Kill'em All 2

I guess All of 'Em weren't killed the first time around after all. Jean-Claude OldMan, his Electra-complex daughter and some simple villagers from the Flemish part of Slovenia team up to take on some Russian mafia ... vampires? Maybe?

JCVD and/or his stuntman still has the chops to sell some of the action and the script isn't entirely formulaic (only mostly formulaic); but this mashup between revenge action and heist movie still feels small, cheap and rushed. There are low stakes and no arcs for the cardboard characters. Peter Stormaire delivers possibly the worst performance of his storied career. Overall this feels like a throwback to mid-1990s straight-to-video content. Unfortunately it's less of a fun, campy throwback and more like something from The Steven Segal Collection gathering cobwebs in a forgotten corner of Blockbuster Video.

Vlad seeks revenge on Philip for killing his brother and despite the agency allowing Philip to vanish digitally, his location is leaked to Vlad. Escaping the gang, Philip along with his daughter Vanessa visit their village only to find Vlad had already paid a visit. Philip decides to end this mess which he brought upon his people and he teams up with ex Agent Holman to hit Vlad where it hurts him the most. Will Philip and Vanessa stop Vlad and his men, saving their home, forms rest of the story.

The first film itself was a tedious watch and this one barely has a story. It is the done to death revenge story with exactly 3 action scenes with 2 chase scenes merged into them and with age catching up, none of the action scenes featuring Van Damme are long enough to deliver his usual fun elements. The characters are pretty much one toned and Peter Stormare goes annoyingly overboard as Holman which is pointed out within the film itself. After the first action scene, the film drags itself till the supposed heist, building up for an action filled climax but the efforts are simply not enough to raise the bar above boredom.

First and foremost, this reviewer is a fan. I actually have a JCVD pick on my IMDb list of all time best movies, a claim few other reviewers can make. But, to be fair, this film raises existential questions that need to be asked. For example, this is the sequel ... to what? To a very forgettable action flick called KILL EM ALL which appeared in 2017 and ranked a whopping 4.3 on the IMDb rating system. JCVD was in his late 50's for that film. His action sequences were OK (after all, he IS the man!) but the rest of the movie was mainly filler. So why would you want to do a sequel to a film that very few saw, and even fewer remember? Especially when you are 7 years older and, to be frank, it shows in the closeups? Especially when you swapped out both the Director and the Writer? Especially when the budget for the sequel looks and feels even tighter than in the original? Once again, after a lot of waffle, when JCVD decides finally to kill everyone with a pulse, he still has the moves. But getting there is painful. In the opinion of this reviewer, this project was done simply to service the demand for streaming content, with no higher aspiractions. The man deserves a fitter end to a great career. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))

It is seven years after the first movie. Phillip (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Vanessa (Jacqueline Fernandez) are living out their lives in peace until the brother of the Serbian crime lord comes looking for revenge. Agent Sanders (Maria Conchita Alonso) and Agent Holman (Peter Stormare) are also back.

First, Autumn Reeser is not returning. It's just as well. She could probably use the time to do another Hallmark movie. Without a good twist, this one only has its action to elevate it. The action is fine and going through the narrow European streets is fun. Otherwise, this franchise is out of moves.

I have admired Van Damme since the eighties and even formed a JCVD appreciation society back in college... I'm not gay but his martial arts did inspire us to take it up. Obviously with his advancing years, probably better to have him choreographing behind the camera, but hey ho. From a technical perspective the editing and direction was actually quite sharp for a movie of this budget. Action scenes are tight, well controlled, well lit, and closeup shots are used to avoid too much focus on JC's slowing reflexes. No infamous full split in this movie guys 😂

Storyline has been done many times before, in fact Equaliser 3 most recently comes to mind. This time the hero kicks ass with his daughter assisting and kicking nearly as much ass 😉. Particularly meaningful to me as I saw this on the plane during my first dad daughter trip away. Can definitely imagine me and my daughter taking out the bad guys and killing em all - together.

If you like Van Damm, just watch it for action's sake.