Out For The Count!

BODY COUNT is a US/Japanese co-production shot in New Orleans in 1994. It's a haphazard action-revenge flick that's only really redeeming quality is the appearance of Japanese martial arts icon Sonny Chiba!

He plays Macado, a pony tailed assassin responsible for several mob deaths. The porous faced Robert Davi plays an investigating cop who tries to take out Macado at a topless bar. After wrecking the place they manage to capture him (but mistakenly interrogate him in Chinese!).

18 months later he's in prison meditating, doing one arm push-ups and taking flack from guards while serving on a chain gang. He's sprung by former Stallone girlfriend Brigitte Neilsen. Once out, Macado goes around killing cops, trying to find the one who set him up.

At one point Davi's character says "It's the '90's" but the weird disjointed structure of this film makes it seem like something out of the '70's! Com'on! When the highpoint of a movie is that a minor character is wearing a "Residents" t-shirt...well, what more do I have to say???

Actually a lot.

To show how far his career had sunk by this time, Jan Michael Vincent has a small role as a cop who's thrown off a roof. And too much time is spend on Davi's relationship with a female special agent (Cindy Ambuehl). Since Davi looks like his face has been scrubbed with sandpaper why would anyone care whether he gets laid or not???


Despite his bad English Chiba could be a low budget action star (he had a role in KILL BILL VOL.1) but this is too talky and drawn out. He does comandeer a trolley, wreck a bus and kill in various ways (but usually with a samauri sword). Steven Bauer is on hand as a mobster/victim and hardly has anytime to do his usual scenery chewing (I guess that's a plus.....). The topless dancing was ok though......

Many hands were behind the making of BODY COUNT. The weak story is credited to David Prior who has been making his own shitty movies (many of them starring his brother Ted) for untold years. One of BC's producers David Winters has also been on the low budget film scene far too long and even directed ALICE COOPER'S WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE TV special and a musical version of DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE starring Kirk Douglas & Donald Pleasance! Really!!!

Director Talun Hsu also helmed WITCHCRAFT 5 and GEDO and has a small role as the Chinese interpreter.



Beware! There are several movies known as BODY COUNT! This one is also called CODENAME:SILENCER. Chiba also made a movie with wrestler Roddy Piper around this time called IMMORTAL COMBAT where he played a good guy.



Go watch STREETFIGHTER instead..



Thanks for reading!