Lady Dragon 2

This has to be one of the most spectacular cases of aiming high and missing by a mile.

In the early 90s, a slew of actors tried to break into action stardom in the post-Cannon movie world. Among hopefuls like of Daniel Bernhardt, Thomas Ian Griffith, Jeff Speakman, Jeff Wincott, Oliver Gruner, Gary Daniels and others, there was a lone female martial artist: Cynthia Rothrock. After some Hong Kong movies with amazing stunts, her American films were notable for much less impressive stuntwork, low production value and lots of cheese (like the meme final fight in Undefeated). Her early American films were usually low budget LA movies that tried to make her a star and are notable for aiming well beyond their means.

Lady Dragon 2 is probably the weirdest example among them.

Rothrock plays the martial arts champion wife of a diminutive South American soccer player who somehow sees himself as a popular leader in a corrupt impoverished country. Yes, it's that weird. They live in a mansion with a housekeeper, but somehow, when the soccer player comes across some Diamonds stolen by a ruthless criminal from the Italian Mafia (was the screenwriter doing too much coke?), he takes them to "help his people". Naturally the bad guys show up.

And what a bad guy we get: Billy Drago! He dials up his usual schtick to 11. It's a weirdly fascinating mix of gangster, psychopath, sexual pervert and rapist, effeminate wimp, and southern hillbilly. It's a ridiculous performance, and the director glues the camera to him whenever he's on screen and gives him ample time to do knife tricks, moan into the phone, give death glares or do feminine dances and gyrations. It's not a great performance, but... it's a performance.

After the initial attack and a murder, he waltzes in and out of Cynthia Rothrock's house whenever he pleases. The police even apprehend him, and he still does it. Goes right back to the murder scene, and even starts doing obscene phone calls to Cynthia Rothrock or playing pranks with a dead body (not gonna spoil that scene). The police at one point offer to keep one officer there for protection, but of course Cynthia Rothrock says no. We're supposed to think it's because she's a badass, but really it's because they lacked the budget and the script was tripping over its many plotlines already.

The writers throw everything they have at the screen: rape, ill begotten gains, stealing from the mafia, class differences, economic hardship and growing up in poverty, self-sacrifice, betrayal, vigilantiism, the police having to let criminals go for lack of evidence, martial arts, rape, sexual harassment and a brief horror scene. It's INSANE.

Cynthia Rothrock doesn't have many fights, but the ones she has are overdone. Whether pinned between a random weirdly yelling chinese swordfighter and other armed goons, or between someone with a gun and someone with a car, none of it makes sense, but it's plenty violent and stupid. Very entertaining.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack, as so often in early 90s movies, hampers the enjoyment. It's an incessantly loud melancholic synth score, melodic, with some weird military drums. It sucks the tension right out of scenes that would feel pretty intense with a more fitting soundtrack. This soundtrack feels more like for a noir movie.

As you can see, none of the puzzle pieces fit together. But you'll rarely be bored. Mostly due to Billy Drago.

A good choice for bad movie night.

Action queen Cynthia Rothrock gets one of her most serious and mature roles after her departure from working in Hong Kong film, with Angel Of Fury - also known as Lady Dragon 2 but with no connection to the first except for its star and its director, David Worth. Having also directed the great Kickboxer with Van Damme as well as Chain Of Command with Michael Dudikoff, Worth also worked as DOP on Bloodsport as well as many other Hollywood flicks!

But even with credits as long as your leg, Angel Of Fury is still just an above-average movie, playing it safe on many technical levels. Although US backed, the majority of it was shot in Indonesia (much like Lady Dragon) and stars a number of local actors, one of which is George Rudy who plays Rothrock's husband. He suffers at the hands of the camp but great Billy Drago and his men, who torture him for some diamonds and rape his wife in front of him. One of Drago's men is the towering Sam Jones, who is totally miscast in this role as a big-stupid-boy who just knows how to smash things up and fire guns.

While the production design and direction may be a little dated and average against today's standards, things are saved by a menacing performance by Billy Drago and our very own Miss Rothrock, who turns in one of her better acting gigs and still looks great in the action scenes. Yes, its far from what she was delivering in her Hong Kong films, but the fights are still pretty entertaining to watch and don't disappoint. One of the highlights being the fight involving 3 guys versus Rothrock towards the end.

