B Plus Movies

When one watches a movie with 2 in the title, one expects there will be some connection to a movie whose title includes an invisible 1. With B movies, it’s sometimes not the case. Like writers of the first millennium after Christ, any book that advertises as “based on a true story” or any soundtrack that says on it’s cover “inspired by”, the substance of a B Movie sequel may bear little to no resemblance to it’s supposed predecessor.

I thought about this a great deal as I found myself mesmerized in my seat by Back to Back: American Yakuza 2.

American Yakuza was a B action movie starring Viggo Mortensen (yes, as in Aragorn from the Lord of the Rings). A movie deserving it’s own review, it was at it’s heart a police action movie/thriller about loyalties and trust, set against a backdrop of gangsters, gunfire and crime. Back to Back: American Yakuza 2 has police, action, gangsters and plenty of gunfire. It even has one of the actors from the first movie, though not playing the same character, unless you wish to reduce his character to “Japanese gangster”. Watching American Yakuza is entirely unrequired for enjoying its sequel and in fact I might recommend watching this one first so that you’re not expecting a better movie.

Back to Back: American Yakuza 2 starts with a number of people going about their rather messed up lives with no knowledge their paths will soon collide. First we have a pair of Japanese gangsters (the Japanese mob is called the Yakuza, if you didn’t know) who are nonchalantly hanging out in an Italian restaurant. We have a cop who just got investigated by internal affairs. We have the cop’s daughter who is going through a bit of teenage rebellion and parent hating. And then there’s a couple of assorted other police officers, a couple of assorted Italian mobsters and a psycho (really, listed in the credits as “psycho”) with an AK-47 and a dislike for the boys in blue.

The psycho comes to the restaurant and prevents the assorted gangsters from getting lunch there. This apparently disrupts the plans of the Japanese gangsters one of who takes it into his own hands to resolve the situation. This leads to an arrest, an escape and the Yakuza taking the cop under investigation and his daughter hostage. Soon, they find out they have enemies in common and a path towards clearing this mess up becomes clear.

With the diverse elements and situations of the characters and the strange weaving together of their fates, this movie starts off very much like a bargain basement Quentin Tarantino movie. I kept trying to turn the channel, but the question of “what does all of this have to do with everything else” was enough to make me pay attention long enough for me to get to the place where the Yakuza and the disgraced cop have to work together. And it was at that moment that I had the horrible realization I was no longer watching a slick, gritty crime drama.

“My god,” I thought to myself. “I’m watching a buddy film!”

While this should have been enough to send it sliding down my ratings scale like a kid with a trash can lid on a snowy hill, the shooting began in earnest about that time and I continued to sit and watch.  And I’m kind of glad I did, for while this movie may not have been Oscar worthy, it did have some very redeeming qualities. For one, there is a liberal sprinkling of cameos and bit parts in this movie, most of which are by traditionally comedic actors. The aforementioned psycho is played by Bobcat Goldthwait. There’s also Tim Thomerson (the Trancers series and a yard long B-List pedigree),  Vincent Schiavelli (deceased character actor that you’ll know when you see), Stephen Furst (Flounder from Animal House) and Fred Willard (Wall-E, MadTV and about a 190 other movies and TV shows). Between shootouts, there are scenes that range from weird to funny to all to familiar family drama, causing the movie to constantly teeter on the bridge between the warm hot tubs of awesome and the deep, muddy pits of suckitude without ever really falling into either.

I’m not going to say your life is incomplete without seeing this movie, but it’s worth checking for on cable and while you may not want to hold anyone down and force them to watch it, if you’re an action movie fan or have any working knowledge of comedians in the late 80’s, you’ll have a good time with this one. The movie has some issues with cliches and direction here and there, but not enough to rob it of entertainment value completely.

Back to Back: American Yakuza 2 gets a C from me. It’s a decent time waster and cute little ride that won’t change your life, but might make you smile. If you watch this one, keep your eyes out for some of the best last words ever written on a strip club napkin, the best thing that could ever happen to Bobcat Goldthwait and another demonstration of why if you have kidnapped someone and have them in your car, you really should wear your seat belt.

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