Gladiator Cop is a sequel to The Swordsman insomuch as taking footage off the cutting room floor from the first film and adding in some new stuff can make it a sequel. Lamas reprises his role...err...the footage of him from the first film is reused, as the museum head from the first one steals the sword of Alexander and gives it to a background dancer from the Bad video to use in underground swordfighting tournaments. Enter James Hong, who wants his warrior to fight Lamas to settle another reincarnation score from two thousand years ago. How can Lamas fight him if he's not really in this movie? Put a mask on another actor and you're all set.
I had no idea this movie was like this. I saw the first one, then just jumped into this one, and realized they were using footage from the first one. And even the things that I didn't recognize, I could tell they'd just been pulled from things in the first one that didn't make the final cut. That makes this a unique kind of bait-and-switch. They essentially Richard Harrison-ed Lamas into this sequel to take advantage of his popularity at the time on Renegade. Then, 16-year-old Matt is supposed to go into my local video store, see Lamas on the cover, and think "oh hey, that's Reno Raines! Let me check that out." Check and mate. Where does that leave us though? I mean, there is the novelty that this movie exists as it does, but it also has the feel of two films cobbled together without the charm of Godfrey Ho's ninja films. If the person playing Lamas in the fights had been wearing a ninja costume with the word "Ninja" on the headband, I think we would have enjoyed it more.
Of the other Hall of Famers, I can think of two who have been in similar circumstances. Cynthia Rothrock was in 24 Hours to Midnight, where someone else played her in a ninja costume; and then Fred Williamson did a fourth Black Cobra film where they just used footage from the previous ones and cobbled it together. The thing is though, those other two were made outside the US, and outside of SAG's jurisdiction. This on the other hand, as far as I could tell, was SAG sanctioned, and even had James Hong in it to boot. Also, it wasn't just Lamas's footage that was reused, they did the same thing with Claire Stansfield. I mean maybe Lamas signed off on it: what easier way to get a payday than to be in a film you don't have to shoot for. Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal would die for that kind of deal.
We last saw James Hong here in 2013 when we did Guns and Lipstick. When you think of someone with the volume of credits he has (I'm seeing 440 and counting on IMDb), a situation like this has to be right up his alley. I mean, he probably has some of his own credits like this where he never set foot on the set and they used old footage. What he does here is gives the film a level of credibility it desperately needed, and while it may not have been enough to ultimately save it, he was still a welcomed sight, like a familiar face in a crowd of strangers, and it had that same effect of putting my mind at ease; but then we'd have another Lamas recycled scene and my brain would go fuzzy again.
We've done some Godfrey Ho flicks here on the site, so we're not any strangers to this kind of thing. Reportedly Richard Harrison was told he was doing 2 ninja movies, which turned into 20. I also don't know that he was compensated for the other 18, whereas I'm pretty sure for Lamas to be credited and his scenes used in a SAG film, he needed to be paid for this. As I mentioned above, this doesn't really have the charm that those Ho flicks have; but beyond that, I do wonder why more studios haven't employed this technique. Seriously, do we think Bruce Willis would balk at a paycheck for a film he didn't have to act in? He looks almost the same in every movie too, how hard would it be to cobble together footage from five of those DTV flicks he's done recently? Bringing the Godfrey Ho approach back to the world of modern DTV could be a great thing to see--or it could kill the industry.
Getting back to Lamas, this marks his 34th film on the site, which begs the question, does the 40 Club and beyond beckon for him? On the one hand, when we look at how many newer films he's been in that we haven't touched yet, we say yes, we still have a long way to go; but on the other, after this one it looks like we've exhausted his best stuff in the late 80s to late 90s window, so how much more of his stuff do we want to do? Is it worth it to just do his movies just to do them? We could ask that about a lot of Hall of Famers, and I guess what I'll have to consider is factors like, who else is in the movie, what kind of quality is it, and if no one else is in it, how much is the Hall of Famer in it? And how important is it to get Lamas more tags at this point? He's already cemented his legacy as one of the best DTV stars ever, and for anyone looking to get into his stuff, we pretty much have all the best right here--I think Killing Streets is the only one I'm missing. I guess we'll play it by ear and see what happens.
And with that, it's time to wrap this one up. You can stream this on YouTube right now, and for me that's the best way to do it. It's a fascinating entry into the Lamas catalog--not sure if I'd go as far as to call it good, but it is fascinating. James Hong also makes you feel better about yourself as your watching it, and the fact that you're streaming it for free on YouTube helps as well.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109905
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