Bullet Points: Body Count (1995)
It is time for another of my Tubi appreciation posts. No other streaming service brings more obscure movies to my attention like Tubi does. Tubi continues to be an invaluable resource in my constant hunt for content.
My latest Tubi discovery was the 1995 action thriller, Body Count…
- Greed is Bad: This just in… the notorious Gianelli Brothers (Joey and Bruce for those in the know) have once again avoided incarceration. The question soon becomes, can the Gianelli’s avoid an assassin with a sniper rifle?!? The answer to that question is a resounding no, especially when you consider that assassin is played by Sonny Chiba! Chiba’s Makato agreed to kill the Brothers Gianelli for $100,000, but when he goes to collect from the middle man, Makato demands $200,000 since there were two kills. The middle man says he’ll take care of it and sets up a new meeting at a strip club… conveniently the New Orleans detectives working the Gianelli murder case, Eddie Cook (Robert Davi, The Bad Pack) and Vinnie Rizzo (Steven Bauer, Plato’s Run) are tipped off that the assassin will be collecting his payment at the strip club, so they are there in force and when it is all said and done, Makato ends up with a bullet in his shoulder, arrested for the murders! Hope it was worth that extra $100,000.
- 18 Months Later: Makato, now in prison, receives a letter from a woman named Sybil and the wheels are in motion for Makato’s revenge tour. We see the daisy duke wearing Sybil (Brigitte Nielsen, Mission for Justice) for the first time when she feigns being a woman with car trouble that just happens to be driving by Makato and some of his fellow inmates out doing hard labor. Sybil takes out the prison guards, shoots Makato’s ankle shackles and the two are off to The Big Easy to find out who set up Makato! And that’s when Makato finds out it was a cop who paid him to kill the Gianelli Brothers. This is a good little twist considering Detectives Cook and Rizzo have been trying to bring down the Gianelli’s for the past 8 years so it is believable that they may have had enough of the justice system and it would not be a stretch that either Robert Davi or Steven Bauer could play a cop who crossed the line.
- Process of Elimination: There was one more potential cop who crossed the line among the cast members, Detective Reinhart (Jan-Michael Vincent, The Mechanic), but Reinhart is thrown off a building by Makato as he starts taking out all the cops who were at the strip club the night he was arrested, so I didn’t suspect him for very long. But the middle of the movie isn’t just about the eliminations, we also get an interesting addition in the form of Special Agent Janet Hood with the FBI. Hood was played by the easy on the eyes Cindy Ambuehl, who once had an interesting “tractor story” on Seinfeld. Hood and Cook butt heads instantly as she begins looking into the Gianelli murders. It was pretty clear that Hood and Cook would be hooking up before the end of the movie… I didn’t expect their inevitable sexual encounter to include toe sucking however.
- And Then There Were Three: By act three, the only cops left standing on Makato’s shit list are Eddie Cook, Vinnie Rizzo and Captain Hendricks… I was a little surprised I was still standing, because things started to drag for me in the middle, but I felt I was rewarded for sticking with the movie when the finale involved Makato commandeering a New Orleans streetcar and Eddie Cook doing everything in his power to stop him! Plus, when you have two strong female characters it only makes sense that they square off so we get Janet Hood vs. Sybil and their final battle also involves some streetcars!
Body Count started strong and ended strong, which made me forgive the meandering middle. The cast is what initially drew me to the movie and they did not disappoint. Plus, who knew Robert Davi and Sonny Chiba were in a movie together!?!? There are some good action sequences and New Orleans once again proved it is a great backdrop for an action movie.
These Bonus Bullet Points will once again prove they are a great way to end a review…
- AKA: Body Count was originally known as Codename: The Silencer.
- If You Ever: ..wanted to see Robert Davi and Steven Bauer spar in a boxing ring, then 1995’s Body Count is the movie for you.
- The Name Game: 1995’s Body Count should not be confused with 1986’s Body Count starring Bruce Penhall and Mimsy Farmer or 1998’s Body Count starring David Caruso and Linda Fiorentino or the heavy metal group, Body Count, fronted by Ice T that was featured on the Universal Soldier soundtrack.
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Robert Davi on top of a Ryder truck during a high speed chase, then 1995’s Body Count is the movie for you.
