Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

People are voting emotionally.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The DVD box labels this film as 'the nuclear warhead of Japanese action cinema' and for once I don't think they're far wrong. It's a balls-to-the-wall gangster flick, riffing on dozens of movies that have come previously, that carves a niche for itself thanks to the high fluidity of the filming and the sheer energy present in every frame, all of the time. Those familiar with director Atsushi Muroga's zombie film JUNK will immediately recognise his style here, and indeed the factory setting that acts as the backdrop to much of the film.First things first: this film is intensely derivative. The film most recognisable is RESERVOIR DOGS, but there are also elements of HARD TARGET, NATURAL BORN KILLERS, and many other movies along the way. As such, not many of the plot twists, including the big one at the climax, will come as a surprise, but that doesn't matter: just because a film is derivative doesn't mean it has to be poor. I like many films which closely resemble those that have come before, most notably the DIE HARD clones, and often half the fun comes from spotting which film they're trying to emulate now.Anyway, back to SCORE: this has a blisteringly fast pace, right from the word go. There are more shoot-outs, car chases, fights, and tense stand-offs than in a dozen Hollywood action B-movies, and the furious pacing lasts right up until the end. It's the usual stuff: a bunch of thugs commit a hold up and then arrange to meet in an isolated factory, only to find themselves at the mercy of a double crossing boss, the police force, and even a couple of murderous hitchhikers straight out of an Oliver Stone film. This is gruesome stuff: nobody dies from a single bullet hit, and most people are riddled with gore and holes before they bit the big one. Many of the characters spend the movie plastered in blood and all of the shoot-outs are handled in an intensely stylish way. The highlight – if you can call it that – comes when one thug is shotgunned, the blood spray captured in exquisite slow motion as his body pirouettes through the air.The unknown-to-me cast members all give over the top performances, milking every second of their screen time. The top bad guys are the usual slick types, while lead Hitoshi Ozawa has that Japanese 'stone face' look well mastered. I loved the fight atop the moving truck, as well as the action at the climax which goes way above and beyond. To be honest, I expected this type of film when I sat down to watch a 'Beat' Takeshi box set, only to be slightly disappointed by the mostly tranquil nature of his early films. I like Takeshi, but this is far more entertaining: a riveting B-movie action film that takes cinema to the next level and proves that a low budget can sometimes be a blessing rather than a curse.

A cheap and cheerless heist movie with poor characterisation, lots of underbite style stoic emoting (think Chow Yun Fat in A Better Tomorrow) and some cheesy clichés thrown into an abandoned factory ready for a few poorly executed flying judo rolls a la John Woo. Even the squibs look awful. At no point in the proceedings does it look remotely like America. Three wonky old cars do not a country make.The Mustang even has a wobbly right front wheel. The plot, such as it is, is so derivative and predictable that the ending is like a mercy killing. It couldn't come soon enough. Even the jewellery from the robbery looks like the cheapest junk costume jewellery available. The awful dialogue and hopeless overacting by everyone who gets shot top off a real waste of space and time. Worth watching if you want to know how not to make a cliché-ridden low budget movie.

Score tells the story of former Yakuza gangster "Chance" who is hiding in the U.S. until he is tracked down by his former colleagues and forced to do small bank jobs for them. Soon he comes to one last job, a jewel heist and if all goes well he'll be able to sever all ties with the Yakuza and leave for Paris, but Chance has his own plans.When I watched this movie I was very surprised as how bloody this film actually was but of course being a huge fan of John Woo's gangster epics I just sat back and watched the blood and bullets fly.The main story and a couple of other plot elements are lifted directly out of a couple of American movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Natural Born Killers, which made a change to Hollywood ripping off Asian cinema.The action was very well done, clearly influenced by the works of John Woo as I mentioned before.The cast do very well in this picture, each one brings different personalities to each of their respective characters they play.If you choose to view this movie don't expect a hard hitting gangster thriller such as the works of 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, this is purely action all the way.

SCORE (1995) is a derivative Japanese crime film, borrowing liberally from, among others, HARD-BOILED, HARD TARGET, RESERVOIR DOGS, TRESPASS, NATURAL BORN KILLERS and THE GETAWAY. It's a fast-paced, violent, old-fashioned (in a good way) caper thriller that makes up for an extremely low budget by fast-cutting, imaginative staging of action, judicious casting, and lots of shootouts, fights, chases, greed, betrayal and frenzied, bloody agony.SCORE is set in the U.S., but was largely shot in the Philippines (the police cars have `Manila's Finest' printed on them). The main character, Chance, looks like a Japanese Quentin Tarantino with his square face and bulldog features, and heads a team of jewel robbers waiting for their payoff in a massive abandoned factory. There is a psychotic highway robber and his crazy female accomplice (straight out of NATURAL BORN KILLERS) who dog the jewel robbers. The male psycho has a fixation on Doc Holliday and the O.K. Corral and insists on referring to the jewel thieves as the Clantons.Despite its budget limitations and blatant rip-offs of so many better films, SCORE boasts the kind of speed, grit, color, and imaginative violent outbursts that used to grace so many of the grade-B crime films that Hollywood (and Hong Kong) used to produce on a regular basis.