Shootfighter II

Well, if you have seen the 1993 movie "Shootfighter: Fight to the Death", then you have essentially also already seen the 1996 sequel "Shootfighter II", because they were one and the same movie. Yup, that was the extend of what writers Greg Mellott and Peter Shaner mustered to do here, just tweaked the setting a bit, but the storyline was basically the same.

So the writing in "Shootfighter II" was lazy, really lazy. And that makes "Shootfighter II" a somewhat dull movie experience in comparison to the 1993 original movie. Sure, "Shootfighter II" was watchable, and especially so if you haven't seen the 1993 predecessor.

"Shootfighter II" sees Bolo Yeung, William Zabka and Michael Bernardo return to reprise their characters and roles from the first movie, and that was one of the reasons why "Shootfighter II" was bearable to sit through. And this 1996 sequel also sees Brett Baxter Clark added to the roster, as well as Marc Macaulay, so there are some familiar faces on the cast list.

The movie, however, had Joe Son playing Lance Stuart, the main villain in the movie. I am not familiar with Joe Son, but talk about a miscast actor for the main bad guy. He was not able to portray a serious character, much less be taken seriously as a villain, so that took away a lot from the movie.

There were some good enough fight scenes throughout the course of the 91 minutes that the movie ran for, and they definitely helped make the movie all the more watchable, no doubt about it. And when you sit down to watch a movie such as "Shootfighter II", then it is for the martial arts and the fighting, not for the acting performances.

The 1996 movie "Shootfighter II" is nowhere near as enjoyable as the 1993 movie, especially not if you have seen the 1993 movie. And I did watch them back to back.

My rating of "Shootfighter II" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Now, this is my kind of movie, 80's/90's cheesey martial arts film with not very good acting, bad lines but some decent fight scenes.

I won't go too much into the story (revenge etc etc) to avoid spoilers.

I love films like King of the kickboxers, shootfighter 1, China o Brien etc so I know what I'm getting heading into this sort of movie.

The first issue as stated by others is the lack of blood, the first movie was decent with the amount of blood and gore etc

The second issue and by far and away the worst for me is Joe Son, from what I hear he's not a nice guy for real but he is a terrible actor and I absolutely despised him, needed something more along the lines of Tong Po to add a bit of fear but this Son guy was just a joke.

Ok. No law states that anyone appearing in a Martial Arts flick, must be endowed with copious amounts of acting talent. Most of those who appreciate these films, watch for the fight sequences, and how well they are done. I, myself, love a great actioner. The storyline with Bolo Yeung, and characters "Ruben" and "Nick", is easy enough to digest. As I mentioned, this is not Shakespeare. Yet, this "movie" has no excitement, whatsoever. The actors try, but the fighting sequences were as exciting as watching dust settle on a lampshade.

This, plus ho-hum production values, equals one movie that could replace SLEEP-EZE as America's main relief from insomnia.

I liked this movie a lot;it had solid martial arts action, and Bolo's final fight made the whole thing worth watching. He is the master, his style is just so entertaining and a pleasure to watch. Yes, I wish he would had more scenes, but the movie was building up to it, we all knew the reluctant master was going in...and he delivered. Zabka was pretty good, it was such a nostalgic moment, seeing him fighting on screen again. Of course, the Capoeira fighter was another highlight I must say, being a practitioner myself. He made things a little more spicier than the movie otherwise would have been. There's a gratuitous love scene which is always nice, and I especially liked the arrogant bodyguard. Overall a solid movie and a lot of action.

A bad bad movie... terrible plot, hinges on Bolo Yeung's charater, but he speaks maybe 20 words in the entire movie and only has one fight scene - still in great shape considering he was also in the kung fu classic "Enter The Dragon" Interesting to see William Zabka ("Johnny" from The Karate Kid) in another martial-arts role.