Tue et tue encore

The title prepares you for a martial arts bloodbath, but you gradually realize this is actually a SPOOF of the genre; I think "potato fuel" is the first clue. The "bring-the-old-team-together-for-one-more-mission" story is cliched, and the film is overlong, but it is saved by the fact that it has its tonque firmly planted in its cheek. James Ryan is a terrible actor, but his hands and feet speak more eloquently than his mouth; luckily, the GORGEOUS Anneline Kriel gets her share of action as well. I was going with ** out of 4 for this movie, until the unexpected "bullet-time" sequence at the end, 18 years before "The Matrix" (!), which adds another 1/2 star. Undemanding entertainment.

This film is on the borderline of being so bad that it is almost worth watching, if only just to laugh at it. It attempts to be a comedy with many one-liners that fall completely flat. The martial arts choreography is stiff and extremely staged looking. The story is just plain ridiculous. The star shows some potential given the right material, but there is very little of that for him to work with. A handful of skillfully executed karate techniques are about the only thing this film has going for it.

When you watch a kung fu movie, are you expecting an intelligent plot, fine acting, and high production values? I hope not, because this movie has a very SILLY plot, lame acting, and it was made for about $100. But it's a lot of fun. The villain has a mind-control serum and a fake beard. Steve Chase assembles his team, Seven Samurai-style, to save the world. The rest of the movie is hilariously cheesy. I used to watch this flick on HBO in the middle of the night when I was a kid, around 1980. It was on all the time. When I founjd it on sale on DVD, I took a chance (these things don't always age so well, ya know?). But it's still GREAT. When it's deadly serious, I laugh, and when the characters crack a joke, it falls flat. KILL AND KILL AGAIN is the Plan 9 of martial arts movies. All humans must see it at least once! Marduk commands it!

Follows the exploits of cuban-heeled martial artist and uber-cool cat 'Steve Chase' (Ryan) as he assembles a posse of karate experts (and Flynn as comic relief) to rescue Kriel's father whose been abducted by a tyrannical cult leader (Mayer) building his own isolated drug dependent anti-society.

Comedy-action sequel to '76 'Kill or Be Killed' is part 'Enter the Dragon', part 'Magnificent Seven' (albeit only six), and even channels the Rev Jim Jones in a 'Guyana Cult of the Damned' style as our karate commandos travel the rugged wilderness trying to locate the reclusive community of New Babylon under the mind-control of the insecure despot Marduk and his pink-haired flamingo first lady (Wilson aka the pink lady).

It doesn't quite hit a consistent beat and is probably 15 minutes overlong, but the cast is likeable including veteran Ken Gampu as an ox-like brawler nicknamed 'Gorilla' not technically a martial artist, yet still manages to dispatch the villains in less orthodox ways, whilst former 'Miss World' Kriel is an attractive contrast to all the chest-thumping testosterone and contributes her own brand of partial round-house kicks to compete with the boys.

Nicely choreographed with cheesy dialogue, lots of sweat and handlebar moustaches, and nothing salacious to upset the censors, KaKA showcases all the motifs made for 80's video success, and the catchy title sells more than it's worth time and time again, much like it's inherent cheesiness, it just gets better with age.

As far as martial arts cinema goes, "Kill and Kill Again" may be on the cheaper and cheesier side of things, but it is these very elements that make it oh so amusing. Fans of the genre will find enough things to make it a hoot to watch: a simple story, entertaining heroes and villains, negligible acting, beautiful South African scenery, and enough action to keep it watchable at all times.

A follow-up to the earlier "Kill or Be Killed", it stars James Ryan as Steve Chase, a martial artist hired by a woman named Kandy Kane (Anneline Kriel) to rescue her scientist father Dr. Horatio Kane (John Ramsbottom) - a possible relation to a certain C.S.I. detective? - who's been kidnapped by a maniacal arch-villain, Marduk (Michael Mayer) who intends to control the populace of the Earth and have them do his bidding, thanks to a drug the scientist's discovered. So Steve reconnects with some old buddies - The Fly (Stan Schmidt), Gorilla (Ken Gampu), Hotdog (Bill Flynn), and Gypsy Billy (Norman Robinson) - to form a rescue team.

There are enough inspired details in "Kill and Kill Again" to make it very agreeable: the fact that Mayer is clearly wearing a fake beard, his female partner in crime Minerva (Marloe Scott Wilson) who uses terms of endearment to address him in front of underlings, the early scenes of The Fly and Steve meeting (gotta dig the levitation), Gorilla acquiring the costume of a baddie and having it rip on him as he realizes it's not his size, and of course all of the various fight scenes. Things are so blatantly comedic at times that one has to believe that screenwriter John Crowther and director Ivan Hall weren't ever taking any of this too seriously.

This is precisely why this is a fun flick, and Hall keeps the action and the laughs coming. The movie doesn't take long to start delivering the goods, and the actors here look like they're having a good time. Schmidt and Robinson also serve as the martial arts choreographers, and while Ryan isn't a very expressive performer, he's still reasonably likable and has enough of a presence to make him a suitable hero for this sort of thing. It doesn't hurt that some of the female cast members, including Kriel, are quite attractive.

Overall, this is an acceptable diversion leading to a fairly rousing finale and ending on an endearingly silly final note.

Seven out of 10.