I have never been able to warm up to BLACK RAIN, a cliché-ridden 80s cop thriller. Michael Douglas, who by 1989 was a big Hollywood star with a mullet, plays a crooked cop who escorts a Yakuza home to Japan after witnessing the guy kill two people. His partner Andy Garcia is along for the ride. As soon as they touch down in Tokyo, they lose the killer and the chase is on. Soon enough, they are teamed up with a by-the-book Japanese detective, played by the doleful Ken Takakura. The problem with the movie is, it is shot MTV-style and we are all over the place with this one, rarely sitting still long enough to catch our collective breath. You'd think Tony, not Ridley, shot this one. Douglas is fine and basically carries the movie, and Garcia is believable as a naive, fresh-faced youngster who lacks Douglas' street smarts. The bad guys are stock characters and just not that interesting. In the end, too much chasing around without much of a payoff will have worn most viewers out long before the final scene.
Review of Black Rain
