By Robert Scucci
| Published
When it comes to “so bad it’s good cinema,” there needs to be some sort of purity test ahead of production so we don’t end up with movies like Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance. For those of you who are not in the know, this film is a sequel to 1991’s Samurai Cop, a movie that has garnered a reputation for being one of the worst films of all time.
The problem with cult films like Tommy Wiseau’s The Room (2003), James Nguyen’s Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2010), and Amir Shervan’s Samurai Cop is that they’re accidentally brilliant. The acting is wooden because nobody knows how to act, and the sound and lighting design choices are so baffling that the only way to explain or excuse them is to accept the films for what they are: total amateur hour endeavors.
When filmmakers like Wiseau (who’s actually in Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance) and Nguyen become too self-aware, they lose the spark that made their most iconic works so notorious in the first place. The Room is a masterpiece in cringe cinema because there was no self-awareness, and Wiseau genuinely seemed to think he was making a masterpiece.
Nguyen’s Birdemic 2: The Resurrection tried to cash in on the accidental schlock and awe of its predecessor, and you can tell it’s being phoned in because he figured audiences wanted more of the same.
Even worse, in the case of Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance, it’s not even helmed by Amir Shervan, who passed away in 2006, but is only based on his characters. You can’t recreate the kind of magic the first film had because it’s now being put together by somebody who wasn’t even attached to the OG.
One Last Job, Getting Too Old For This Ish
Twenty-five years after Joe Marshall (Mathew Karedas) and Frank Washington (Mark Frazer) took down the Katana crime syndicate in Samurai Cop, Joe has disappeared from public life following the murder of his girlfriend Jennifer. Unfortunately, the Katana organization didn’t stay dead. Fuj Fujiyama (Cranston Komuro) has rebuilt his criminal empire and now finds himself caught in a gang war with the rival Shinjuku and Ginza clans.
When the violence escalates, Frank tracks down his former partner and convinces Joe to return to Los Angeles with the promise that Jennifer’s murder investigation will be reopened.
Back on the job, Joe and Frank begin investigating the warring crime families while Joe becomes involved with the mysterious Milena Roberts (Kayden Kross), a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to his slain lover. Making matters considerably weirder are Katana vice president Doggé Sakamoto (Bai Ling) and Shinjuku leader Linton Kitano (Tommy Wiseau), who both have their own reasons for wanting Joe out of the picture.
As the bodies pile up and the gang war gets increasingly convoluted, Joe realizes that his return may have been part of somebody else’s plan all along. And this time, it’s personal … or something. I don’t really know. I pretty much tapped out spiritually midway through the third act, which is saying a lot because I am a patient man.
Why This Formula Fails
Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance fails because it tries so hard to be a bigger and better version of Samurai Cop. Bringing Mathew Karedas and Mark Frazer back into the mix makes for a great reunion of sorts, but at this point everybody knew about the first film’s reputation and was trying to capitalize on the whole “so bad it’s good” angle.
Heck, they even got Tommy Wiseau in on the fun, who at this point in his career had stopped taking himself seriously and leaned into his public persona as an unhinged maniac who secretly thinks he’s brilliant while putting out content that’s deliberately worse than The Room.
This knowledge is what kills sequels like Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance because it feels insincere. Watching somebody who really thinks they’re cooking fail miserably has an innate charm compared to somebody who’s actively trying to make a bad movie. Half of the humor associated with films like The Room, Birdemic, and Samurai Cop is the result of a complete lack of self-awareness and experience, and the fun comes from watching that cognitive dissonance play out on screen.
That’s why films like Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance never quite hit the same level as their predecessors. Without that cognitive dissonance from somebody who doesn’t have any clue how to make a movie but reckons they’ll figure it out, it’s just bad theater written in bad faith. The first film wasn’t a bad movie on purpose, and we love it for that. Here, they actively tried to make a bad movie, and it’s not only worse than the first one, but doesn’t even have half of its charm.
As of this writing, you can stream Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance for free on Tubi.
SAMURAI COP 2: DEADLY VENGEANCE SCORE
