No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder

I didn't even know that they had made a part two and three for the 1985 movie "No Retreat, No Surrender". And it wasn't until now in 2024, as I happened to stumble upon the 1987 movie "No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder" that I was made aware of parts two and three. Of course I opted to sit down and watch this 1987 sequel, and see what director Corey Yuen had to offer.

I have to admit that I was a bit surprised to see that it was Corey Yuen who directed the movie, as he usually have good movies to his name, so I actually had some expectations for this sequel, despite the fact that it was following up on a mediocre movie at best.

The storyline and narrative in "No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder", as written by Maria Elena Cellino, Roy Horan and Keith W. Strandberg, was watchable and entertaining enough for what it was. But keep in mind, the writers didn't really reinvent the wheel here, as it was a fairly generic and formulaic narrative. They opted to play it safe and bet on the traditional tropes of the action and martial arts movies from the 1980s and early 1990s. And I can't help but wonder if the writers had enjoyed the 1985 "First Blood Part II" a tad too much, as their script sort of had a Rambo-vibe to it.

The movie has a lot of plot holes and scenes where you just go 'why?'. Especially the scene where they scaled the waterfall. Why not climb up where there was no water, and thus no slippery rocks? It was just plain stupidity why that scene even came into existence. The scene where a guy is thrown into a hole with crocodiles was also pretty good, especially since you could see that it was fake plastic crocodiles bobbing about as the waves from the impact when the body hit the water made them bob up and down.

Why is the movie even carrying the "No Retreat, No Surrender" title? There is nothing connecting it to the original 1985 movie.

I can't claim that I found leading actor Loren Avedon to be a particularly great lead, as his acting was somewhat stinted. I was only familiar with Cynthia Rothrock, Matthias Hues and Nirut Sirichanya in the movie. And I never were much of a fan of Cynthia Rothrock back in the grand days of martial arts movies, so I wasn't particularly thrilled to see her name on the screen during the intro sequence. In general, though, I will say that the acting performances in "No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder" were okay. Sure, you're not in for an evening of Shakespearian theater, but for an action movie of this type, the acting was fair. Well, for the most parts fair, actor Matthias Hues as the Russian leader was just cringeworthy, as his acting was laughably bad.

The movie does have a fair amount of action sequences and martial arts scenes, which definitely speaks in favor of the movie. Just funny how goons and henchmen always fire their weapon downwards, usually striking nothing but ground at the feet of where the narrative's heroes were just a moment ago.

The first fight scene with Matthias Hues against some local Thai fellow was one of the most laughable fight scenes I've seen in a long, long time. It looked as if Matthias Hues was performing some kind of strange ballet. It was such a comical scene, that it was hard to take it serious.

Visually, the movie was okay. I was especially much a fan of the amazing fiery balls of explosions that the fragmentation genades caused, and the sheer radius of aforementioned fiery fireball was also impressive.

So was "No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder" a great movie? Hardly so. But it was certainly a watchable movie, albeit a rather generic and formulaic one. But if you enjoyed the action and martial arts movies of the 1980s and early 1990s, then you should find some enjoyment in this 1987 movie. It was hardly an outstanding movie, and I doubt that I will ever return to watch it a second time.

My rating of director Corey Yuen's 1987 movie "No Retreat, No Surrender 2: Raging Thunder" lands on a five out of ten stars.