Personally, I found that it was around this time (possibly a year or two later), that Cynthia's films and career started to take a slide and unfortunately, never got back on track since, and while she always suffered from a bad run of costumes and hair-do's in her Hong Kong films, I have to say that Cyndy looks great in this role. She fits the part well, pulling off a tidy performance as a widow scorned who's out for revenge. It was great seeing her back alongside someone like the late Drago, who had also starred with her in Karate Cop (aka Martial Law 2: Undercover), which allowed for more intensity between them on screen here having formed that friendship in the past.

I do like Angel Of Fury. It's not a film you would want to watch over and over again due to its slow pace and dark nature, but it does entertain. Although the score is very nineties in a Hollywood kinda way, the sound design isn't all that great, often missing an opportunity for creating more tension or impact in the right moment...

This is Cynthia's 'big-girl' film, and I do wish she had gotten more of this type of thing (albeit with a stronger director). There are a few moments in Angel Of Fury that surprised me, such as when her exhumed husband appears at home sending her into melt-down, and Drago's death at the end. But hey, it is a thriller after-all..!

Overall: An underrated (albeit, flawed) thriller with a great performance from Rothrock, both in the action and acting department.

It's nice to see a bit of consistency: screenwriter Clifford Mohr returns from this film's unrelated predecessor (seemingly his only two credits), as well as director David Worth (who also helmed the profoundly regrettable 1996 slog 'American Tigers'), and composer Jim West, whose score is broadly unremarkable but genuinely enjoyable, such as it is (sounding in no small part like music that could have been composed for an RPG on the Super Nintendo). Less nice is jumbled and unconvincing early exposition that feels disjointed and disorderly as written and shot, failing to meaningfully convey the underpinnings of the narrative, or the acts of violence noted in any basic premise (which seem to follow 1920s' censorial rules for exhibiting assault of any kind). At the same time, for as long as the film takes early on to spotlight the antagonists' torment of protagonist Susan and especially her husband, all that's missing to give this a minor slant of an exploitation flick is visceral depiction, and blood and gore.

While 1992's 'Lady Dragon' was a blunt, over the top, ridiculous romp, and a lot of fun, the narrative in this 1993 sequel feels like it consciously strips away the bombast in an effort to be darker and more serious. The discrepancy is bewildering, yet there's nothing inherently wrong with that - though it's a lot harder to enjoy oneself when the overtones are as unmistakably grim as they are here. That holds true even more when plot development is flimsy and flagging, and quickly threatens to break suspension of disbelief with the advancement from A to B and even in the basic essence of some story beats. The pace is distinctly sluggish, dampening much of the potential 'Lady Dragon 2' could feasibly claim, and the cast's performances are similarly restrained and dulled (even as Billy Drago is notably hamming up his portrayal of villain Diego). While I'm not familiar with others on hand, I've seen Drago and star Cynthia Rothrock before and know they're capable, so I assume it's some combination of Mohr's screenplay and Worth's guiding hand as director that force them into an uninteresting corner. This presents us with a perplexing peculiarity, however, since - again - 'Lady Dragon' was very entertaining; what happened between production schedules to make 'Lady Dragon 2' so much lesser a creation?

Moreover, the story isn't just shaky, but emphatically conventional, and tired. Characters are flat, dialogue is rather bland, and the scene writing tends to be merely serviceable. This 1993 feature broadly retains the forthrightness of its antecedent - and is arguably even more direct - but that's simply not an approach that works when the title is pointedly sober and humorless. I suppose it's possible that this was intended as a parody so forcefully deadpan as to come out the other end seeming like a flopping, earnest action thriller, but I really don't think that was the case. Even if it were, again the issue presents of whiplash between 1992 and 1993.

With the tenor 'Lady Dragon 2' strikes, one more concrete criticism is absolutely necessary. Given the opportunity to act, Rothrock is quite suitable in that capacity. Her great strength, however, is 100% in the showcase of her martial arts skills. Her best films are those that build on that strength at their core, while her worst films are almost uniformly those that shift these honored disciplines to a distant second place in priority, or lower. This title is far from bereft, and the instances we do get are a good time, yet despite what marketing and promotional material would have one believe, martial arts are not nearly as central to the story as they are made out to be. To be sure, action and stunts look great; it would be wrong to say 'Lady Dragon 2' is no fun at all. But it's also not nearly as engaging as it could have been.

