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Waste of time

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Blowback 2 tries to be a slick and stylish action film with heartfelt drama and all that garbage but unfortunately it's a blood buttered mozzarella. I get what the director was trying to do but it just didn't really come out the way it should of been I suppose. On a positive note, Blowback 2 has great bloody as a overused tampon action and Riki Takeuchi is a bad mofo. It's b-movie action bliss.

After making off with a stash of money and heading to the Philippines, gangsters Baku, Lopez (Hunt) and Joe (Takeuchi) are ambushed by the supercriminal Yamaneko, or "Wildcat" (Monty). Baku is killed, Lopez disappears and Joe is gravely wounded. He manages to stumble into the restaurant of Rei (Yoshida) and she nurses him back to health. Once back in fighting shape, his intention is to find Lopez, then find Yamaneko, to get revenge for his fallen partner Baku. Rei gets swept up in this mission, and a mysterious man named Ratts (Sugata) does as well. But it's not going to be easy, because Yamaneko controls a virtual army of heavily-armed baddies. But Joe forges ahead anyway...is this going to be a good idea? Guns, guns and more guns! Blowback: Love & Death (or Blowback 2) is perhaps the ultimate non-John Woo "Gun-Fu" film. While influenced by Woo, it seems the major driving force behind this movie was Sergio Leone's Westerns. Even the black-and-red animated title sequence gets you in a Leone frame of mind. And there are plenty more Leone references along the way. But it all adds up to be an entertaining gangster drama, with an exploding guard tower or two along the way (it was the Philippines after all, and they don't let you leave without at least one).It is nice to see someone besides an American film production utilizing what the Philippines have to offer as far as film backdrops go - in this case it's the Japanese. Riki Takeuchi makes a very cool anti-hero, and while he has had a long and fruitful career in his native Japan, stateside fans of the work of Takashi Miike and the five movies he puts out a month will recognize Takeuchi from the Dead or Alive series (he was in all three), Fudoh: The New Generation (1996) and Deadly Outlaw Rekka (2002). With his slicked-back pompadour, sunglasses and open Hawaiian shirts, and brandishing tons of guns, it's hard to be much cooler. As for director Muroga, this was his first film, and he followed it up with two movies that found their way to American DVD: Score (1995) and Junk (2000). While both of those movies have their moments, Blowback 2 is arguably the more all-around satisfying experience, and a good place to start with Muroga nonetheless.Muroga certainly succeeds in making Manila and other parts of the Philippines looks hot and humid. It seems everyone is sweaty and flushed in this movie. That brings us to the villain of the piece, the fan favorite Mike Monty. Here, he really, really, REALLY looks like largely-hated New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. We guess that goes a long way towards bolstering his bad-guy status. He just resembles Bloomberg so closely, it's a laugh riot: "Oh no, Bloomberg's on the rampage!" And aside from "Bloomberg" being in this, Blowback 2 offers some nice surprises to keep you on your toes, especially the (yet more Spaghetti Western-inspired) ending.Asia Shock did a great job with the VHS of Blowback 2. They were one of the few companies releasing subtitled VHS tapes of exploitation cinema. We're so used to watching shoddy dubbed versions, this came as a nice surprise. It's great to see they actually care about the material. That being said, it doesn't seem like this was one of their more widely distributed titles. Regardless, if what you've just read floats your boat, Blowback 2 should be worthwhile viewing.

This is an early showcase for a then young Riki Takeuchi. Looking something like Chow Yun Fat doing an Elvis impersonation, Takeuchi appears to have cult status in Japan, and probably well deserved. Although he has a limited range, he plays that range to the max, and with a great deal of energy.This is one of a myriad of films produced between 1970 and 2000 that borrows heavily from the Clint Eastwood Westerns directed by Sergio Leone. Here, the references are more subtle than we've seen in other films from any country; but it finally adds a bit of bizarre humor at the end, with Takeuchi whipping out a mini-gun. (Italian westerns were filled with Gatling guns, to increase the body-count. In Leone's Fistful of Dollars, it's in the scene where the Mexican soldiers are ambushed.) The point being, this is a postmodern action film, not intended to be taken all that seriously. The film-makers know we've seen it all before, they just hope we want to see some more of it. And it's all done fairly well - action fans will enjoy it immensely.Very professionally made little film; and a good introduction to the acting talents of Riki Takeuchi, who would go on to continue developing this type of character in many films.

First of all, Riki Takeuchi is a bad ass and I enjoy him in all of his movies. Blowback 2 (Blowback: Love or Death) was slightly hard to get a hold of but after seeing the cover, (Riki with a big chain gun) I really put in some effort to get a hold of this.The action in this movie is really good. Blood really squirts from gun wounds as it would in a John Woo film. There is even some bloody head shots. There's tons of big explosions, giant guns, and a really really good showdown at the end (Reminding me a little of Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha). If you like lots of bloody gun fights and Riki Takeuchi, definitely check this out, but for something to be taken completely seriously, rent John Woo's The Killer.