Rage and Honor II: Hostile Takeover (1993)

Rothrock and Norton reprise their roles as Kris Fairchild and Preston Michaels in this sequel that is superior to the original film.Kris is now a CIA agent who is sent to Jakarta to go undercover in a bank to investigate the money laundering of Gerald Andrews (Soucy). Meanwhile, Preston works in a run-down bar and does a lot of boxing on the side. For some unknown reason, he takes on a spoiled, unlikable, arrogant student, Tommy Andrews, the son of Gerald. As it turns out, Gerald is working closely with nefarious gangster Buntao (Tumbuan). There's also a cache of diamonds at stake in the ensuing gangster wars, with Kris and Preston caught in the middle. They'll have to use their teamwork and fighting skills to get out of this mess...Rothrock and Norton are always pleasant to watch, both individually and together. There are some nice fights in this film, and, as always, you can actually see the action with no stupid tricks or fast cuts. There was some cool inventiveness as well, as Norton beat up a baddie with a raw fish, leading to perhaps the first "fish-fighting" scene in recent memory. For as awesome as Rothrock and Norton are, Patrick Muldoon is as lame. Well, his character as a preppy jerk is pretty effective. Maybe it's not Muldoon, it's Tommy Andrews who the audience will not like. Buntao is more likable.Also we have Ron Vreeken as the classic heavy/bodyguard, the man they call "Blondie". I guess they couldn't get Matthias Hues. Vreeken was last seen in the Norton vehicles Deathfight (1994) and Under the Gun (1995), so they must be buddies. He was also seen in Hurricane Smith (1992).Director Guy Norris, presumably no relation to the Norris family that produced Chuck, Aaron and Mike, primarily is known for his stunt work, having been the stunt coordinator on countless films, including Day of the Panther (1988) and the aforementioned Hurricane Smith. It was a wise choice to put him in the director's chair because he understands action and delivers plenty of it to the audience, leading to the rare improvement for a sequel.You can rarely go wrong with Rothrock and/or Norton, as this golden-age-of-the-video-store action movie amply proves.for more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

usfeul addition the the old school 80's & 90's martial arts genre, sadly these days they don't make 'em like they used to. I think this film is pretty good, I agree with an earlier comment about the exotic feel of the movie based on its location. Some of the Norton fights scenes (in particular the bar fight) are up there with the best of the 80's/90's genre. Totally unsure about the villain, Tommy - i'd tackle his ass, he reminds me of a rich kiddie bozo straight out of high school, and that is just plain stupid him fighting Norton for a bag of diamonds. In this movie Rothrock doesn't do a heck of a lot of high kicks but the finishing move at the end is worth hitting the rewind button once or twice for. Rage and Honor II is a decent fight film.

***SPOILERS*** Let's start with the "good" of this film--the serviceable acting of Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton. The rest of the acting is awful (this isn't aided by the atrocious script). The worst culprit is the villain, Buntao, the head of an Asian crime syndicate (played by Frans Tumbuan). I was laughing my head off as he was expressing his "fury" over having lost a bunch of money; horrid performance. Patrick Muldoon isn't much better, and his "it's a hostile takeover" line (that's the remainder of the title of this film) was delivered about as badly as one could do it. There are no other main characters, but no other actor/actress distinguished him/herself in this film. We next come to the plot. This should tell you all you need to know: In the original "Rage and Honor," Cynthia Rothrock, who plays Chris Fairchild, was a teacher in the inner city. Now, she's a C.I.A. agent (or was it some other governmental agency--sorry, but this film was so bad that I don't even remember). Hmmm...I can imagine what that C.I.A. application process was like. Interviewer: What past job experience do you have? Chris: I was a teacher. Interviewer: Okay; you're hired! I only give it a "2" because of some decent acting and a nice plot twist at the end (though we know that Tommy (Muldoon), the secret villain, will be caught).

Not having seen the first 'Rage and Honor', but being a fan of Richard Norton and Cynthia Rothrock, I picked up 'Rage and Honor II' from an ex-rental stand of cheap videos at a local video rental store. I must say that I was pretty impressed.Rothrock plays Kris Fairchild, a U.S. Government agent undercover in Indonesia investigating a money laundering operation. Norton plays Preston Michaels, an ex-cop hiding out in Indonesia and running a boxing gym. After they both get a shot at beating up the same thugs, Fairchild and Michaels find themselves up against local crime syndicate lead by Buntao (Frans Tumbuan).Naturally, as a direct-to-video martial arts movie, little attention is paid to plot, dialog, acting, etc. Don't get me wrong though, the plot seems a little TOO developed to belong in a martial arts movie, but that gets balanced out by some of the terrible dialog.Action wise, the movie is pretty good. Norton and Rothrock give a good showcase of their butt-kicking abilities. There are some good fight scenes, and the requisite number of explosions and car chases to keep all action fans satisfied.Richard Norton needs to be in more movies. His awesome Australian accent makes every other character sound like dorks. I'm quite impressed by the number of times he managed to use the term '****ing crazy' in this movie. I probably should have counted. Next time.'Rage and Honor II' is a good martial arts movie, but that's all. Fans of martial arts, or action movies in general, should give it a go - 7/10