My review was written in July 1987 after watching the film on Vista video cassette.
"Overkill" is one of German helmer Uli Lommel's weakest films since he relocated to the U. S. a decade ago. Actioner plods along listlessly until the final three minutes when several impossible plot twists make the film memorably bad.
L. A. Cop Mickey Delano (Steve Rally) is convinced that Japanese Yakuza gangsters are a major organized crime threat to the U. S., but his superiors on the fore don't agree. With tons of verbal exposition, he tries to root out the Nipponese heavies, but his partner Steiner (Roy Summersett) is killed in the second reel, causing Delano to team up with visiting Tokyo cop Akashi (John Nishio). Pic climaxes with Delano killing his corrupt police chief in cold blood, and then the nonsense starts.
In short order, Delano quits the force ostensibly to enact personal revenge, but ends up being a sushi chef. He kills one gangster and the other Yakuza big shots meekly offer a truce -cut to him teaching a paralyzed young boy (victim of the gangsters) to ride a horse -The End.
Lommel has had some success Stateside with horror films, particularly "The Boogeyman" and "Overkill" contains lots of blood and extraneous gore. Nondescript cast is unexciting, with hero Steve Rally looking far more comfortable in a scene where he poses as a male stirpper than as the tough-guy cop.
"Overkill" is one of German helmer Uli Lommel's weakest films since he relocated to the U. S. a decade ago. Actioner plods along listlessly until the final three minutes when several impossible plot twists make the film memorably bad.
L. A. Cop Mickey Delano (Steve Rally) is convinced that Japanese Yakuza gangsters are a major organized crime threat to the U. S., but his superiors on the fore don't agree. With tons of verbal exposition, he tries to root out the Nipponese heavies, but his partner Steiner (Roy Summersett) is killed in the second reel, causing Delano to team up with visiting Tokyo cop Akashi (John Nishio). Pic climaxes with Delano killing his corrupt police chief in cold blood, and then the nonsense starts.
In short order, Delano quits the force ostensibly to enact personal revenge, but ends up being a sushi chef. He kills one gangster and the other Yakuza big shots meekly offer a truce -cut to him teaching a paralyzed young boy (victim of the gangsters) to ride a horse -The End.
Lommel has had some success Stateside with horror films, particularly "The Boogeyman" and "Overkill" contains lots of blood and extraneous gore. Nondescript cast is unexciting, with hero Steve Rally looking far more comfortable in a scene where he poses as a male stirpper than as the tough-guy cop.