New York Cop

In 1993 Chad Mcqueen was dwelling in a realm of perfection that most actors never get a chance to experience. This dominant Mcqueen era all started off with the action powerhouse Death Ring. When interviewed in 1993, Mcqueen referred to his role as Skylord Harris to be a supernatural experience that put him on an unstoppable trail of acting fire. With a Marlboro hanging out of his mouth and a fresh Knights of the Round Table sleeveless plaid he claimed the 90's would be "the golden era" of B action movies. Thankfully for the B community Chad would prove this prediction to be spot on. However with every stroke of genius comes a dark side, and this ultimately led to the demise of Chad Mcqueen's career in 2001. He had expended every ounce of tough guy genius throughout this decade leaving him useless by time the Nemanium rolled around. This is still something very hard to digest for Sid, but we keep his legacy alive by watching all his classics and sharing them with the world. This brings us to our Chad Mcqueen feature of the evening "New York Cop."

In New York Cop Chad plays his usual uber tough guy role as the gang leader of a dim whited crew of flunkies. Of course when you're this tough you need an awesome name like Hawk. Yes his actually name was Hawk. It's almost as great as Jack Jackman as he laughs off Santas poor gym performance results. While Hawk is running an underground gun ring with a branch of the Italian Mafia (run by Pauly Walnuts), his crew is being infiltrated by an undercover cop name Toshi. Toshi is a Japanese fellow who still struggled with every aspect of the English language despite being chosen for this acting role. For us his disjointed attempts at speaking just added so many extra laughs. Naturally Toshi gets in with the gang and starts to build a creepy bromance with Hawk. But who wouldn't be infatuated with Mcqueen in his dirty wife beater, beer gut, and shapeless old man arms? Like every other undercover cop movie Toshi gets suspected to be a cop and a bunch of choas takes over. In the end Hawk dies (as Toshi holds him in his arms), Pauly Walnuts car explodes, and Toshi taps Mcqueens sister.

There is so much that could be said about New York Cop but there simply isn't enough review space to explain it all. It is very important to highlight that Mr. Chan had a nice ten minute role as black market arms dealer. When we saw Mr. Chan we were extremely excited. That is a huge deal in an action B. It's obvious Mcqueen was so impressed with his work in Death Ring that he made sure New York Cop had a dose of Chan. Ancient Chinese secret huh? Also among the Hawk's henchmen was a nice cameo from First Base, whose illegal activity landed him his jail sentence in Lock Up. And if that wasn't enough there was a very strong count of 5 ponytails sporadically throughout the film. One of them belonged to a Mexican guy and boy was it glorious. This thing was like a mane of a thorough bred horse. It wasn't just a ponytail though, it was a mullet as well. Since he had a mustache this provides a very enthusiastic DMF that we always seek in 90's B. Obviously New York Cop is a must see for any fan of the genre. If this review doesn't ring home then don't even bother watching the film itself.

Nyû Yôku No Koppu (New York Cop) 3/10: The generically named New York Cop is, not surprisingly, a generic undercover cop story taking place in early nineties New York City back when the lower east side still had crime, drugs and ethnically diverse homeless.

Filmed on location this Japanese production has a decent enough action; a plot, that while certainly muddled, moves along nicely; and that whacky over the top Japanese racism that cracks me up every single time. In fact, there are times it is as insane as an Italian exploitation film such as 1990 The Bronx Warriors. (They have Hillbilly rednecks in Manhattan. Staten Island I could believe but the Meatpacking district?) New York Cop does have one fatal flaw however. It stars Tôru Nakamura.

Toru does not speak English well. In fact, he really does not speak at all. To cover the fact he really doesn't speak English, he instead makes those noises that the teachers in the Peanuts cartoons used to make. In addition, to cover up that fact he is just mumbling sounds, they basically turn his mike off. One will be straining to hear a word. This is not always fatal to a film. I have seen dozen of badly dubbed European exploitation films where a character or two is unintelligible. However, Toru is in almost every bloody scene and it becomes irritating quickly.

Now you may defend him by admitting that not every kung-fu cop can be Jackie Chan. This of course is a fair argument if Jackie Chan was not already in the film with a small role. In fact, the rest of the cast is so above board one wonders if the lead cardboard cutout is not somebody's nephew or something.

Along with Jackie Chan, (or a Jackie Chan lookalike or perhaps clone as Jackie doesn't appear in the credits) are Mira Sorvino as the love interest with the Eighties hair and sweater. Joining her are Tony Sirico (Paulie from the Sopranos) as the Mob guy; Relative unknown Chad McQueen (Who easily gives the best performance in the film) as the 'good guy' gang leader, and Sorvino's overprotective brother. Hell it even has a decent run by Andreas Katsulas (The one armed person in the Harrison Ford version of the Fugitive) if they had given Chan (or the Chan lookalike) the lead role and tighten the story a little bit this very well could have worked.

Of course if you are going to go to the trouble of making a good movie you might want to jettison the Serpico reject undercover cop, the horrible musical soundtrack during the Sorvino sex scene, and the Dukes of Hazard rejects gang. I was in the Lower east side of New York in the early nineties and I saw many strange things, large group of hillbillies flying confederate flags was not one of them.

As B movies go this isn't too bad. It's flawed in places and a little slow at times, but the style and acting are generally pretty decent. Chad McQueen puts in one of his better performances, and there a few famous faces in here too. Worth watching but it's not quite as great as it could have been.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  2.7 out of 5 stars