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Review Samurai Cop (1991): Cinematic delight, definitely one of the best worst movies ever!

genre: action, crime





By accident this title came on my path. Seeing how I never heard of it before I never had the illusion it was any good. However then I saw several youtube videos about the film and it's cult status. Naturally I was intrigued and I watched a couple of them including interviews with Mathew Karedas a.k.a. Matt Hannon. And what he had to say was unbelievably compelling. See video below.




If you are curious what happened to actor Mathew Karedas after Samurai Cop then listen to this podcast on the following page. It is interesting as well since he has lead quite a colourful life.

Most fascinating is the fact how dedicated and professional some of the cast have been with the production of this film even when at one point they realized it was going to be awful. Most of the cast play their roles seriously and only here and there do the actors drop the ball. Mathew as Samurai admitted he was being defiant in certain scenes with certain hand movements or ad libbing when he was not supposed to. I can only imagine the frustration he must have felt. Here you are thinking you are in a low budget Lethal Weapon rip off then to come to the shocking discovery it's worse than that.

I don't even know where to begin how bad this film is. Ok, let me begin with the title. Samurai Cop refers to Joe Marshall who also is called Samurai because he is one. How, why, how, we never really find out. He also supposedly is an expert about Japanese culture and speaks Japanese fluently but can't even say names like Fujiyama right. I bet most of you like me would expect some heavy martial arts action in this film and apart from one sword fight and a few short brawls there is not that much. The action scenes are so poorly choreographed that it almost becomes embarrassing since even serious action stars like  and  look like amateurs. 

On top of that the editing in this whole film is incredibly bad. No transitions not even something basic as fade outs. And sometime it leads to very strange moments. One example you have Samurai in the middle of a jump down and the film cuts to a sex scene with Robert Z'Dar and Cameron Oppenheimer. She is attractive and sexy no doubt but why cut to that scene? It makes zero sense. There is no reason whatsoever. However it could be that director Amir Shervan did not have that much footage and so randomly used whatever he had to fill up the film. Or worse he genuinely thought it would thrill the audience. I don't know how he ever could think that. 

The story is absent and I don't know how to address the lines that have to function as dialogue. Amir Shervan was adamant that the actors learned the lines he had written. No deviation was allowed. Mathew pointed out to them that nobody talked like that. But Amir somehow was convinced it was good dialogue. One perfect example is the hot nurse scene. It seems they were going for a hot and titillating conversation but what we get instead is just awkward and funny since it allows Mark Frazer (as Frank Washington) to break the fourth wall. I am not entirely sure but it is possible that Mark Frazer wasn't even present in that scene and was added in later. Do I need to go on? 

Well, the credits fail to mention one prominent star. The wig. Mathew thought he was done with the film and had cut off his hair but then Amir called him to do some more shooting. They bought (or rather robbed referred to in podcast mentioned earlier) that awful wig and Mathew had no choice but to wear it. Now I don't care he has not been in that many movies but that is top level professionalism right there. The hot nurse scene also demonstrates how random this film is. It makes me wonder what was going on in Amir's mind because he obviously saw something different played out. Speaking of the hot nurse. Samurai Cop is filled with hot and sexy women. I am sure the feminists and SJW will have a field day with this but for me it's a huge plus in my book. 

You know I could do a long and proper analysis of the film but what would be the point? It's a bad film. But one of those that is so bad that it becomes good. Samurai Cop is hilarious and unforgettable. So if you are into Bad B movies then you absolutely have to check this one out.  If not then don't even bother. 



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