Simply A Masterpiece

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

James Ryan portrays Steve Hunt, a karate expert caught up in a grudge match between two WWII war criminals, Baron von Rudloff (Norman Coombes) and Miyagi (!) (Raymond Ho-Tong). The two men are going to have their teams of martial artists square off in a tournament, with the first team to garner 20 points declared the winner. Steve and his girlfriend Olga (Charlotte Michelle) try a few times to escape, but to no avail. There's no way Steve isn't going to end up participating. Fortunately for the two of them, they have a helping hand in the form of Chico (Daniel DuPlessis), a put-upon little person who is the Barons' associate.Filmed in South Africa in 1976, but not released in North America until 1980, when martial arts mania was then in full swing, "Kill or Be Killed" is on the low-budget and crude side. The 1981 sequel, "Kill and Kill Again", is a little more polished. While the sequel blatantly goes for tongue-in-cheek, this is played somewhat straighter - still, there's plenty of time for some humour, which helps to make the movie very enjoyable. There's lots of fights, lots of action - and lots of fun. Some of the acting is pretty cheesy, especially from hammy villain Coombes. The most appealing performer is diminutive, likeable chap DuPlessis, who figures in one extended, amusing montage where he's recruiting fighters for the Barons' team. The leading lady Michelle is quite gorgeous, the scenery is very striking, and it would be hard not to get into the spirit of "Kill or Be Killed" thanks to that rousing music score (which one has to assume is stock music, given that there's no composer credited).Highly enjoyable for any fan of karate cinema, with engaging heroes and wonderfully despicable antagonists, including one fighter (who kind of resembles Jeff Conaway) constantly making trouble for Steve and Chico.The ultimate resolution, however, falls short of being really satisfying.Eight out of 10.

A buddy and I went to see this movie when it came out in 1980. It was playing in a huge theater and we were the only two people in the place. It lasted two days in the theater before they stopped showing it. It was so bad that we laughed all the way through it. Since that time, we rate movies based on Kill or Be Killed as the worst movie of all time. Like other reviewers have mentioned, it is so bad that it is funny. It isn't worth a second look that's for sure. I just can't bring myself to give it more than a 1 because I don't think the makers of the movie intended for it to be so bad and I can't give credit for an accident. Sorry.

This movie is as goofy as you might expect it to be. It is a cheesy martial arts fight movie, but as far as that genre goes, its actually pretty good. Don't watch this movie expecting to see any high calibre martial arts moves. Although some of the actors in the movie are actual martial artist, all the moves are based on Karate, which is not very effective on film or the real world. Unlike Kung Fu, which is not effective in the real world, but is very effective on film.The plot of the movie is not very original. Its sort of a rip off of Enter the Dragon, the Bruce Lee classic. The beautiful daughter of a scientist whose father has been kidnapped, hires Steve Chase, champion Karate Man, to rescue him. Steve decides he needs help, so goes around recruiting his old buddies to team up with him, forming a rag-tag group of interesting and eccentric tough guy characters. Then they go off to rescue the doctor from the clutches of a very unique and interestingly eccentric super villain, who runs a cult-like concentration camp where the inmates are injected with the afore mentioned doctor's mind control serum, in a plot to take over the world. What it builds up to is the Super Villain pitting Steve Chase and his buddies against his own warriors in a gladiator like contest to determine who is the ultimate warrior.But you see, there is enough weird, off the wall stuff to really keep you interested as you watch the movie. The action moves along at a good clip, with original and entertaining scenarios unfolding regularly. As an adult, I see the film as a cheese-fest, but as a kid I LOVED this movie and I would watch it over and over. The fight scenes are pretty well done, the characters are all likable and wierd (check out the super villain's punk rock girlfriend) and its all the kind of stuff a kid just totally eats up. I rated this movie a 7 out of 10, but I really did like it and I still watch it when I get a chance to catch it on tv, though it is on very rarely. You can still rent it if you look really hard.

This is the one of the most stupid movies I ever seen in my life. It is awful but martial arts scenes are pretty good. There are not so much fake like Honk Kong Kung-fu flicks. Also some real Karate people are playing in the movie like Stan schmit. Moreover, the lady who plays Olga is really beauty but she is also awful actor like main actor james ryan. They also made another one is called kill and kill again and it was little bit more better I think director and actors of the these two trashes learned or improved during one year period