Watch Kickboxer 2: The Road Back For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Sadly Over-hyped

Fantastic!

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

KICKBOXER is one of my favourite Van Damme movies. It has many classic moments, from the heightened revenge plot, to those classic, tortuous training sequences to the outstanding ending, one of the best-filmed fights of all time. It's a classic feel good movie. This sequel is none of those things and is in most respects an awful film. Van Damme passed on the chance to reprise his role, so we're saddled with the spurious 'missing brother' claim and the resultant film must be one of the most pointless ever made.In essence, Tong Po didn't die at the end of the first film. He's back and seeking revenge, along with some loyalist Thais (a nation cast as the bad guys here, somewhat unusually). Mitchell, playing Van Damme's brother, ends up fighting Tong Po in a severe re-match, but before then there's lots of boring stuff about 'doing what's right', following one's path and all that nonsense. The first hour of the film is boring and the action sequences are few and far between; even they are mishandled. In one ring match, we watch as Mitchell beats the hell out of his opponent, with slow-motion blood sprays and the like; he's portrayed as a sadistic bully-boy, and this is the guy we're supposed to root for! Mitchell reaches a new low for an action hero in a genre already populated by guys cast for their brawn rather than brains.Much of the blame for this film's failure must rest at the door of Albert Pyun, who really is one of the poorest directors in modern cinema. Absolutely all of the films I've seen that he's directed have been bad: I'm thinking CYBORG, TICKER, OMEGA DOOM, DOLLMAN, along with many others. In none of those films has the direction been good. Here, he shows himself to have no idea of pace or how to handle a decent fight scene, often shooting on the other side of the ropes in the ring battles! Sure, the blood and gore quotient is upped from the first movie, but it goes to show that that alone doesn't make a decent film.In one, single respect does KICKBOXER 2 surpass the original, and that's in the casting. This film has an excellent cast. It's a shame they're not put to better use. The likes of Peter Boyle are here, along with Dennis Chan reprising his role from the first, even though he's utterly wasted. There's an early turn for Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as a stock bad guy, and man-mountain Matthias Hues pops up for a match. Michel Qissi also returns as the villainous Tong Po, but even though he looks the same he has none of the power or impact that his character had in the original; that goes to show how Pyun's direction sucks. In the end, this film is a wasted opportunity and time would be better spent watching the first film again rather than sitting through this mess.

SPOILER ALERT...I love this sequel, it did a good job by having Tong Po become even more sadistic by going as far as to murdering the three original characters to prove his dominance. There's so much stuff happening with this new character that you actually feel bad for him. The only bad thing about this film was how they took the slow motion effect too early when the friend was about to fight Tong Po. I thought the only time they should of used it was when Tong knocked out the ref before killing him. I like how they took away Jean Claude because his fights were pathetic. I mean come on he does the same old kicks I mean I don't think Tong would of fell for it the first couple of times. Also where did Jean get the endurance to come back and beat Tong yet Tong was beating him badly? Overall this sequel is WAY better it just needed to wait for the right time to slow motion. It's a 7 out of 10

First of all, I daresay that the rating for this movie is too low. I give it a 5 out of 10, which is more in line with the overall quality of this than the measly 3.3 displayed on the IMDb at the moment. It's of course nowhere near as good as the first Kickboxer, but it doesn't have to be. Sasha Mitchell is no van Damme, but he does his job in a way I won't complain about. One of the good things about this is the return of Michael Qissi as Tong Po. This gives a link to the first film and makes the whole thing more interesting. But most importantly, the fight scenes are decent, the plot is not that bad and if you sit back and relax you'll see that this movie is entertaining if you have the right kind of expectations beforehand. Nothing Oscar-worthy, but as a simple martial arts/action movie this is more than OK for a night's viewing.

this sequel is nowhere near as good as the original.there is lots of blood in this one,courtesy of the fight scenes.,which is a good thing.the fight scenes themselves aren't too bad.however, if found the plot to be lame and uninteresting.this martial arts movie did not really engage my interest very much.this movie lacks the depth(i,i said depth and martial arts movie in the same sentence)of the first film and even the following two sequels.the worst part of the experience is the song selections and choice of band.who picks this crap.these guy don't even rate as flea bag bar band.and the songs are pathetic.the only good things in this movie are Sasha Mitchell,who makes a credible hero and Dennis Chan,who plays the wise oriental sidekick.i suppose i could eke out a 5/10 for this movie,since it is watchable,but the music just sucks so damn bad,i have to give "Kickboxer 2" 4/10