Body Count (1997)

the audience applauded

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

If nothing else, "Body Count" deserves credit for proving how utterly cool Sonny Chiba still was in the 1990s (and in his 50s). He is "officially" the bad guy of this film, and he certainly kills a lot of people, but when you think about it it is really the fault of someone else - you don't hire a Japanese hit-man to do your dirty work for you and then screw him over when it's payday! The stupendously leggy Brigitte Nielsen, who plays his partner (yes, it's an unorthodox pairing), has an awe-inspiring introduction in veeeeery short shorts and deeeeeep cleavage, but almost nothing she does in the rest of the movie matches that sequence, and her climactic catfight with a female FBI agent is especially disappointing. Robert Davi and Steven Bauer basically sleepwalk through the film, but they do have enough presence to make some moments work. "Body Count" runs too long at 95 minutes, but it does offer some decent stunts and action sequences - even a bus gets flipped over! Sonny Chiba fans, in particular, may want to take a look. ** out of 4.

this movie is bad enough to make Richard Kern reach for an air- sickness bag. The plot involves a ruthless hit-man (Sonny Chiba), who is imprisoned for killing, a seemingly well protected mob-boss; after escaping with the help of his equally ruthless girlfriend (Brigitte Nielsen), he finds out that he was setup, by some F.B.I agents, or something (i don't remember the plot to well, as i spent the next two weeks, trying erase this film from my mind). Aperintlly, the agents where having a hard time catching this particular mob-boss, so their goal was to hire the hit-man to kill him off, and then have the hit- man arrested for his murder, thus successfully covering their tracks; or so they think. Needless to say (but i'm going to say it anyway), both the hit-man, and his girlfriend go on a rampage of revenge. Sounds like a good idea for a "Street Fighter" movie, doesn't it? I'll bet you think this will lead to lots of highly intense, bone-crushing, eye- gouging, groin-ripping head-bashing, Chiba-action, don't you? Well, you would be wrong pal; this is not "The Street Fighter," this is "Body Count," your lucky if you can find, a bit of almost halfway decent camp-value; and who's bright idea was it to have Sonny Chiba loose in the end? Cinema rule no.1 is; CHIBA NEVER LOSSES!!!! He doesn't even lose to anyone worth losing to, the "heros" of this movie are couple of big, dumb Neanderthals, who use a fighting style, that one of them refers to as "boxing," but witch really looks more like "slugging;" they preform this style by swinging their fists wildly at the target, making the strikes as slow, clumsy, and as easy to dodge as possible; which Chiba does, until the very end, when the script told him not to. In all fairness there are some good action sense, but they are too few, and far between. If you are a Sonny Chiba fan, then stick to something more like, 'Shugun's Samurai', or 'The Executioner'. Shelve this one with, 'The Bodygaurd,' and try your best to forget that it exists.

It's actually worth watching for the cheese. See Sonny Chiba slumming! See a 5'4" shrimpy actress beat-up 6'1" amazon Brigitte Nielsen! See the most exciting 3 mph trolley fight in cinematic history! See Brigitte Nielsen wearing boots, then heels, then boots again, then heels, then tennis shoes (nice job, continuity editor!) in the climactic battle where she gets squashed by the slowest lowering lift in history (remember the steam-roller in the first Austin Powers?)!See 90 minutes of your life gone, never to return.Matt

Who cares about the plot. The only reason to sit through this assembly-line action junk is to see Japanese action star Sonny Chiba throw a very old and sick-looking Jan-Michael Vincent off a building roof and former Stallone girlfriend Brigitte Nielsen shoot a guy wearing a Residents T-shirt. Crater-faced Robert Davi is dull as dirt and Steven Bauer looks real paunchy with a bad haircut to boot. Not much of interest here.