Fuga Mortal

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...

This movie has a special place in my heart. I suppose if you're looking for a good action flick or a story with any substance, this ain't the one for you. However, if you have a forgiving sense of humor, appreciate trite cinema clichés, bad over-acting, bad under-acting, shallow, vapid writing, ridiculous stunt work and slapstick-like choreography, you've come to the right place.

You can play a great drinking game with this movie. Every time a character uses a redundant line or explains what is happening for the viewer's sake, take a drink. You'll be smashed.

I think my favorite scene in the movie comes up early. There is a struggle in the hotel lobby. Lt. Jack Hazard starts to wreck shop, but the guy he is destined to reluctantly protect is being strangled under a water fountain in the plaza! He manages to survive for the minute or two it takes Jack to get everything under control, but by the pained look on his face you can clearly tell that he is having trouble breathing, the water is splashing all over his face! He makes very loud choking sounds so you can tell he's really suffocating!

This one should go down in history.

This is the kind of movie that's so bad it's funny, and that almost makes it worth watching. Every move and every line is such an unrealistic clichè it will haunt you for days...

And the acting...Don't get me started.

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.

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)