Score

Score isn't anything you haven't seen before but it is a lot of fun, it's like a cross between Reservoir Dogs and John Woo's Hard Boiled. If you're a fan of over the top and bloody action movies then you'll likely enjoy Score, i know i did. The actors chew the scenery, the main protagonist has a mullet (I've never seen a Japanese man own a mullet before), the gun fights are crazy with people pumping multiple rounds in to each other with blood spraying everywhere and all logic goes out of the window. One character gets shot in the stomach, then the shoulder and then a couple of scenes later he's sprinting down a hill like he's chasing a wheel of cheese. Then later on he gets blasted in the arm and chest with a shotgun and then shot in the same shoulder as before with a crossbow and then hit again with a shotgun in the back but he's still alive and able to drive a car!!! I really enjoyed this movie, it reminded me of a time when action movies were made for adults with blood, swearing and adult themes. Nowadays most action movies are PG-13 crap. Highly recommended for fans of violent action movies, you'll have a good time.

SCORE (1995) is a derivative Japanese crime film, borrowing liberally from, among others, HARD-BOILED, HARD TARGET, RESERVOIR DOGS, TRESPASS, NATURAL BORN KILLERS and THE GETAWAY. It's a fast-paced, violent, old-fashioned (in a good way) caper thriller that makes up for an extremely low budget by fast-cutting, imaginative staging of action, judicious casting, and lots of shootouts, fights, chases, greed, betrayal and frenzied, bloody agony.

SCORE is set in the U.S., but was largely shot in the Philippines (the police cars have `Manila's Finest' printed on them). The main character, Chance, looks like a Japanese Quentin Tarantino with his square face and bulldog features, and heads a team of jewel robbers waiting for their payoff in a massive abandoned factory. There is a psychotic highway robber and his crazy female accomplice (straight out of NATURAL BORN KILLERS) who dog the jewel robbers. The male psycho has a fixation on Doc Holliday and the O.K. Corral and insists on referring to the jewel thieves as the Clantons.

Despite its budget limitations and blatant rip-offs of so many better films, SCORE boasts the kind of speed, grit, color, and imaginative violent outbursts that used to grace so many of the grade-B crime films that Hollywood (and Hong Kong) used to produce on a regular basis.

I was not aware of this low budget Japanese actioner up until now but it is always better late than never.

As it was stated in many reviews about this movie it copies from films like Hard Target, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction etc shamelessly but they have been put to great use.

I must say that this movie is ridiculous in every way. The script, characters, acting, music, everything. For example who would wear a crocodile/salamander mask when you go to rob a bank ? Exactly.

Chance is the ultimate hero of this with out of this world mullet and same name from John Woo's 1993 movie Hard Target. I like Hard Target so that posed no problems for me.

As for the crazy hitchhikers I really hated them. They were so terrible I was left wondering if they were serious or not.

One other thing that bothered me is that I could not figure out where this movie was taking place. The lady on the radio was speaking in English so I assumed it was America but all the cops at the finale look like they were from Thailand or Philippines. This got me confused.

Put this all aside if you are looking for a crazy Japanese actioner with pretty good gun fights don't miss this movie. To quote Chance "There are two kinds of men. One who likes movies like this and one who should burn in hell for not liking this gem"

I've seen a huge amount of movies and I've gotta say Score would be in the top 10 worst ones ever. So bad it's terrible category. If I could give it zero I would! You know from the beginning of a film when the music is awful that it's all down hill from there. The obviously fake plastic jewellery from the heist is priceless, though. Highly not recommended,

Hanzo

Score tells the story of former Yakuza gangster "Chance" who is hiding in the U.S. until he is tracked down by his former colleagues and forced to do small bank jobs for them. Soon he comes to one last job, a jewel heist and if all goes well he'll be able to sever all ties with the Yakuza and leave for Paris, but Chance has his own plans.

When I watched this movie I was very surprised as how bloody this film actually was but of course being a huge fan of John Woo's gangster epics I just sat back and watched the blood and bullets fly.

The main story and a couple of other plot elements are lifted directly out of a couple of American movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers, which made a change to Hollywood ripping off Asian cinema.

The action was very well done, clearly influenced by the works of John Woo as I mentioned before.

The cast do very well in this picture, each one brings different personalities to each of their respective characters they play.

If you choose to view this movie don't expect a hard hitting gangster thriller such as the works of 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, this is purely action all the way.