8. Samurai Cop (1989)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=46aedmsU5Fw Here's how not to choreograph a fight scene, in the climax of Samurai Cop, as two apparent Bushidos - but you wouldn't know from looking - face off in a fight to the death. Once they get down to it, the awfulness is immediately apparent; the homoerotic grunting, the dodgy hair-dos, and most notably, the peculiar editing, which appears to speed up the swordplay to make it seem more "intense", but it just makes it seem more like a Benny Hill sketch. Even more bizarre, though, is the blatant switching up of hair styles for lead Matt Hannon, who swaps indiscriminately between what we assume is his actual hair, and an extremely obvious wig for no apparent reason. Post-fight, when the samurai cop is about to finish off his foe with a sword, his apparent detective buddy - who has been shown watching the entire thing in a series of awkwardly-placed reaction shots - orders him to stop, giving the whole affair even less dignity, until the baddie commits hara-kiri with a knife anyway...
Shaun Munro
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.
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