I'm a bit befuddled. This picture and its elder aren't the only instance in Rothrock's considerable oeuvre in which a couple features have shared names, if not also plot elements and/or cast or crew, but one is assuredly better than the other. I think there are a lot of great ideas here, and the climax is certainly the most well written and orchestrated part of the movie in every single way. Yet with minimal exception, all the aspects that make these flicks such a blast when they're done well are diminished, reduced, hamstrung, or all but absent. It's still entertaining, but is only a shade of its predecessor, or of many of its brethren. When all is said and done 'Lady Dragon 2' is modestly worthwhile if you chance upon it, though it's far from essential, and one should keep their expectations in check.

Most recommendable for utmost fans of Cynthia Rothrock, and for passing the time on a lazy afternoon.

In the new and moderately improved sequel to David 'Kickboxer' Worth's original Rothrock-starring action-distraction 'Lady Dragon', our plucky, punch-happy heroine returns once more to avenge the murder of her beloved husband by a gang of heartless, mask-wearing killers led by the glacial, stone-hearted villainy of B-Movie kingpin Billy Drago. We see Susan 'The Golden Angel' Morgan strut her entirely strut-worthy stuff in the ring making hard work of an enjoyably rough, slam-bang bout as the exquisitely evil Diego (Billy Drago) callously wipes out three wealthy goombah's for their plentiful diamond booty.

Having only barely survived this awful Diego-led home invasion, the ignominy continues as the frantically murderous obsession over the ownership of the contraband diamonds merely increases the terrible levels of ensuing violence. Choosing blunt street justice over the uncertain vagaries of law, this 'Angel of Fury' must initially get down an' dirty in the scum-clogged bowels of the city in order to 'flush out' the diabolically foul perpetrators and take them out one by one.

While 'Lady Dragon 2' isn't by any stretch of the imagination a top-tier Rothrock skull-rocker, since it focuses mainly on sleazy theatrics than relentless 'Undefeatable' style Kung Fun overkill, but there are a few stand out bravura sequences of righteous skell annihilation, which capitalize strongly on Cynthia Rothrock's quicksilver punches and devastating Roundhouse kicks to enormously cinematic effect! I have always found Rothrock to be a dynamic and hugely engaging screen presence and certainly no less so as vengeful Susan 'The Golden Angel' Morgan, and when she inevitably unleashes her signature lightning-fast flurry of titanic Thug trashing, tibia terminating terror it is ALWAYS guaranteed to be a next level boss beatdown!

There's some additionally joyous incongruities on display here which playfully elevate the formulaic proceedings, namely Sam 'Flash Gordon' Jones's singular decision to zestily play his lunk-headed bully boy Reb as a bizarrely perma-cackling cartoon super villain, making for a weirdly satisfying buzz-cut creepozoid that ultimately proves no match for the sinfully savage Cynthia! Much like the powerhouse star, 'Lady Dragon 2' is generously top loaded, saving all the groovy goodies for last, as even a lesser Rothrock actioner is far better than most at their best. I had a B-Movie blast watching Cynthia 'sticking' it to the deliciously diabolical Diego and hopefully other Rothrock fans might get no less of a 'kick' out of watching 'Lady Dragon 2' than I did!

I actually don't know the length of this film. It is a very poor one, and the tale of death, rape and revenge by the widow has been told so many times, both in major, and cult movies!... This film has two outstanding elements, though, that make it mandatory viewing for fans of Cynthia Rothrock: herself, playing her character to the hilt, despite she's surrounded by mainly C-grade professionals; and the most violent, well played, well filmed 3 minutes of women karate you possibly can have. Ring action is interspersed with the credit titles, and apparently non-related scenes - however, important to understand the following dramatic events. Therefore, you feel as if the actual ring time is longer than it is, and therefore adding to the strong, powerful scenes of karate - excellently played by sportswoman Cynthia and, no doubt, an Eastern black belt who has never been seen in movies before, or after - at least under that name.