MOVIE REVIEWS : ‘GHOST WARRIOR’ MELTS INTO POOR MAN’S ‘ICEMAN’

It’s too bad that “Ghost Warrior” (citywide) isn’t anywhere near as good as its impressive beginning and ending sequences. What’s in between, which is the bulk of the movie, is in fact a dud, completed two years ago under the title “Swordkill.”

A handsome young samurai (Hiroshi Fujioka), stabbed in the heart while trying to free his wife from kidnapers, topples off a cliff into an icy lake. Four centuries later, his frozen corpse is discovered and whisked off to Los Angeles for thawing out and open-heart surgery at a cryosurgical institute. What follows is a poor man’s “Iceman” that muffs practically every opportunity for pathos, humor and even elementary credibility.

It’s a safe bet that writer Tim Curnen or director Larry Carroll (or both) know their samurai classics, and the movie’s start and finish show plenty of flair--although their capable and seasoned cinematographer Mac Ahlberg (and editor Brad Arensman) must have had lots to do with the effectiveness of these highly visual sequences. But the rest of the time what shows through all too painfully is Curnen and Carroll’s lack of experience and budget.

The idea to turn loose an armed--and therefore lethally dangerous--classically costumed samurai in contemporary Los Angeles is not without bizarre possibilities, but it’s one that’s been poorly set up. It’s ludicrous that the samurai is not better guarded at the institute or that there’s not at his bedside someone capable of understanding 16th-Century Japanese when he comes alive again. (And why did he have to be sent out of his own country for treatment in the first place?)

Poor guy. He’s at the mercy of a pretty student of Oriental history (Janet Julian), who can barely muster more than a sayonara , and his surgeon (John Calvin), a young man of surpassing pompousness. At any rate, Julian acts as poorly as her part is written, and Calvin is not much better.

The best moments are when Fujioka, himself a figure of dignity and pathos, comes to the defense of an elderly man (Charles Lampkin), mugged by a pack of thugs. Lampkin is a wonderful old pro, and he fills the screen with a warmth and life that is otherwise largely absent. There are also some creditable moments from Robert Kino as an antiques dealer, even though his dialogue is heavy with wisdom-of-the-Orient cliches. Aside from a stirring, noble score composed by Richard Band and performed by the Royal Philharmonic no less, “Ghost Warrior’s” (rated R for violence) major distinction is that it makes the best use of the now-derelict Pan Pacific Auditorium since “Suspense” was filmed there 40 years ago.