John Barrett returns as Quinn, the kickboxing champion from American Kickboxer 1 who joins forces with his main rival Jacque Denard (Qissi) to squash the promoter (Whitehead) of death matches who also is responsible for the car bombing of Quinn's wife. Much kickboxing and overwrought melodrama ensues. It's hard to believe that the martial arts genre is almost now completely dead in 2019. To The Death for all it's glory is a fairly uninspired effort as far as these things go, with mediocre action, a basic competence to the filmmaking and overblown soap opera elements as Barrett starts to fall for the promoter's co-dependent wife, a subplot which halts what little momentum this predictable potboiler builds. The acting is a cut above what usually one gets from the genre, as Whitehead is satisfactory as the villain, while Barrett is a likable enough presence but no one watches this for thespian development and what is ultimately needed is excellent martial arts sequences, and while such is adequate, To The Death just isn't very exciting. Movies like this can be fun when there is Bad Movie charm, energetic fight sequences and a sense of cheesy absurdity to liven up the story's repetition. However they don't when everything is done in a workmanlike by the numbers and utterly generic way. To The Death then perfectly represents what killed a genre at a time when American martial arts movies we're in their final death throes. Even for fans of the genre there is nothing here good or bad that stands out as memorable. Basically it's what you would expect with little variation on such,the type of movie you watch when the only other option is CNN or a paid advertisement.
*1/2 Out Of 4-(Poor)
