Overkill

OVERKILL is a quite wonderful mid-'90s B-movie starring Aaron Norris, the brother of Chuck who nobody's head of. It's a complete travesty of a film, of course, and completely trashy in the best 1990s sense, and yet it's oddly enjoyable for fans of the genre. A predominance of the kind of hard-hitting fight scenes that '90s films are known for helps with the entertainment factor.

The plot is an uninspired retread of THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, or perhaps HARD TARGET; Norris's loner hero is the prey of a rich huntsman and his team of mercenaries in some Central American country. He's saddled with irritating comedy relief and a typically beautiful love interest, but what follows will surprise nobody: this follows a tired plot line without any variance of deviation; the kind of thing we've seen dozens of times before.

Still, the action is just about acceptable and that's what makes this film just about watchable - if you're in a forgiving mood. Norris is an entirely wooden screen presence - not that he has anything in the way of actual PRESENCE - but physiccally he's not bad as a slower version of his brother. His end bout with villain David Rowe makes for goofy fun. Michael Nouri slums it as the chief bad guy of the piece, and there's even some mumbo jumbo nonsense involving jungle spirits thrown into the mix. The most outstanding thing? Norris's beautifully-tended hair...

I can't say I know what it is but I can offer this. My friends and I were vacationing in Puerto Vallarta when one day we were approached by a woman on the beach. She was a casting director for a film they were shooting nearby and needed extras to be "Swat Cops." It paid 50 bucks and would make a great Spring Break story. So we showed up on the set and were told it was going to be a very exciting movie as it was starring Chuck Norris's brother, Aaron. So we get dressed in the wardrobe and show up on the set when the Director yelled at the casting director telling her that he didn't want any extras that were bigger and better looking than the Star. We didn't get paid but we got free food out of the deal and a lot of funny pictures behind the set. And we hung out the next day with Pamela Dickerson who said she was the female lead. Her name does appear in the credits but having never seen the film, who knows what part she had.

Aaron Norris stars as a martial artist/cop who goes down to some Caribbean island and is hunted by a sadistic Michael Nouri (In an embarrassing performance) in this Hard Target rip off which is of far lower grade. The main problem with this movie is the acting. Aaron Norris wasn't much of a director and he is an even worse actor. He makes his brother Chuck and even his nephew Mike seem like James Cagney and Spencer Tracy. Aaron Norris is severe in his humorless, charisma-less performance which asks why he even bothered acting if this was the best he could do. He obviously wants to ape Chuck Norris but Norris at least has a screen presence that makes up for his lack of skills. One other thing is that Norris looks exciting kicking ass (As do most action stars who are in this line of work, provided the movie is decent) however Norris looks slow, old and ugly. So do the fights and basically the hunt goes on forever without once indicating excitement. Overkill is appropriate title since the "Most Dangerous Game" premise has been done to overkill but aside from this the best thing about the movie are the previews before the movie.

* out of 4-(Bad)

First of all, I need to get this off my chest. The way "Norris" is printed on the cover makes me believe they wanted people to think that it was Chuck and not Aaron in the movie. Cheap move I think, but after actually watching it, kind of fitting. Overkill had all of the Norris, none of the Chuck.

Don't get me wrong, I like my share of B movies, but my favorite B movie is the kind that doesn't try to be anything else. This movie was certainly nothing else, but tried to be. Undoubtedly, they thought having a Norris in their movie would sell tickets. However, I expect an actor to react to a nice hard kick to the face. Not stand there for a few and then jump backwards in a very obvious way.

At the beginning of the movie, things are pretty much cut and dry. Uncontrollable cop screws up a raid and is told to get their sh*t together or resign. Cop goes on vacation and gets wrangled into helping out some nerdy tech guy who looked into the wrong computer file. That's the storyline. Not much more to it really…. Until you start hearing about the shadow people out in the jungle. That touch of the supernatural in a movie like this was definitely unexpected.

For the majority of the movie I found that added other-worldly plot just as corny and predictable as their dialog, but the ending really caught me off guard. I was actually really impressed with it and that's what saved this movie for me. In fact, it jumped it up from what would have been an overall opinion of one.

If you do decide to watch it, watch it with the knowledge that you are watching a B movie. Don't expect a blockbuster or you will be disappointed.

After a drug raid goes ridiculously bad, police officer Jack Hazard (Chuck's brother, Aaron Norris) takes a vacation to South America, but good ol' Jack can't stay out of trouble for long. He finds himself on the run from the local authorities after a fisticuff lands him in prison. Oh that Hazard, can't take that lovable scamp anywhere.

A truly awful film any way you slice it. Atrocious acting, extremely sub-par action scenes, bizarre characterization. Just pretty unwatchable stuff. Not so bad that it's good. Just so bad that it's bad. Chuck Norris should just punch this film out of existence and save his brother some embarrassment .