America – home of the brave and land of the free. This slogan can be found on bumper stickers across the fruited plains and graffitied on trains zipping by the Purple Mountains Majesty Hotel ($49.99 with a valid credit card, but there are some stains and bed bugs). Of course, you could also see Maine’s lobster shores to the misty Oregan cliffs on the circumference of Robert Z’Dar’s chinny-chin-chin! Nothing says “God Bless the U.S.A” more than a movie that has everything a 1980s so-bad-its-good action flick could ask for: Bad acting, terrible (yet great) dialogue, cross-dressing criminals, sex scenes without music (you can hear the fridge humming), muscle-clad mustached baddies, and detectives wearing business suits and wicked freakin mullets! If the producers wanted to make a killing by releasing Killing American Style then they were D.O.A.. If you’re willing to sit through an action-packed (or packed with attempts for action) romper with Jim Brown by the people who gave us such treasures as Samurai Cop, then light up your B.B.Q., cut off the bottom half of your Hulk-a-mania shirt, and shoot of some moon rockets, because this film is about to quench the Red, white, and blue down your greasy cinematic gullet!
What can be said of a movie where a gunfight occurs next to a horse barn and they all miss the barn? Sure they use the same apartment twice with the same crappy furniture but rearranged differently to trick you, surly picked up actors at the local theatre production for the villains, and why not only hire Jim Brown for one day’s worth of shooting (I guess the autograph footballs weren’t selling much in 1988) but I’ll be hard pressed in the halls of congress not to testify this film has as much fun as a bald eagle with an American flag tattoo chugging a can of Pabst Blue Ribbon! Director Amir Shervan embodies the true Horatio Algar spirit with his cannon (no pun intended) of work. Not only did he immigrate to this country to yield his filmmaking dreams, but he was also cheap, and what could be more ‘Murica than that? Often using the same locations over and over for his films, Shervan was keen to shoot most of his films in the daylight just to save on the cost of renting lighting equipment. If you can light a seen with a halogen 60w lightbulb, then who needs Kenos I say! Don’t get me wrong, this film is a clunker at best, with bad acting left and right (watch the dying men fall for crying out loud), cheap gun effects (they light a firework inside the barrel of the prop gun), and the delivery of some of the speeches makes you question your pledge of allegiance. However, if you came to this movie expecting Academy Award-worthy entertainment, then maybe you might be a communist, but if you were smiling from ear to ear throughout, then like Daniel Webster said you were born an American, you live an American, and like most of the bad actors in this film, you will die an American!
A group of Los Angeles crooks, led by D’Zar (talk about a square jar), rob a local business but one of them is caught. While attempting to rescue him from the prison bus wearing woman’s clothing (surely giving Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Madea a run for their money) one of the crew is fatally shot. On the run and needing to stop the bleeding, they stumble upon the home of John Morgan, a kickboxing/tight shirt-wearing/mean son of a mother and all-around good dad. As they hold his family hostage they need Joe to get a doctor, money from their deadbeat mother, and getaway material. Of course, like all smart (um… yeah) criminals, they send him out by himself, using his wife and son as leverage, but this doesn’t stop John from bringing home a few guns that will help them escape the clutches of these red-blooded American crooks. If you jam this VHS in your Philips VR6680 VCR you will let freedom ring with a buffet of silly action scenes (most of the kicks were filmed not connecting), unnecessary gratuitous nudity, and an onslaught of the same gun sound effects to keep your patriotic appetite satisfied (just like most people are when the VHS tape breaks)!
Waxing your fair soul at a jaw(line) dropping one hour and forty-one minutes, Shervan gave us classics like Ignorance Day, Hollywood Cop, and Young Rebels before retiring after helming the legendary cult action film Samurai Cop. You can find this liberating strife on streaming services like Tubi, YouTube, and Prime, but try to roundhouse kick your butt in gear to buy the special edition Blu-rays from Cinema Epoch. Nathan Hale once said of his patriotism “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country” but I stand by there will be many regrets for those who don’t grow a mullet, slap on some mirrored sunglasses, and truly let freedom ring as you fight for the right of every man to watch terrible 80’s action cinema!
