Silk 2

So SILK 2 is a sequel to a film starring Monique Gabrielle as an ass-kicking female cop tacking down criminals in the Philippines. I've never actually seen that film, but this sequel must be one of the cheapest and most obscure movies in the career of prolific Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago. It's very much a typical cop film of the 1980s, with nods to the likes of COBRA as Gabrielle tackles corruption and criminality at the highest levels. There's a small amont of action, a lot of bad dialogue and wooden acting, and a totally gratuitous shower sequence which scream queen Gabrielle manages to be wooden during.

Just another one of my laments about titles unavailable on DVD. I've been searching six years and only found a snippet on the Net which fortunately was the shower scene, so I am thankful for that, Monique is really nice-looking with clothes, but even better without. But where is the full movie? I see a VHS is available on Amazon but I need a DVD. So, people, I saw it donkey years ago maybe twice, but can't remember the story-line like your other reviewers, who must obviously have the VHS. I'm just here to beg the powers-that-be to release this wonderful performance by Monique on DVD or a pre-recorded memory card or make it available for downloading, because this great thing got stuck in my mind, or at least the swaying breasts did, and I have to see it again on my big screen.

Addendum, 12 June 2021

Okay, it's years and years later, I now finally have a download made from some shoddy VHS copy that's been floating out there on YouTube. This will never ever be released on DVD, but at least I can get to see it again on my small screen. I'm watching bits at a time and I will be reporting back. Meanwhile I'll be posting quotes. Very excited about seeing if there's at least one bit in it worth all my searching.

Uh, okay, here then, The Raven once again got knocked on the nose. Hell, people, either I am more nuts than I actually thought, or another version of this movie (as in with no removed scenes) exists. I distinctly remember an abduction scene, a girl driven off in a car, it involved, well, I can't really go into too much detail here on a family site, but topless, if you get my drift? I have tried to see something I distinctly remembered in a vague way (er, I know how that sounds), but now I've really just encountered a bigger mystery. We're talking 1991 or thereabouts when I saw it, I was much younger then, so don't go tut tut tut and tap your head. Something is amiss here. I will not be able to prove it. I will never be able to prove it. But I could not have been wrong.

If anybody has a response to this, please enter it as a review of your own.

Anyway, my final word on the downloaded movie: Except for the shower scene with the kung fu fight and the bouncing swaying er... well, this movie is a waste of time. Monique is inconsistent, perhaps getting better at it as the film progresses, but overall, this is a paint-by-the numbers cookie-cutter very very standard action movie with a lead actress that really cannot really act. She does have a very cute body though. But see EMMANUELLE 5 for that. Okay. The Raven sighs. Curses! Back to the drawing board. Again.

In my eyes, silk 2 provided an outstandingly fun watch. I was thoroughly absorbed in the plot from start to finish. Set in Hawaii, Silk is the policewoman who singlehandedly takes on a ring of criminals cashing in via art-insurance/black-market scandal.

The illustrious criminal 'Mr Gish,' whose smooth talking antics are played to a tee by Jan Merlin, gets me every time.

But he doesn't stand a chance. Out to get him is Jenny 'Silk' Sleighton, a cop who has had more than her dose of tough times recently (and not without the aid of her compatriots the beautiful Holly and handsome Tony) who stand up and fight for whats right in this underworld of lies and fraudulent art-bandits.

All I needed, in order to know that I was going to enjoy this movie, was to see silk in the very beginning, determined to save a group of innocent people from terrorists holding them under siege.

Why? because (in Silk's words): 'crime doesn't pay'!

With grit determination we see Silk make a run for it past the baddies, smash the window and basically go in and shoot them all.

That is why I found this movie so absorbing and great to watch from the very outset.

She was like watching an elastic cat doing gymnastics and shooting all the baddies; Silk is a legend!

But when her partner can no longer follow the case of an old 'pal' (as a favor) any longer, silk takes over and it is non-stop actions-ville. We see explosions, car chases, and humor as well (the fun tourists - "Whats green and swims around in water"?) But most importantly, there is a meaningful plot; someone is stealing real artworks and destroying them for the insurance/black-market value and then lying to the public about the fraudulent copies. I was positively glued to my seat! Tony as a man with the courage to 'speak up' is introduced to Silk in a way where they can both join forces and get to the bottom of things.

So, if you like a movie that's worth a few laughs, hasn't an over-emphasis on realistically conveyed editing and with dialogue and stunts that leave you laughing until your shoelaces untie themselves, this is for you! Sit down with a bowl of popcorn or whatever you like and watch genius flash by your very eyes.

"Silk 2" replaces Cec Verrell with Monique Gabrielle in the title role. This has both its advantages and its disadvantages: Monique lack's Cec's muscle tone, her voice is a bit too soft to be taken seriously in such hardcore lines as "Silk, what do you think you're doing?" - "What needs to be done!", and she is very obviously doubled for many of her stunts (even for diving off a boat!). But she IS gorgeous, she does have some moves, and, in the film's most memorable sequence, she takes a shower, complete with full-frontal nudity, and then, wearing only a barely-tied bathrobe, she fights a home intruder, kicking him all around the place while her breasts are bouncing up and down! The whole thing doesn't last more than a minute or two, however. Anyway, the film has some of the trademark Cirio H. Santiago amateurishness (check out that laughably fake head that gets shot in the opening scene!), but at least its plot is more coherent than the one of its predecessor. In fact, I thought the villain had a pretty neat plan and I almost wished he could get away with it! ** out of 4.

My review was written in January 1991 after watching the film on MGM/UA video cassette.

Hawaiian actioner "Silk 2" has an all-new heroine, but it's business as usual in the chasing-around department. This is a mnor video title from Roger Corman's Concorde stable.

Monique Gabrielle, mis-advertised as former "Playmate of the Year" (she was a Penthouse mag model, not a Playboy gatefold girl), takes over the title role of a Honolulu cop from Cec Verrell in a drastic contrst of body shapes and hairstyles.

She's out to solve the mystery of missing Japanese scrolls that no-goodnik Jan Merlin is using as part of an insurance scam at his art museum. Along the way she teams up with friendly tourist Maria Claire and bland action hero Peter Nelson.

Pic's high point is a self-homage by Filippino director Cirio Santiago to his 1974 classic "TNT Jackson", with Gabrielle having a high-kicking martial arts fight in topless format, just like Jeanne Bell did so long ago. The slow motion sex scene of Gabrielle and Nelson in bed is shot in blurrr-o-vision, however.