Hard Target 2

This movie is just bad. Really bad. I don't care how many times Scott Adkins kicks his legs and does the splits. The script is worse than D budget quality, the cinematography is D level, the acting is barely above C quality, and there's some very good actors in there who obviously just wanted a paycheck, Rhona Mitra. If you don't care, don't do it. It will show in your performance and it did. No one really seemed to care. And the original is no masterpiece, but this is beyond bad. And it looks bad. Very cheap looking and they had a jungle to work with. Wow! And the color of the scenes was "meh" The filmmakers had no point of view. This was very amateurish and unoriginal. It's not enough to just have action anymore. You have to have a strong point of view and interesting characters. This had neither. And the action was not good. Just because something is slow motion doesn't mean it's cool. In fact, slow motion is so over used it has the opposite affect. Anyway, I love movies, and if you're reading this I'm sure you do too, but for the love of movies stay away from this lazy target.

Anyone remember the 90's? The age of mobile phones that looked like bricks and cheesy martial art action flicks?

Hard Target 2 is firmly set in the 90's action flick mould. Its simple formulaic stuff but its also good fun. There's no pretension here just lots or corny but enjoyable scripting and tons of kick ass action. Lead actor Scott Adkins is a worthy successor to Jean Claude Van Damme. He's a talented martial artist and puts on a polished performance, that really helps to lift this film.

One to enjoy if, like me, you grew up on a diet of 90's action flicks. Seven out of ten from me.

Yours truly is a Belgian, and was a teenager during the 1990s, so as a matter of course I went through a fanatic Jean-Claude Van Damme phase. "Hard Target" was definitely my favorite! The premise of hunting humans for sport is one of the oldest in action/thriller cinema history, and "Hard Target" is by no means a classic, but the combination of a long-haired Van Damme and excessive violence worked effectively; for sure. I never even realized there existed a sequel, even if it was a cheap and direct-to-video one. Luckily, I have a good buddy who specializes in lousy and obscure sequels, and he assured me that "Hard Target 2" was fun, straightforward, unpretentious, ... and worth a look.

My pal's judgement is reliable, as always. I enjoyed this film, although I'm likely to completely forget about it again in just a few days. I never heard about lead actor Scott Adkins, but he seems to be a regular in the field of meaningless action guff. Some of the people hunting down Scott in the Myanmar jungle are more known, like Rhona Mithra ("Doomsday") and Temuara Morrison ("Once Were Warriors"). The background story of Wes - the prey - Baylor is hilariously dumb. During an ultimate fighting battle, Wes killed his best friend and feels traumatized ever since. How could he not realize that his endless kicks and punches were going to cause irreparable damage? Please, don't go sobbing and mourning that you "accidentally" killed your buddy after you hit him repeatedly in the brains. Anyway, it's not the type of movie where you expect logic or intelligence, merely fast-paced actions, nasty killings and ingenious death traps. "Hard Target 2" does deliver in this particular department.

Could the film have been even more enjoyable? Well, yes, I think so! They should have lobbied to have JCVD appear in a small cameo. He's at a point in his career where he probably had accepted if the paycheck was worthwhile. How cool it would have been if Van Damme starred as an arrogant and eccentric hunter, for instance?

The only good thing in this mess is Rhona Mitra. The acting overall is laughable, the story is stupid and the fight choreography is beyond laughable, stupid and unrealistic. Especially the "MMA fight" in the beginning is total crap.

I didn't go into this with high expectations, even as a guilty fan of Scott Adkins and Rhona Mitra, but lo and behold it was too subpar to enjoy. That said, they shot on location which has to be appreciated so there's some meritable authenticity with the "sets." However most of the acting is painfully wooden, and while Adkins isn't an Academy nod he's still passable; his fighting is what you really want to see. Unfortunately a lot of the fight choreography wasn't that great, and you know you're watching a low-grade movie when you can blatantly discern punches and kicks not connecting. Adkins still had a few cool scenes but they get lost in the slew of sappy clichés, cringey dialogue, and laughable plot. Robert Knepper was really the only credible character, who, besides Mitra's fleeting scenes, added some personality to the cesspool.