I’ll always treasure the fact that I came across Samurai Cop the old fashioned way. At dinner one night a buddy asked me if I had ever seen Samurai Cop. I hadn’t even heard of it before, and the next time we met up, he slid me his DVD copy to borrow. I knew next to nothing, beyond the fact that it starred Robert Z’Dar and featured some heavily Maniac Cop-inspired art work. I wasn’t prepared for the manic, awful, softcore glory which followed… and which had extremely little in common with Maniac Cop. Samurai Cop is the kind of movie that makes Andy Sidaris films look like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A masterpiece of awful that could only have sprung forth into the world amidst the ascendancy of Fabio.
I couldn’t resist writing about the movie when I discovered it, so you can see a full review of the film as part of our Action/Adventure Section column.
Rather than reviewing the film a second time, I’m planning to highlight some of the copious joys found within this new and definitive Blu-ray edition released a few weeks back from Cinema Epoch.
First up, there’s an ongoing thread throughout all of the bonus content concerning a wig that is worn by lead character Joe “Samurai” Marshall (Matt Hannon). Hannon is an attractive, muscular guy with long, flowing, banged locks. It is exactly the kind of action hero look that director Amir Shervan was looking for, damn the consequences of hiring a former bodyguard who had little to no acting experience. It turns out that, after the film had “wrapped”, Hannon cut off his long flowing locks at the behest of his agent. And in a truly marvelous twist of fate, Shervan called the cast back together to do more shooting, placing Hannon in a women’s wig which manages to appear in probably 30–45% of the final film despite supposedly only being featured in “re-shoots”. As the best bad movie I’ve ever seen, playing “spot the wig” while watching Samurai Cop is a uniquely interactive experience that I can’t recommend highly enough. To be totally honest, I was so confused by the movie as a whole upon my first viewing, adding in the fact that Hannon’s very first appearance in the movie is WITH the wig on, that I never comprehended the wig until this release told the tale. His appearance changes so drastically so often throughout the movie, along with sets, locations, and wardrobes within the same scenes, that I just stopped asking questions. Knowing the truth about the wig ups the entertainment value of this film more than I could ever have dreamed.
Then there’s the legend of Hannon himself. Amir Shervan isn’t a well known filmmaker, but there are other direct to video credits to his name and one gets a sense of what he was all about by seeing one of them or just noting their titles: Hollywood Cop and Killing American Style. Shervan was an Iranian man who just wanted to recreate what he saw on the big screen when watching films like Lethal Weapon. But when doing an IMDb search of Matt Hannon, only Samurai Cop shows up. He’s a legitimate international man of mystery, who was rumored to be dead. Until now. Cinema Epoch has found Matt Hannon, and he’s all over this disc, along with co-star Mark Frazer. Each of them does their own commentary for the film in which they’re interviewed by one of Cinema Epoch’s people. There’s supplemental material where Hannon tells his story and Frazer and Hannon recount stories together and shed light on all kinds of heretofore only guessed at legends on the set of this hilariously terrible film. It turns out Hannon was Sly Stallone’s bodyguard professionally, ended up not having much of an acting career, and now does stand up comedy under another stage name. But he’s still got the flowing locks and chiseled features. And much of this release is geared towards getting fans excited about a Cinema Epoch-produced re-teaming for a brand new sequel: Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance. Cinema Epoch is getting the band back together.
The chances of Samurai Cop 2 recapturing even a fraction of the magic of this film are slim, but the Cinema Epoch people do strike the right tone with this release, honoring those who worked on the project while also laughing at the sheer absurdity of it all. Hannon and Frazer’s senses of humor about their experiences on set, and their genuine fascination with the fandom surrounding the movie, go a long way towards making Samurai Cop 2 feel like it could strike the right tone as well. But without the earnest, manic vision of the late Amir Shervan, I’ll simply hope that Samurai Cop 2 works as a catalyst to point people towards the ever growing cult of Samurai Cop fans around the world.
The disc is absolutely packed with extras. There are THREE commentaries, excerpts of the musical score, multiple interviews with Hannon and Frazer, and an honest to goodness remarkable digital transfer that makes the film look better than it ever could have. Now, that said, all the mismatched color timing and charming flaws of the original film remain intact, so in many ways the conversion to Blu-ray for a title like this doesn’t even make sense. This release is more about celebrating a left field cult favorite and giving it a definitive home video release than it is about cleaning up and restoring a lost gem. High definition was, for me, a superior way to soak in the glory of Samurai Cop, but some make actually prefer the old school lo-fi of a VHS or bootleg DVD.
For lovers of 80s action, lovers of inept but earnest filmmaking, and lovers of long guessed at cinema lore being unearthed, this Blu-ray release of Samurai Cop is a must own. I know I’ll be eternally grateful for this film clearing up just exactly what a katana is. (Noun: A Japanese Sword).
And I’m Out.