Overkill (1987)

Absolutely the worst movie.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The editing here is awful with shots cut out in such a way that you never see any of the action and scenes jumping around from place to place and time to time without any connection. Then there's the sound cues that cut in and out. The story is limited and the voice over doesn't do it any favours... But I've got some questions... The one scene where the lead goes undercover as a male stripper shows that the actor was SUPER proficient at exotic dancing. So I want to know this. Was he hired because he could dance simply for that one scene? It's all of two minutes and adds nothing. So it would seem silly to cast for that, but he certainly wasn't a good actor so it's hard to say why he was hired in the first place. OR was that scene written because they lucked out and hired someone who could dance? Like did they go and add a short male stripper scene just to capitalize on the skills of the guy they picked for the lead? But again, the problem there is that he's terrible, so it's hard to believe that he beat anyone for the role on talent.

Mickey "Mike" Delano (Rally) is clearly a man who wishes his name wasn't Mickey. He's also an L.A. Cop On the Edge. Putting him further on the edge than ever before is the recent influx of Yakuza in Little Tokyo. Mickey Mike makes it his personal mission to take down the gangsters that are ruining his beloved city and state. Towards this end, he teams up with Japanese-American cop Akashi (Nishio). Apparently Akashi has his own, more personal reasons for wanting to wipe out the criminals that are running wild in the city. Will Mickey Mike and the funky bunch be able to accomplish their mission? Find out today! Not to be confused with Overkill (1996), in this particular Overkill, there's nary a Jack Hazard in sight. Presumably that would count in the movie's favor, but what we do have is one Steve Rally, of Maximum Breakout (1991) fame. Shirts, but in particular, sleeves, must feel like the equivalent of fiberglass insulation to his skin. When he's not busy taking off his Powerhouse Gym tanktop, he's shirtlessly fighting the baddies. But he has a lot of shirtless competition, as many shameless men go about their daily business unencumbered by the onerous burden of having a thin layer of cloth on their torso. Imagine a man who finds a half-shirt too confining, multiply awesomex10, add most of the leftover DNA of Freddie Mercury, and you have Steve Rally. Plus he predates Matthew McConaughey by many years, and his mustache is much cooler.Clearly director Ulli Lommel, whose name is not a palindrome no matter how hard you try to make it one, wanted to make "Shirts vs. Skins: The Movie", but couldn't, as there were no shirts, so he settled on making a cop movie. Overkill is yet another "White boy in a world of dangerous Asians" movie much like its brethren Year of the Dragon (1985), Massacre (1985), or Showdown In Little Tokyo (1991). But Lommel's movie is like the distant stepchild to these, even the equally low-budget Massacre. It's not entirely dissimilar from Samurai Cop (1989), but we don't want to sing the praises of Overkill too loudly, it's not really in that classic's league. The main problem is that there are a ton of weird close-ups, and the movie is incoherent because it looks like it was edited with a bandsaw. Plus it could have used a co-star of the caliber of Bolo Yeung or George Chung. Or even a White guy pretending to be Asian, like Robert Z'Dar as "Yamashita" in Samurai Cop, would have helped a lot.Nevertheless, Mike Delano - or perhaps even Steve Rally himself - is livin' the dream. He gets to be a rogue cop and defy his WYC (White Yelling Chief), live in a nice house with a hot babe as a girlfriend, and eat sushi while he sits in his hot tub or engages in any other activity that gives him a pretext to be shirtless. Which leads up to an inexplicable (plotwise) scene where Delano indulges in his true calling. We won't spoil it for you, but you'll definitely know what we're talking about when you see it. 1987, the year of this movie's release, was a big year for Miami Vice-mania and it shows here. You even see a little kid wearing a Miami Vice shirt, in the same scene where Delano wears a white sportcoat with the sleeves rolled up. Coincidence? In the end, Overkill does have some highly ridiculous moments that make it worth watching, but even at 80 minutes, the movie drags at times. It's kind of a 50-50 deal.

Made by Ulli Lommell before he went crazy, discovered his video camera and serial killers. Tough LA cop Mike Delano (Steve Rally) seems to be the only guy concerned about the Yakuza in the city. As he tells his boss, "It is just like the 1920s with the Italians on the East Coast. Sure, we weren't around then, but it is just like it. I know it!" Delano teams with Akashi (John Nishio), a cop from Tokyo who arrived in town after the Yakuza killed his sister and her husband. Before you can yell "Bonsai!", the duo are on the streets chopping off fingers and ears because that is "what the Yakuza understands." Typical Lommell stuff here with plenty of good belly laughs from some choice dialog bits. Like Delano screaming, "I was born in California and I'm going to defend it!" My personal favorite bit was this touching exchange between our two unlikely partners:Delano: I had an uncle who died before I was born. He was in the Navy and stationed at Pearl Harbor. He was eating breakfast the morning of the attack. They found him with scrambled eggs and blood in his mouth.Akashi: I also had an uncle who died before I was born. His family lived in Nagasaki and one America plane dropped a huge bomb on them. They didn't find scrambled eggs in their mouths, but nuclear dust in their lungs. My father was lucky to have been in the US, although he was in a internment camp in California. Delano: Soooooo, you married? Rally is a former popular Playgirl model (or some I am told), so it is fitting he walks around wearing muscle shirts or only a vest. Hell, he takes off his shirt to pour a glass of milk. It is also fitting that he has a bit where he goes undercover as a male stripper. Lommell really knew his target audience? The funniest thing about the film is Chris Tashima, who is a Yakuza thug who gets his ear sliced off, won the Best Live Action Short Academy Award in 1997. I'm sure seeing ol' Ulli in action gave him all the schooling he needed. Lommell's future wife Cookie produced.

WOAH! That's all I can say about Overkill! It has some of the greatest dialogue I have ever heard. Example- Guy: Sayonara. Guy2:What does that mean? Guy: It means goodbye. Never have I seen the horrors of the yakuza so expertly portrayed in a mindless action movie! I mean look at this guy! He kills people with a sword! Cool! See this movie and maybe they'll make Overkill 2: Ohaiyo! What does that mean?