Bad Movie Night: Hollywood Cop

VHS cover courtesy of ComeuppanceReviews.com

1987
Directed by: Amir Shervan
Category: Action

Iranian born filmmaker Amir Shervan made a number of extremely low-budget action films throughout the 80's and early 90's, most notably the highly entertaining classic Samurai Cop; a film so bad, so ridiculous, and so hilarious that it's deservedly gone down in history as one of the best and most enjoyable Bad Movies ever made. Trust me, it really is that good. So after falling in love with Samurai Cop I set out to see if any of his other films were anywhere near as entertaining in a bad way as Samurai Cop was.

My first attempt was with his 1990 effort Killing American Style, starring the ever ridiculous Harold Diamond of Hard Ticket to Hawaii fame and the always enjoyable Robert Z'Dar. I didn't really care too much for it as it didn't contain enough "Bad" in it to overcome the stale straight-forward environment created within the film. It was all very bland and not nearly as funny as I was hoping for for my taste. A bad movie for certain, but not nearly enjoyable enough to screen for a group for Bad Movie Night.

Hollywood Cop was realistically my next search project, as every single one of Shervan's other films are near impossible to find. Easily available on DVD for less than a cup of coffee, the VHS of Hollywood Cop is harder to come by. Maybe it has something to do with that kickass cover? It probably does. I ended up getting the DVD since it was insanely cheap. I threw it in one lazy afternoon and hoped for the best, because I'm always on the hunt for Bad Movie Night material.

Turkey AKA Hollywood Cop (David Goss), decides to help a woman who's young son has been kidnapped by drug dealers when his father takes off with 6 million of their dollars. 

Hollywood Cop didn't disappoint. While nowhere near the level of absurd, bad or hilarious as Samurai Cop, it succeeds in all the area's where Killing American Style failed. Less charming than Samurai Cop, Hollywood Cop benefits from a helluva performance by someone named David Goss. This guy. I loved him. His delivery is right on par with the level of funny/bad/awesome that Matt Hannon displays in the epicly awesome Samurai Cop. While the film itself is silly and terribly insane, it's David Goss's lead performance that seals the deal on this one. It's a sad and crying shame he didn't make more films, as this along with only a handful of others are his only acting efforts. But man, he's pretty epic in this and it's because of him that Hollywood Cop succeeds as well as it does.

We've also got the always reliable Cameron Mitchell along for the ride as the police captain who likes to bust Turkey's chops any time he can and has a seemingly endless supply of curse words. Lincoln Kilpatrick is awesome as the sidekick, yet somehow you feel sorry for him in this. You sense that he deserves much better than this, but here he is, doing a much better job than the rest of the cast. But hey, at least he gets to oil wrestle with two bikini clad women in his underwear before ripping their tops off.

Here's the weird thing that I just can't wrap my brain around. Both Hollywood Cop (1987) and Killing American Style (1990) came out before Samurai Cop in 1991. Yet, anyone could easily make the mistake that Samurai Cop was made before these other films because their surprisingly made much more competent. It's hard to see how that's possible, but it's true. Even though Samurai Cop was one of Shervan's last films, it looks insanely more amateurish than any of his other films. Some would say that perhaps this was on purpose, but I highly doubt it. But that makes it all the more more confusing to me. Either he half-assed his way through Samurai Cop, or everything we see in there was what he actually intended. Who knows?

Not on par with the incredible Samurai Cop, nor as entertaining, it's worth a watch and a much better experience with a group of friends. The middle lags a little, but overall a great addition to Bad Movie Night.