Picture a fast-paced, action-packed, good guy/bad guy story like…oh, let’s say “Lethal Weapon.” Add an international twist involving the antics of the Japanese mafia and – Voila – ladies and gentlemen, “Black Rain,” otherwise known as “Michael Douglas Does the Mob.”

Michael Douglas is Nick Conklin, a New York cop who is assigned to return a member of the Japanese mafia back to his homeland for trial. Nick’s a cool guy, and he proves it by smoking, swearing, wearing lots of black, and racing on his motorcycle.

The truth is, Nick comes across as quite a jerk in this movie and it’s his partner, a funnier, mellower guy named Charlie Vincent, that the viewer might choose to identify with instead.

Charlie accompanies Nick on his trip to the Land of the Rising Sun and the two cops manage to lose their mafia man before they even get off the plane. From this point on “Black Rain” becomes a story about the differences between our culture and that of the Japanese.

The portrayal of the cities of Japan is strikingly beautiful yet menacing at the same time. Nick has a very hard time trying to conform to the ways of honor and respect that are a tradition among the Japanese. As a result, his crude and destructive manner make him look even worse in this country than they did back in the U.S.

At first the Japanese police don’t want Nick and Charlie to help them at all in their search for Sato, the escaped mafia member. However, not content to be merely “observers,” as they are called, the two New York cops manage to enlist the help of Masahiro, a member of the Japanese police department. With Masahiro’s guidance, Nick is able to outsmart the Japanese mafia in a plot that quickly becomes predictable.

If Michael Douglas weren’t in “Black Rain,” it might have been a good high-tech movie about the intriguing Japanese underworld. Nick Conklin is just full of bad boy cliches and unfortunately his quest for control overpowers the good, strong parts of “Black Rain.”