A Beat 'Em Up and Shoot 'Em Up all wrapped up into one high octane package of pure brilliance. The plot is shady, the acting is iffy and the music is cheesy but still this flick packs a punch. The opening scene post credits pits Terry (Cynthia Rothrock) and Scott Wylde (Loren Avedon) a Tae-Kwon-Do expert in a war of words and showboating. With bad edited dialogue, poor acting (both improve as the film progresses) and over-the-top martial arts, we discover that Scott with his poorly delivered one-liners is on his travels to Bangkok and he is looking for an old friend, Mac Jarvis (Max Thayer) for some reason. Soon we are catapulted into the thick of it, Scott's fiance Sulin Nguyen (Patra Wanthivanond) is kidnapped from a hotel in Thailand by Soviet trained Vietnamese military operating out of Cambodia. Not only this but Scott is framed for the murder of his girlfriends entire family, so the plot thickens or gets muddled or something along those lines. Enter Mac, weapons expert and the man full of cheese, Mac is the man you need to know who can get you anything you need to save your fiance from a military base on top of a mountain, especially if it is manned by Soviet trained Vietnamese soldiers. Soon Scott, along with Mac and Terry, who comes back into the fold are on a mission into Cambodia to save Sulin. We then get the pleasantry of been introduced to the villain Yuri (Matthias Hues) the Russian commander, with his French-German accent and super soldier abilities not far removed from M.Bison in Street Fighter 2, who's weakness is apparently a picture frame. Along this journey we are gifted with pretty good choreographed fight scenes (some over the top, some pure cheese but all entertaining) and great shoot 'em up action, ending with a great finale. Mac "She's gone Scott." Scott "Lets get the hell out of here, alright." This film doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't, it's pure fun action, that keeps the hits flowing.

A cheesy moment to savour: A grenade is rolled, a villain is turned over onto the grenade and a table placed on top of him.

This sequel has nothing to do with the original film, but is connected that American kickboxers fight Soviet killing machines. This marked the debuts of Loren Avedon and Matthias Hues. The only flaw in the film was the short fight between Cynthia Rothrock and Hwang Jang-lee. If this was longer and Hwang didn't have any padding, the fight would've been spectacular. The finale between Avedon and Hues is blistering, especially when Avedon unleashes his awesome kicking. Pretty good for martial arts fans to enjoy!!!

This was originally intended to be a direct sequel to the first 'NR, NS' which launched the career of a certain Jean Claude Van Damme. However Van Damme pulled out feeling the film would not have furthered his career while persuading co-star Kurt McKinney to do the same. As a result, the story was changed with Tae Kwon Do expert Loren Avedon and Matthias Hues drafted in to play the American and Russian stereotypes.

The basic synopsis sees Avedon's character call in some friends in an attempt to rescue his Thai girlfriend, while strangely coming across a contingent of the Russian army (camped out in the Vietnamese jungle!) in the process, as well as a group of fake Shaolin monks. (Blame Keith W. Strandberg for the script!).

Surprisingly, for an American film, there are some well executed and imaginative fight sequences predominantly showcasing the excellent kicking skills of Avedon. This is clearly the influence of Yuen Kwai who was not prepared to concede too much to the American filming and time constraints. The finale, while inferior to the first films final reel, features Cynthia Rothrock as a hard-hitting, tough talking helicopter pilot (not a cop/CIA/FBI agent for a change!) showing some of the moves which made her name on the Jade screen. This movie is one of the only 80's flicks that uses her real voice! Loren Avedon did not follow Jean Claude's example and stayed on after this film fulfilling his 3 picture contract, notably with the decent third instalment of the NR, NS series: 'Blood Brothers' with the excellent Keith Vitali (Yuen Biao's opponent in 'Wheels on Meals') and I am surprised he was never used in a 'real' Hong Kong picture as he is clearly skilled and quick enough to have made a good screen villain.

I just got the the NRNS trilogy today and watched "NRNS2". (I really only was looking to get the original because I collect van damme movies and of course it is his first action movie. But I was lucky enough to get the other 2 for free with it). I just wanted to write the IMDb fans of kung-fu and action flicks that that this was a decent low budget movie that gave me that feeling I haven't had in a while. that feeling of being a kid again and I wish I did see this one when I was a kid because it would of affected me even more. I felt like I had seen it before when I was watching it and was loving the low budget, bad acting you would expect from the time. this is a hidden classic for me now and im glad i watched it and now own it.

all you need to know about nrns 1 and 2 is.............

the fight scenes are wicked (even for today standards) speeding up the camera seems to be the staple of these movies (but it does make the action look hella good). And thats it....

good 80's nostalgia representing and now I cant wait to see number 3 (blood brothers)