Let's get this out of the way right at the start; Samurai Cop II is far too self- referential for its own good. And that's not really a good thing overall. It lacks the thunderingly inept, yet earnest appeal of the original.
On the other hand, it is not quite the schlock-by-numbers knowingness of Asylum releases like Sharknado, Mega Shark, Sharktopus and (surely some time soon) the Sharkshank Redemption or maybe Sharks & Recreation. Guys, if you read this, help yourselves to those last two suggestions gratis.
However... Matt and Mark are back together as partners and they seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. There are nods to fans of bad movies and the riffing thereof, in the casting of Tommy Wiseau and Joe Estevez. There's even a character called Officer Z'Dar, in an affectionate tribute to the late B-movie legend who was the bad guy in the original 'Samurai Cop'.
Otherwise, it looks like everyone's family and drinking buddies were invited to fill out the cast, along with young women willing to take their tops off at the drop of an Eighties cliché. There is a welcome sprinkling of original cast members, some of which have aged better than others.
But overall, this is a garbled and gratuitous mess.
Maybe a proper sequel could never really be made in the modern era, where every trope is extensively discussed and laughed at online. These days, genuinely bad films are made by the likes of Michael Bay or feature characters like Jar-Jar Binks... and they're not fun-bad. I hope I'm wrong, but the movie world seems to have lost an innocent something; the "heroic failure" factor. People who aimed for the epic, but achieved magnificent wretchedness.
On the other hand, it is not quite the schlock-by-numbers knowingness of Asylum releases like Sharknado, Mega Shark, Sharktopus and (surely some time soon) the Sharkshank Redemption or maybe Sharks & Recreation. Guys, if you read this, help yourselves to those last two suggestions gratis.
However... Matt and Mark are back together as partners and they seem to be genuinely enjoying themselves. There are nods to fans of bad movies and the riffing thereof, in the casting of Tommy Wiseau and Joe Estevez. There's even a character called Officer Z'Dar, in an affectionate tribute to the late B-movie legend who was the bad guy in the original 'Samurai Cop'.
Otherwise, it looks like everyone's family and drinking buddies were invited to fill out the cast, along with young women willing to take their tops off at the drop of an Eighties cliché. There is a welcome sprinkling of original cast members, some of which have aged better than others.
But overall, this is a garbled and gratuitous mess.
Maybe a proper sequel could never really be made in the modern era, where every trope is extensively discussed and laughed at online. These days, genuinely bad films are made by the likes of Michael Bay or feature characters like Jar-Jar Binks... and they're not fun-bad. I hope I'm wrong, but the movie world seems to have lost an innocent something; the "heroic failure" factor. People who aimed for the epic, but achieved magnificent wretchedness.