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Kill and Kill Again
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| Year: |
1981
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Director: |
Ivan Hall
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| Stars: |
James Ryan, Anneline Kriel, Michael Mayer, Marloe Scott Wilson, Bill Flynn, Ken Gampu, Stan Schmidt, Norman Robinson, John Ramsbottom, Ivor Kissin, Eddie Dorie, Michelle Feher, Malcolm Dorfman, Mervyn John, Dennis Folbigge, Ralph Draper
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| Genre: |
Action, Martial Arts, Adventure |
| Rating: |
  5 (from 1 vote) |
| Review: |
Steve Chase (James Ryan) is in Sun City, South Africa, to collect an award for being the best martial artist in the world, only he is finding some degree of bother in reaching the ceremony as a bunch of heavies have impeded his path, launching themselves at him and forcing him to better them in hand to hand combat; foot to foot combat, too. He does finally make it just as the presentation speech is being wrapped up, so he boots one of his assailants into the swimming pool along with some ladies who were standing there minding their own business and walks up to the M.C. to take his trophy. As he does, he is approached by a young woman calling herself Kandy Kane (Anneline Kriel), who has a proposition for him...
James Ryan had made his name internationally with the South African karate movie Kill or Be Killed around about its wider distribution in 1980 and it was so successful that a sequel was swiftly ordered to cash in. This had Hollywood interest, so was a co-production between the South Africans and Tinseltown, which naturally threw up an uncomfortable issue as at that time the African nation was labouring under Apartheid, and while many a movie was made there cheaply thanks to tax breaks from the government seeking to promote business, this left a controversy since it could be seen as endorsing the fascist policies of that government of the era. It would be unfair to single out any one movie as the most egregious example, however.
Just as it would be unfair to accuse every single person who worked on efforts like this as crazed, unreasonable racists, for that wasn't the case either, and this production did hire a number of black actors as well as whites, most notably the country's most celebrated black thespian Ken Gampu, here taking a break from theatre work to use his impressive build to play one of the two-fisted fighters our hero recruits when he is invited by Kandy to save her scientist father (John Ramsbottom) from a fate worse than death. This was your basic James Bond evil mastermind tries to take over the planet business, though naturally the martial arts revealed its tribute was more biased towards Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon - why yes, it does end with a tournament.
Funnily enough this bore some resemblance to another Dragon-inspired movie, Force: Five, released the same year, presumably a coincidence for they were not alone in this premise, though nevertheless the fear of a religious cult getting out of hand was pertinent to both, sort of the way the Moonies were concerning the world, or the Jonestown tragedy had shocked it. This was a lot more cartoonish that those real life incidents, as the leader was one Marduk, played by Michael Mayer with one of the most egregious stuck on beard and moustache combinations glued to his face that you ever did see. Quite how they thought anyone would be fooled by this, and quite why he felt the need to wear it, are something of a mystery that leads one to assume Mayer was seeking to disguise himself so he wouldn't be recognised.
Anyway, if you could get over that major distraction, you would be more likely diverted by the frequent bouts of brawling between Chase's team and the bad guys. So intent on assembling the very best of the best is he that he spends almost half the movie rounding them up, from the aforementioned Gampu playing the unfortunately-named Gorilla to supposed actual martial arts champ Stan Schmidt as "The Fly", not so called because he's very attached to his breeks, but because he can float in the air and climb down the outside of buildings instead of using the stairs. Add two others, a man mountain and the comedy relief, and eventually we have the accomplished fighting force all set to stop Marduk putting Professor Kane's mind control solution into the world's water supply and turning us all into mindless zombies who will do his bidding and watch lots of films like Kill and Kill Again. Oh, and all wear the same outfit too, a sky blue T-shirt (with logo) and black trousers, as if they're on a gameshow; maybe they were. It passes the time, but nobody was going to mistake it for excellence.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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