Overkill (1996)

Number Rolled: 24

Movie Name/Year: Overkill (1996)

Genre: Action Thriller

Length: 91 mins

Rating: R

Director: Dean Raphael Ferrandini

Writer: John Langley, Jerry Lazarus, Ron Swanson

Actors: Aaron Norris, Michael Nouri, Kenneth Moskow, Pamela Dickerson, David Rowe, Enrique Munoz, Damian Alcazar, Gerardo Soublette, Gerardo Zepeda

First of all, I need to get this off my chest. The way “Norris” is printed on the cover makes me believe they wanted people to think that it was Chuck and not Aaron in the movie. Cheap move I think, but after actually watching it, kind of fitting. Overkill had all of the Norris, none of the Chuck.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my share of B movies, but my favorite B movie is the kind that doesn’t try to be anything else. This movie was certainly nothing else, but tried to be. Undoubtedly, they thought having a Norris in their movie would sell tickets. However, I expect an actor to react to a nice hard kick to the face. Not stand there for a few and then jump backwards in a very obvious way.

At the beginning of the movie, things are pretty much cut and dry. Uncontrollable cop screws up a raid and is told to get their shit together or resign. Cop goes on vacation and gets wrangled into helping out some nerdy tech guy who looked into the wrong computer file. That’s the storyline. Not much more to it really…. Until you start hearing about the shadow people out in the jungle. That touch of the supernatural in a movie like this was definitely unexpected.

For the majority of the movie I found that added other-worldly plot just as corny and predictable as their dialog, but the ending really caught me off guard. I was actually really impressed with it and that’s what saved this movie for me. In fact, it jumped it up from what would have been an overall opinion of one.

If you do decide to watch it, watch it with the knowledge that you are watching a B movie. Don’t expect a blockbuster or you will be disappointed.

Overall Opinion – 2/5