Silent Assassins

Cop Sam Kettle (Sam Jones) was this close to leaving L.A. with his girlfriend Sara (Linda Blair) before his chief tells him, "We need you." I'm not kidding, they were literally packing the U-Haul when the chief showed up. Seems bio-chemist Dr. London (Bill Erwin) was kidnapped by Kettle's nemesis Kendrick (Gustav Vintas). Tagging along with Sam on his investigation is Jun Kim (Jun Chong), whose niece was kidnapped along with the doctor. The duo team learn from Oyama (Mako) that Kendrick has hired an elite Japanese killing squad and, with help from Oyama's son Bernard (Phillip Rhee), they attack the secret hideout before Kendrick can secure the chemical weapons formula.

This is a step up from NINJA TURF as it has better production values, a name cast and explosions. Yeah, I'm easy. There is some really odd stuff like Vintas - a dead ringer for Tom Noonan - always carrying a red rose, leather clad villainess Miss Amy (Rebecca Ferratti) stating "Don't forget, I'm a bio-chemist too" and Dr. London's strange habit of always holding the kidnapped niece in every shot. Jones seems to be having fun in the role, not taking anything too seriously. The same can be said for Rhee, who is a dojo playboy this time around. Blair is featured on the cover brandishing a gun but her role is as the helpless girlfriend. She disappears completely from the picture around the 50 minute mark. Bill "Superfoot" Wallace gets a cameo as a deceitful Colonel and they never show his face! Given the cliff hanger ending, I suspect they were hoping for a part 2 with him as the lead villain.

As with the earlier TURF, the fights are very well done. Chong and Rhee handled the choreography and this is probably the best aspect of their low budget action flicks. One thing that cracked me up is these silent assassins are the loudest mofos around. Any time they sneak up to kill someone, they let out a huge scream before attacking. So, like NINJA TURF with its lack of ninjas, producer/star Chong again fails to deliver on the title's promise.