I'm on vacation at the moment, so to make things easier for myself, I decided to combine my two columns for the weekend. The film that is both a crapsterpiece and a martial arts film? 1994's Immortal Combat, starring Rowdy Roddy Piper and the legendary Sonny Chiba. This is the sort of movie I devoted one of these columns to finding, but which one?
This movie is the biggest piece of crap I have seen in some time, but in the most perfect of ways. The theater where we watched it was filled with laughter almost nonstop. The plot, such as it is, involves two cops (Piper and Chiba) investigating a serial killer. The problem is this killer may just be immortal, and the cops (and their annoying reporter sidekick) stumble on an evil pharmaceutical company plot. Essentially, if a warrior dies running at just the right time, they can revive it as a slave. Soon Piper and Chiba are on the run, fighting for their lives and the right to unmask this conspiracy.
While I don't want to go into details of why this film is so damn funny (it's the surprise for most of them), I will say that this is an effective bad movie. Piper and Chiba are both played to their strengths. Piper is a charismatic loudmouth, similar to the characters he played in They Live and Hell Comes To Frogtown. Chiba has a strong accent, so it's good they don't give him very many lines. He exists merely to fight and kick a lot of ass. Also, he occasionally goes spelunking.
It feels as though both actors did their own choreography. Piper (a former professional wrestler), uses lots of clotheslines and other fairly conventional pro wrestling moves. Chiba uses his fists and various other weapons, all in pretty conventional Japanese fighting styles. While the action is entertaining, it doesn't sustain the overall film.
This is a film for bad movie fans. So many great moments, such as Chiba's method of recovering from a gunshot wound, his heartfelt (and incredibly funny) confession to his daughter, the accidental racism (already somewhat surprising, considering the film came out less than 20 years ago) and countless other moments make this a must see for anyone who loves crappy movies. As a martial arts film, it could use some work. It occasionally gets talky, and I was just not very into the amount of wrestling style fighting in the film. For martial arts fans, I'd only recommend this to Chiba completionists.
Martial Arts Madness Score: 2.5
Crapsterpieces Score: 5 out of 5
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