Score

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.

Score (1995) is a low budget gem from Japan. A film that aims for a certain crowd and it doesn't disappoint it's audience. A group of lowlife thugs are gathered together by a low level Yakuza boss so they can get their hands on some precious gems. This picture has more turns and twist than and old school crime novel.

Caution this movie is very violent. The director showcases some of the biggest blood squibs I have ever seen in a movie. It's tightly edited and moves at a nice pace. The only draw backs are the budget ( at least it was shot on film) and the locations (the movie was filmed in the Phillipines even though it's suppose to take place in the U.S.

I highly recommend this film (for the total carnage)

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 watched many Japanese Films recently mostly Action/Yakuza Films or Horror. Score is one of the best Action Films from the Japanese Action genre, Its clear this movie stole his Style from John Woo Films like Hard Target or Hard Boiled or Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs, they are even scenes in Score who are almost exactly 1:1 the same, Its up to you how you look at it. Is this a outrageous copy or does this Film appreciate John Woo and Tarantino ? I don't care really, this Film was a lot Fun, Fast Paced and many bloody Shootouts and One-Liners. Obviously this Film is Low Budget but the End Result was really good. As I write this Review, there only 227 users who seen/voted this Film, this Film should definitely more known especially under Action Fans.

Score rips off Reservoir Dogs, Hard Target and other action movies and it does it so blatantly it makes me puke from my rectum. It's stupid as hell. It does deserve some credibility for the action as it is bloody and fun but urgh. It is so annoying. Recommended if you like movies that devoid original thought.