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Champion Killer (1994)
This contender is no 'CHAMP'
SPOILER WARNING!!!
`In this deadly game of cat & mouse there are no winners' declares the tag line to Juney Smith's movie. Indeed there are 'no winners' upon watching this dreadful attempt of a film. The 'story' for lack of a better word, revolves around Police Detective Bo Butler trying to track down a serial killer (the self proclaimed `Champion Killer' of the title) who is demanding one million dollars to stop his murderous spree. Sound familiar? Well yes, the similarities to Dirty Harry don't end there, as entire scenes are lifted form Don Segal's classic movie: -Detective Butler's partner wounded in the line of duty. -The killer gets caught but freed again due to a technicality in the law. -The Killer paying a hood to be beat him up, then blaming the police department for his wounds to the press. -Detective Butler running across town from one pay phone to another to deliver the extortion money. -The killer hijacking a bus of school children and making them sing nursery rhymes. It's all here, but executed with zero dramatic effect. One might concede that the reason Warner Brothers haven't sued for libel is because:
1. This movie is so low brow that Warner's are unaware of its existence. (Peacock Films and Duck Lit Productions. Ever heard of them?) 2. It is so terrible, that any association between the two movies may give it more attention then is deserved.
It is very likely that you will watch in open mouthed incredulity, as this `train wreck of a film's' 87 minutes running time seems like hours. Ben Guillory as Detective Bo Butler has the acting range of cold soup, as he spends most of the movie trying to act 'cool' by looking bored and disinterested. For more 'dramatic' scenes he shows his cat like prowess for the art, by over acting scenes and shouting dialogue. The script (if you can call it a script) has every bad 'cop movie' line in the book, containing dialogue so banal you would have expecting it to be written by a child. Most of the movie comes across ad-libbed, with many scenes not having any point to the story. The terrible acting throughout cannot be saved by the 'un-credited' musical score, which sounds like pre-programmed samplers from a 1980's Casio synthesizer.
Photographed with the attitude of `lets put the camera here, and hope for the best', most of the movie comprises of wide shots as Director Juney Smith forgets to use 'medium's' or 'close ups'. The locations of suburban houses and driveways, doubling up for hospital wards, junkie filled alley ways and Police headquarters look awful. The prop guns sound like plastic toys, (and most probably where.) The word 'amateur' does not do this woeful inadequate movie justice, and there is little doubt you will see a worse film.
It makes `Plan 9 from Outer Space' look like `Citizen Kane', but that is where the similarities end. While Ed Wood's movies consistently win `Worst Film of all Time' polls, they are still genuinely entertaining. Juney Smith's `Champion Killer' (alongside Nightmare on Alcatraz) is a LEGITIMATE contender for the worst film of all time.