The Circuit 2: The Final Punch (2003)

Well first thing coming to mind is that the cast is full of B action superstars, i saw Jalal in the Tiger Claws movie with Cynthia Rothrock and he was good, frankly he just put himself in a cameo cause he is the director here, he should have simply stay as the director or give himself a proper role to be honest. This is not like having a BIG NAME such as Bruce Willis as a cameo, he is known only to b action movie stars, so when we see his name we are expecting something. Lorenzo had a few fight scenes, but nothing really impressive, second sigh role to say the least.Olivier Gruner have skill, but the way this movie is made he can't really show them as it should be. The whole thing just lack something on the action. Either you make the movie bloody and go for the "hard rating" or you put something decent to impress MR EVERYBODY without blood. Problem is with this movie you don't see blood, you don't see violence in fights, but they are not spectacular either. This could had work if they would have go the "Amond Dead Men" way, a movie shot with a tiny budget of under 10 000 bucks, with fights not that impressive acrobatically speaking but they seem so real and brutal cause of the blood...Then the acting, i am not American so its hard to judge another language on screen, but if my girl would have been raped and beaten to near death, i would not have come to her room plainly asking if she was raped.... I mean the guy should have come, cry, punch everywhere on the room, express his rage or at least show it in a way, but it was hard to convince us he was there to make them pay when he showed little feelings...Overall a decent story, badly act sadly, with fighting scenes that could had save it but manage to at the very best make it watchable, so i would say the only thing done properly was the training sequence before he go to jail... outstanding, the rest, disappointing.PS : At the end in the final fight, there is a scene so badly edited i was like "WTF !!!" so i "rewind" back and watch it in slow mo and you think like "oooookaaaay" it was pretty obvious in real time it was bad editing, in slow mo its just ridiculous period... too sad cause it had potential... A little bit entertaining at best... but thats it

A good action director knows that the best way to start a movie is with something spectacular that will leave the audience in their seats wanting more. "The Circuit 2" starts off with a fight that lasts just a few seconds! Things don't improve that much after that opening scene. I suppose the movie looks good for what must have been a microbudget - there is some location shooting, and the movie looks okay for the most part, though we get stuff like visible shadows of the camera crew, and a hospital room where they couldn't get a hospital bed and used a gurney instead. But the movie has more faults than positive stuff. Despite having Lamas and Merhi in the cast, they are pretty much wasted (if you can call them "wasted" after witnessing their horrible acting). The movie takes forever to get started - Gruner doesn't get to prison until more than half an hour has passed. Movie is poorly edited and directed, with scenes seeming to start midway through instead of having a proper beginning. The story also doesn't make sense at times, with one character suddenly announced that is dead with no explanation why. Some fights later in the movie are okay, but there are times when you feel the participants are holding back instead of going all out. Gruner has made some good movies, but "The Circuit 2" isn't one of them.

While slightly better than the first rendition of this series that's not to be taken as a compliment either, only because the first one was just so God awful! The sequel was just as bad, the fight scenes were boring and hosted some of the worst acting my eyes have ever laid sight upon. They seriously might as well just hold the script right in front of them and do a cold reading that's how heinous it comes out. The only thing that this had somewhat going for it was that the plot had a little bit better of a background and could have been turned into something interesting had the right screenwriters gotten their hands upon it. The other part was that there were one or two quotes that were cool, but make no mistake; it didn't save this movie in the least bit. They even brought back those corny tiki-torches for the end fight scenes that were used in the first one that any person can pick up at the dollar store easily. It goes without saying that the body count adds up once again with no one giving it a second thought. I really hope someone eventually breathes life back into the direct-to-video action movie genre soon...it needs revitalization horribly!Final Queue:Movies: Never quite made it there, luckily for the rest of us.DVD Purchase: You've gotta be kiddin' me!Rental: I wouldn't if I were you.

Olivier Gruner, world kick-boxing champion, is at it again in this sequel to The Circuit. I think 3 characters repeat from the original; otherwise, it's a sequel in name only, as its story has nothing to do with where the first one left off. Gruner is still Dirk Longstreet, a college physical education guru, who gets involved in, what else, another low budget circuit with bad acting. This time he goes behind bars to find out what happened to his girlfriend from the first movie. That plot thread is badly handled, and it merely serves as an excuse for us to watch a host of fighters engaging in after hours money fights for the benefit of the warden, etc. Gruner shows off some impressive skills while beating a succession of fighters to a pulp during the fights. The only problem is none of them are worthy opponents. The only two who would be are left with none fighting roles: Lorenzo Lamas is wasted as a reporter that gets Gruner into the prison and Gary Hudson is also wasted as a sadistic prison guard. Director Jalal Merhi again plays Bill the reporter for a total of about 5 minutes. Forget the ridiculous plot in here and enjoy the almost none-stop barrage of fighting, some of it brutal. Gruner looks like a much better fighter in this one than in the original, but the ending is again not that satisfying. * of 4 stars.