop in the sense that the direction, writing, and acting are poor, yet the movie is still enjoyable.  On top of that, there are sex scenes that are so drawn out and faux-mantic.  Those scenes feel just like all of the scenes in The Room that are of a similar kind.  You know, Johnny with Lisa, Mark with Lisa, and Johnny once again with Lisa.  Samurai Cop has the same sort of scenes.  It truly feels like Lethal Weapon meets The Room.

Would I recommend that you watch Samurai Cop?  If you’re at all interested in the movies that I’ve watched for the Sunday “Bad” Movies, I would definitely say yes.  Samurai Cop is worth a watch for sure.  It’s fun enough that you’ll have a good time watching it, and bad enough that you’ll be in awe of some of the things that happen on screen.  It’s the perfect mixture of good and bad.  It makes for something highly enjoyable.

Samurai Cop does not transcend the buddy cop genre that it is a part of.  Nor does it transcend bad movies.  But it’s a good time.  What more could you ask for from a movie called Samurai Cop?  I know I couldn’t have asked for much more.

There are a few notes I’m going to make right now:

  • Here’s the post for The Room.  I wrote about it in this post, I might as well link to where I actually wrote about it.
  • Here’s the post for Starcrash, a movie I mentioned right at the top of the post.
  • If you would like to suggest a movie for me to cover, leave a comment below or tell me on Twitter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is "Real Steel" Like "Over the Top"?

When I was going through my weekly movie binge a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon two movies that I had never seen before that tackled a very similar story.   It was an odd thing to have happen because I didn’t know of any similarities between the two movies.   The first was Real Steel, a movie about a man who participates in robot boxing while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   The second was Over the Top, a movie about a man who participates in arm wrestling while bonding with the son that he had left years before.   Similar?   I think so. Let’s begin with Real Steel.   I watched this one because, why the hell not?   I quite enjoyed the movie and by the end I was rooting for Hugh Jackman’s character to help his robot, Atom, to a victory.   The thing to point out about Real Steel is how good the visual effects were.   I wasn’t expecting too much going in, but I thought they masterfully crafted each robot in a way that it entirely fit its surroundings and didn’t
Read more

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 2, Episode 8: The Power Stealer

Image
Last time we sat down with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , Tommy was going through some serious stuff.   His powers were running low because Lord Zedd was targeting him.   He felt hopeless.   His friends were comforting him.   There was also a Robo Goat trying to take a powerful sword and use it against the Earth.   There were fights all over the place and an emotional hook that was unmatched in any episode that wasn’t in a multi-part arc. This episode, there might be follow-up to the Tommy storyline.   It would be nice to see more of the struggle with his powers.   Right now, that’s the one throughline that has been playing out.   II hope this episode continues to have some sort of meaning to the overall story, instead of being a self-contained and meaningless.   The show needs to grow and evolve, with a storyline that builds to something significant.   Having episodes that keep the story at a standstill is boring.   The story needs to move forward.   Will this episode d
Read more

A Short Description of how Baby's Day Out (1994) is a Live Action Cartoon

Image
Animated movies have been a large fixture throughout cinematic history.   There is currently an Academy Award category devoted entirely to animated features.   They are an important part of the cinematic landscape.   Movies would be completely different if not for the animated films that have been popular throughout the past century. Children have always been a large part of the popularity of cartoons.   This has not been solely a movie based genre.   Television also thrives on animated shows.   As a child, I can remember watching cartoons on Saturday mornings.   In the children’s cartoons, characters could be forced into dangerous predicaments, get injured or nearly killed, and continue on with their lives as if nothing ever happened to them.   This was the way of cartoons such as Looney Toons , where Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck, and Yosemite Sam would always suffer great physical trauma, then return to their normal selves in the next scene. This is probably
Read more