Body Count (1997)

Brilliant and touching

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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.

I knew from the cover box at the video store, this was going to be a cheap one,(a sexy woman with a gun in her hand). I waited till it was on TV one night and I'm glad I did. Cheap fight scenes,poor script,and weak directing tried to hold this joke together. The only draw was Bridgette Nielson. I was curious to see how she came along since her marriage with Stallone fizzled. I don't think the Academy is going to be calling anytime soon. Unless you are a die-hard Brigette Nielson or Sonny Chiba fan don't be in a rush to see this. Robert Davi and Jan Michael Vincent round out the cast in what could have been a much better movie if some more care and effort had been put in to it. Something to have on in the background while you're doing something else.

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.