Customer Reviews

American Kickboxer 2 [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the heading says but also quite engrossing too. The viewer does get to know the characters even though much of the film is action. Ironic I know but I have seen slower films that are less engaging both darmatically and emotionally. So it's not a classic but if watched on a staurday afternoon or a tuesday night I guarentee you could spend an hour or two less usefully. The word fun is inadequate and too shiny a phrase perhaps. I would say the word that sums this film up is 'crunchy'. umm... nice contrast of expressions. Look out for the incredible Kathy Shower looking stunning as per usual...

A while ago, I purchased a bundle of movies, among them some outwardly strange titles. I thought that "American Kickboxer 2" here would be my cushion to the weirdness - a no-brains martial arts B-movie I could fall back on when Tsui Hark and the rest got too much for me. Little did I suspect that this largely-unknown karate adventure would end up being the outright craziest film of the bunch, thanks to an unusually outlandish script coupled with the general insanity that comes with any made-in-the-Philippines fare. I wouldn't pit it against, say, No Retreat, No Surrender in terms of apparent insanity of the filmmakers, but it came close to beating that one's record for me WTFing at my TV screen.

The story: when the daughter of a wealthy socialite (Kathy Shower, The Further Adventures Of Tennessee Buck) is kidnapped and held for ransom, she calls upon her ex-husband (Dale Cook, Raw Target) and former boyfriend (Evan Lurie, Hologram Man) to help her ensure her daughter's safety.

Shoot, what an insane screenplay these guys had to work with. It really doesn't seem intentional, either: a lot of the nonsense the script has the actors say or do probably sounded a lot better in the heads of the writers than it looks on the screen. It chooses to introduce the character of Dale Cook - the film's hero, mind you - as a wife beater, while Evan Lurie's character simply starts speaking German in his third scene without reason. Kathy Shower attempts to motivate both of them by convincing them that her daughter is, in fact, their own biological child as well, making the movie sort of a martial arts version of Father's Day. The script then completely detaches its characters from reality: Kathy Shower and her husband (David Graf, Police Academy series) find time to bicker about her having an affair in the middle of their daughter's kidnapping, Evan and Dale have an impromptu encounter in front of a McDonald's and decimate an innocent bystander, and neither Evan nor Dale question it when director/weirdo Jeno Hodi (Metamorphosis) shows up from out of nowhere during their moment of need and helps them, distracting an enemy by placing cockroaches on his leg. There's more, and you have to believe that stuff like this made sense to *somebody* before it was put to celluloid...

Disappointingly, the movie really works better as an example of weirdo cinema than as a martial arts flick, since the fight scenes aren't all that great. Pleased as punch as I was to see the perpetually underrated henchbeast Evan Lurie in a starring role - as a good guy, no less - and even though he and Dale Cook have some good forms (Evan inches out Dale, who looks stiff on occasion), the camerawork, choreography, and cutting of the fights isn't in their favor. I wouldn't call it awful - especially the somewhat decent brawl the two have in fighting off a bunch of thugs in a warehouse - but the action certainly could be better, considering that the kicking cast also seems to include an uncredited Kris Aguilar (Bloodfist). However, what the fights lack in quality they make up for in quantity: the movie's latter 45 minutes slowly build up to an almost nonstop action centerpiece, inclusive of plenty of gunfighting. I dub it decent, overall, but wouldn't compare it favorably to its prequel-in-name-only, American Kickboxer 1.

Surprisingly, the movie has some decent production values on its side, considering where it was filmed. Dale Cook's flicks tend to be very blatant bottom-of-the-barrel overseas production, but here you actually forget that you're in Southeast Asia, at times. This helps give the film an extra nudge up the rating scale, and I give it a passing grade out of sheer entertainment value. Evan Lurie made plenty of better flicks, but aspiring Dale Cook fans can start with this one as much as any other film.

As stated in its title, this is the 2nd film in the American Kickboxer series. This is not the true sequal however, and has nothing to do whatsoever with the first movie. Its sequal is actually titled "To The Death". Now that that is cleared up, this film is rather ok overall.

This is a low budget film starring Dale Cook (Blood Ring, Trple Impact, Raw Target) and Evan Lurie (Martial Law II, Tiger Claws 2, T-Force. If Dale Cook is in it, you can expect lower than your average quality b-action movie. American Kickboxer 2, however, is one of his best films. If it were not for the horrible acting and ridiculous charcaters throughout the film, this could have rated even higher.

The story is about the kidnapping of a young girl, from her mother and stepfather. The mother calls in her ex-husband and ex-lover to assist. One is a cop and the other is a kickboxer. The focus is around these two guys attepting to get along while trying to work together to resuce the girl. The end actually has a bit of a twist, and there is the curiosity of discovering who the real father of the girl is, as it has never been discovered prior.

The last 45 minutes of this film is non-stop fighting. I would say the fights are not very exciting, but there are a heck of a lot of them. From a small gladiator set-up, to a finale on the beach, there's a little bit of everything.

Unfortunately, the production value of this film is weak. The acting is very poor and most of the cast are just cheesy and silly. Tons of action if you are into that, but don't expect any thrilling fights.

I liked this movie because it had lots of martial arts action. The plot is about a kidnapped daughter, Lillian (Kathy Shower) is the mother of the daughter and turns to two men who she knows she can count on to help her. One of the men is Mike(Dale 'apollo' Cook)a hard-nosed L.A cop with a reputation of doing things his own way: the hard way. The other man is her former lover David (Evan Lurie) a martial arts expert whose exsplosive temper is a lethal compliment to his formidable skill in kikcboxing. After Lillians daughter is kidnapped the kidnapper Xavier (Ted Markland) will release the kid for a $2 million dollar ransom.

Great movie , in excellent condition and I really enjoyed it. Your service was prompt.