Samurai Commando - Mission 1549

The 1979 Sonny Chiba flick G. I. SAMURAI is one of my favourite films of all time. I never get tired of watching its modern-soldiers-vs-samurai premise, so when I heard about this semi-sequel I was delighted. Now, let's get one thing cleared up: this isn't a straight sequel at all. I won't spoil the events of the original film, but this film poses things differently, a 'what if?' scenario instead of the concrete ending of the initial movie. It then subsequently focuses on another squad of soldiers sent into the past on a special rescue mission.

SAMURAI COMMANDO has nowhere near the quality of the first film. If the 1979 movie was an action film through and through, this one's pure science fiction as it looks at the morals and consequences of tampering with history. It's also more squarely B-movie style, with lots of cheesy and explosive special effects and emoting. It has a cast giving the film their all, and in the second half particularly it picks up the pace and runs with it, delivering an effective race-against-the-clock climax. It may not be high art, but it is entertaining.