Bloodfist II (1990)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Just so...so bad

Best movie of this year hands down!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Jake Raye is back, and in kickboxing-related trouble once again! Since the last Bloodfist film, Jake became a legit kickboxer, in state-sanctioned bouts with boxing gloves, etc., and put his punchfighting past behind him. When he accidentally kills his opponent in the ring, he vows never to fight again. After about two years have passed, Jake has hit the skids. His apartment is in disarray and he's not in shape. One day, he gets a call from his friend, a Black man inexplicably named Vinny Petrello (Smith), who lures him back to Manila once again. Once back on his old stomping grounds, Jake and a bunch of other fighters are kidnapped and spirited away by boat to the private island home of sinister kickboxing fan Su (Avellana). He forces the men to take part in an "illegal high stakes tournament" - death fights, or as Su calls them, "gladiator fights". But Su's men have an unfair advantage. He pumps them full of a special steroid that makes them impervious to pain. So the good fighters don't know what they're up against. Luckily, the plucky Jake Raye and love interest Mariella (Reyes) get to the bottom of it. Will Jake live to see another sequel? For those that don't know, only the first two Bloodfist films are truly sequels. The Dragon plays Jake Raye in the first two films only. The other 897 Bloodfist movies are basically separate entities but renamed under the Bloodfist banner because presumably Roger Corman felt fans would rather see an eighth sequel to something, whether it's truly a sequel or not, than a new movie with an original title. Interesting logic.Nevertheless, the first half of Bloodfist 2 is very similar to the original film - the same locales are used and some of the situations seem oddly familiar. But once the fighters are on the boat to Su's house, things change. The movie somehow becomes dumber, yet more fast paced, even though a huge block of time is spent in one room as the fighters fight. Yet it never becomes a slog. That was pretty impressive. It was here that the film developed its own, more original personality. And of course, the film ends with a big, final brawl.Avellana is back as the bad guy, but not the same one from the first movie. And the rankings of the fighters/actors are back in the credits, but the movie outdoes itself in introducing these men to the audience, as Su names them all, and their titles/rankings in the movie as well. In the order Su introduces them, they are: John Jones (Warring), Manny Rivera (Samson), Bobby Rose (Hill), Ernest Santana (Rogers), Tobo Castanerra (Del Rosario), and Sal Taylor (Baker), the last of which sports a spiffy shirt throughout the entirety of his screen time. Additionally, Ned Hourani and Cris Aguilar return from the first movie, but in different roles. Don The Dragon gives his delightfully wooden delivery we all know and love.Bloodfist 2 is more of a typical punchfighter, but the action and humor elements are ramped up more, and the plot is tamped down to a minimum. Since all Bloodfist movies apparently had to be 85 minutes, the filmmakers decided to try a new structure, at least for the second half of the film.If you watched the first Bloodfist movie and wished it had MORE punchfighting, as well as more silliness, this, the only true sequel, is the movie for you.NOTE: in the end credits, Wes Craven and Stephen Tobolowsky are listed as "advisors". If anyone knows how Craven or Tobolowsky advised this movie, please write in today.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Jake Raye(Don "The Dragon" Wilson) is back in action, only this time the action is more extreme. In "Bloodfist II", Jake and several other fighters go down to the Phillipines, where a friend of Jake's calls him out to help him. It turned out to be a booby-trap for all of them. Jake's friend seem to got himself way over his head. Working with the wrong people and getting greedy from those people. Jake and his friends fight for their lives when their opponents take a steroid which makes them impervious to pain, but some of the fighters didn't do too well. They kill off whoever doesn't last in the fight whether it was Jake's friends or the opponents. Looks like those who took the steroid, didn't have a clue that they were pawns as well. Jake friend took the same steroid and he paid the price for betraying him and his friends. The steroid may have given him immunity to pain, but it didn't make him indestructible when he took a roundhouse to the neck. Once the old saying goes, Once a pawn, always a pawn, forever a pawn! That steroid had only one purpose, and look what happens. That movie was a lot of fun, and the plot of the movie was great, I liked that. Rating 3 out of 5 stars.

I swore that I would never watch any Bloodfist sequels after being appalled at what I saw with episode # 1, however somebody said that I'm a lot like another reviewer who has been reviewing low budget junkers such as I, his name is Gridoon. I looked at his reviews and it turned it out he had reviewed Heatseeker, Kickboxer 4, Cyborg and a bunch of others that I had seen. Not to be one upped, I dare challenged to watch all Bloodfist movies, just to prove I was no meter maid in the stakes of bad movies. In other words I rented and saw all Bloodfist movies in two days. The film itself stars Wilson as a you guessed it, a kickboxer who is abducted and forced to fight a bunch of super fighters enhanced by a steroid. The sequel is of course an obvious rip off of Enter The Dragon, but the fighting here was better and from what I have seen remains one of the better entries of the series. Take that however you want take it. Wilson though is dependably terrible.* * out of 4-(Fair)

Don "The Dragon" Wilson returns as Jake Raye a kickboxer who is forced out of retirement to face altered warriors in this Enter The Dragon knock off. Bloodfist II maybe a definite improvement over it's awful predecessor, but it still isn't all that good, however some decent fightscenes as well as a fast pace makes this less painful. Don "The Dragon" Wilson may be the only martial arts action star to date that has killed the same bad guy twice, while playing the same character.