Best of the Best 2 (1993)

Somehow the makers of the first film saw way into the future and noticed me whining like a beeyatch about how Best of the Best was played too straight and didn't have enough action in it, because the sequel is all about the action! Tommy Lee, Eric Roberts, and Chris Penn are back as our Tae Kwon Do trio, now running a martial arts school. Chris, however, is bored of the antics and heads off to a place called The Coliseum, where folks basically fight for cash. Chris reckons he can take on the owner, a man so muscly he looks like a rubber glove filled with walnuts. This is Brakus, who thinks guns aren't manly enough. Chris doesn't do too well in the fight and the last time we see him he's being lowered into the ground in a box. Luckily he was stupid enough to take Eric's kid along to the fight so now Tommy and Eric are all out to get Brakus.It gets better when Tommy smashes Brakus' face against a mirror and now Brakus has a scar on his face and ends up pouting around the place in a dressing gown staring into a mirror and just getting madder and madder. So Tommy and Eric want to kill Brakus and Brakus wants to kill everyone related to Tommy and kill Tommy in the ring at the Coliseum.If you hadn't guessed already Tommy was raised by native Americans and everyone heads off to stay with them for a while a get trained up to fight Brakus by Sonny Landham of all people! That'll be Billy from Predator to you and me (before I looked up his name). Before I knew it I was shouting "Jeez you got a big pussy!" which is why my neighbours now look at me as if I'm nuts.They all have a friendly punch up and then it's montage time! This time round the film get it right, and just in time too before some of Brakus' men arrive in a helicopter and seemingly kill everyone except Tommy (Billy himself goes down fighting in an impressive Massimo Vanni style shoot-out). There's also a massive explosion for all those massive explosion fans out there.So now Brakus has Tommy to fight in the ring and Tommy thinks everyone's dead, so all he's got left is the motivation to kick Brakus in the face several thousand times. Didn't feel like Brakus thought that one through too much.This film is a lot more fun that the last one and is non-stop action and cheese from start to finish. A total winner! Even Eric's hair is more dynamic and manageable this time round.

Just sad. That is all I have to say about this flick. Coming from a promising yet common beginning, the "Best of The Best" series had a major lump in this sequence. The guys went free falling and delivered a stupid plot, like thousands of B martial arts movies that we can see everyday. The Three Amigos - Tommy, Alex and Travis - are now living in Vegas and have to face the mortal reign of Brakus, a humongous minion that owns the Coliseum, along with Weldon, his forefront ally. Eric Roberts performance is embarrassing, he really shows that the age is weighing on his shoulders; Sonny Landham is embarrassing, with his camp laughs and wood-faced expressions; Ralf Moeller is embarrassing, mumbling dumb dialogues all over the place and totally clueless; and Wayne Newton did not have to be so cheesy, he has more talent that that. Not even the fights are cool, they look like sub-Van Damme type, with poor choreography and even poorer players. The only good thing about this movie is his length, short enough to not be completely boring, the tremendous effort by the director Robert Radler to save something and the excellent skills of Phillip Rhee, really fantastic. Run away if you can, and try the other two installments, much better that this crap...

Eric Roberts and Phillip Rhee return as the two karate champs Alex Grady and Tommy Lee who team up to take on a Schwarzenegger style brute named Brackus (Rolph Moller) who kills their friend Travis Brickley (Christopher Penn), they begin training with Lee's uncle (Sonny Landham) who is the only one who can teach them the ways to destroy Brackus in this mediocre yet definitely improved sequel. Good fightscenes and a scene stealing performance from Wayne Newton make this one watchable.

SPOILERS contained in the 2nd paragraph. This movie is so horrible that it borders on the comic. Actually, it doesn't border, it crosses it. The plot is worse than predictable: It is downright absurd and childishly unreal. All sorts of outrageous things happen for no apparent reason and the director / script-writer do not even attempt to explain them. [My advice for those who don't want to read on is to avoid it at all costs. If someone at home has rented the video, pay them to have the tape immediately returned to the video-store. You'll thank me!]Hell, why bother to explain why the police, the D.A or any other authority do nothing to solve an apparent murder? "Justice" has to be brought by Tommy Lee and his buddy Alex. Why bother explaining how a chronic alcoholic gets back to being a master fighter in half a day? Why bother explaining how an Olympic (wrestling) champion gets involved in fights in an underground, life-and-death fight-ring? And the list goes on... The usually decent Eric Roberts gets completely lost here, just like all the other actors. Sad!