Cop Game - Um Jogo de Vingança e Morte

Absolutely absurd action thriller from the absolutely inept minds of Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso. Starts off as the usual cop theme (heavily owing to the Gregory Hines/Willem Dafoe movie OFF LIMITS which came out earlier that year) with two unlikely partners seeking out some criminals, when suddenly they are paid by some military general (Werner Pochath) to kill some commander in Vietnam. The film deteriorates into a Vietnam shoot-em-up with obvious stock footage and terrible editing, culminating into a spy-thriller/ James Bond style conclusion. The music, cinematography, acting, and especially the direction were completely flat and horrible.

The filmmakers obviously had no idea how to film a movie. All action is filmed from the left side, all medium shots, and sometimes the camera isn't even pointed at the action or is too far away from the action for us to tell what's going on! Even a grade A supporting cast of Italian exploitation stars (Romano Puppo, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Massimo Vanni, and Luciano Pigozzi...supposedly) and an unbilled cameo by Brett Halsey doesn't help this one. It makes no sense at all, but is able to stay so charmingly silly that this film is perfect for parties, Mystery Science Theater, or bad movie festivals. They honestly don't ever get any funnier than this.

Cop Game is an intriguing spy story, full of unexpected twists and turns that mislead suspects. As it happened in the classic films of the genre in the past. A well constructed thriller storyline. And the final twist, a surprise. The leading actors are well placed in the roles. The protagonist's jokes are funny and ironic, as was the fashion in the eighties (the film dates back to 1987. Released in 1988). Captivating the music. Too bad for the direction of Bruno Mattei who in this film is sloppy and hasty. It lacks the thriller atmosphere, tension, close-ups and details. Like the lipstick writing on the mirror. In short, the thriller is not his genre. A real missed opportunity, what a pity.

A short while back, I reviewed a film on IMDb called Delta Force Commando. The film proved to fail in just about every conceivable way possible with poorly conceived and executed action scenes, some atrociously lazy acting and universally bland characterisations. In short, the film represented exactly how NOT to make an action B-movie.

Well if that pile of poop represented one end of the scale, then the film reviewed here must surely represent the opposite end of the spectrum. In short this one shows exactly how a B-movie should be filmed!

The always great value for money Brent Huff stars in this and by gum, does he put in one hell of an intense performance! If there was an Oscar for on screen vituperation then judging on this performance, Huff would certainly be in with a big chance of scooping it! In fact, such scenes provide much of the enjoyment to be derived from this. In particular one scene has Huff letting off a particularly creative tirade of contumelious diction after which his partner dryly retorts, 'You took the words right out of my mouth.'

Aside from the script and performances, the action scenes are also great fun. This being a Bruno Mattei film, as you can probably expect, there's a fair bit of recycled footage from other films in here. Most notable, I picked out some of the explosive segments from Mattei's own Double Target and the infamous model car chase from Antonio Margheriti's Ark Of The Sun God. Far from a criticism however, the blatant obviousness that the film was made on the cheap actually makes it even more endearing especially when it is compared to some of the hugely budgeted, but ultimately utter crap offerings that Hollywood so often churns out these days!

For Mattei fans and B-Movie lovers alike, this is well worth a watch!

Hell, it's no Strike Commando, but Bruno Mattei does a good turn here at producing something similar to that film Saigon, only with loads of action, madness, stupidity, blatant stock footage, footage cribbed from other films, and the usual crap that make up Mattei films. Basically, if you like Zombie Creeping Flesh and Strike Commando, you're bound to have fun with this one.

This time round, someone's killing high ranking US military personal and it's up to Brent Huff and sidekick whathisname to sort stuff out. They have the help of Werner Pocath and Romano Puppo. But who is behind the killings? To be honest, after watching the film, I'm still not too sure myself, but hell, you should see the cast in this one!

You've got (deep breath) Werner Pocath (Days of Hell, Ratman), Romano Puppo (Bronx Warriors 2, Street Law), Brett Hasley (Demonia, Touch of Death), Massimo 'GOD' Vanni (Last Hunter, Zombie Flesh Eaters 3), Jim Gaines (I think) (Zombie Flesh Eaters 3), Mike Monty (in some stolen footage from Strike Commando by the looks of it) (Zombie Flesh Eaters 2, Achtung! Desert Tigers)...I almost had a nosebleed when Massimo turned up.

Y'see, Massimo turns up, to put it a bit vaguely, at 1:02 minutes into the film, not that I was counting, as a kick arse bad guy hit-man who proceeds to waste most of the main cast. SO that's a good thing right there.

So - You either watch this one or not. Bruno fan? Kudos. Accidental tourist? Here there be tygers.

The NO LONGER HERE WITH US LIST: Romano Puppo, Mike Monty, Jim Gaines, Candice Daly, Werner Pocath...

Bruno Mattei jumped on both the Vietnam and 80's cop genre (namely the Vietnam cop drama OFF LIMITS) with this utterly confusing actioner. Military police Morgan (Sam Huff) and Hawk (Max Laurel) are assigned by Captain Kirk (yes, Captain Kirk!) to find out why members of a unit called Cobra Squad are killing high ranking members of the military as the Vietnam war draws to a close. This is really a chore to get through. The film does offer a few bits of action and violence (explosions culled from Mattei's earlier STRIKE COMMANDO and a car chase done with miniatures from Antonio Margheriti's ARK OF THE SUN GOD), but it is so damn confusing to keep track of why characters are going here or there. The end twist - something involving Russians - comes out of nowhere. The film's opening scene with the Cobra Squad attacking in slo-mo while wearing gas masks is pretty effective though. Huff teamed up with Mattei the next year for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK riff STRIKE COMMANDO 2, which is much better than this.