Undisputed II: Last Man Standing

Former heavyweight champion, George 'The Iceman' Chambers (Micheal Jai White, taking over for Ving Rhames) is sent to a Russian gulag on trumped-up charges where he must fight. Once you get past that this movie is less of a sequel than a remake (one that misses the whole crux of the original I might add). Once you surrender to the fact that Walter Hill is the Undisputed winner in directing. You'll find that this direct to DVD movie is actually pretty good in a brainless action movie kind of way. White does the best with what he's been given and the fight scenes are well staged. One could find worse ways to spend around an hour and a half, can't vouch for the film being very memorable though. To sum up, more in common with the Penitentiary films of days of yore than a sequel to Undisputed, but it's still solid.

My Grade: C+

Michael White takes over from Ving Rhames in 2002's UNDISPUTED, to play a former boxing champ, "Iceman" Chambers, who finds himself locked up in a Russian prison on phony charges. The purpose is to get Chambers to fight the prison's undisputed champ, a big bully of a guy named Uri Boyka (impressively played by Brit thesp Scott Adkins). Boyka fights with both hands and feet, so Chambers must learn to fight the same way. He takes lessons from a fellow convict, an old Russian general (played by Eli Danker) who is confined to a wheelchair but whose mind remains razor-sharp. This film, like the original, is heavily padded with sporadic fight scenes and other bits of business like Chambers ending up in solitary with rats for cell mates and later being staked out in the bitter-cold prison yard. The ring matches are the best part of the movie, and are amazingly staged and edited. In fact, they are better than those in the first movie, although UNDISPUTED 2 feels like a TV movie. I imagine it was an STV, since there are no big names in it.

I attended the premiere at Paramount Studios and have to say I was impressed by the breathtaking fight scenes. They were filmed at a very high speed, so there was a hyper-real crispness to them and interesting time changes throughout. Things were slowed down and sped up to catch Michael Jai White's amazing choreography.

Michael Jai had a hand in much of the production and his attention to detail in these scenes in particular shows. Scott Adkins is also an incredibly adept martial arts performer and comes off as an appropriately menacing villain. Michael Jai plays George Chambers with all the hubris and latent anger you could want, but also with an undertone of humor not present in Ving Rhames' portrayal of the character.

The last reviewer made a good point about this film having an 80's action feel to it. There's a no-nonsense brutality to the fighting that you don't often see these days. This is no Jackie Chan hit-em-with-a-broomstick fest. Think Rocky meets UFC. A definite adrenaline-pumper!

Bizarrely a sequel to a film no one saw, about boxing, only this time it's about kickboxing. Now surely there must be more to the plot? Well no, it is essentially an excuse to have some downright superb fight scenes. Michael Jai White stars as George "the Ice Man" Chambers, played in the original by Ving Rhames. He's not playing the Wesley Snipes character as we might have assumed, considering White has been rumoured to be replacement Blade for Snipes, and after all Snipes and White are both martial arts demon's.

Anyway director Isaac Florentine has always shown a knack for filming fight scenes, without ever really getting the rest particularly right. Similarly his films never really look too polished, unable to look beyond their clearly meagre budgets. Similarly Florentine's previous films tended have bizarre mixes of time periods, costumes etc, to create non descript worlds, which just came out as strange on film. Bridge Of Dragon's for example was a pretty bog standard kind of fairy tale action movie. Also his use of cartoony sound effects for every movement, no matter how small, become tiresome in previous flicks. For example someone would raise an eyebrow and it would be accompanied by a "whoosh!" Having said all that I enjoyed his previous films for the action and the cheesiness of them. But Florentine has reigned himself in here, and in what is probably his most high profile and lavish production, he has produced a kick ass action film. Previously too he never really got any particularly good performances form his cast, be manages to here. White doe okay, and has the build and a certain amount of charisma that makes you wonder why he's not competing in the DTV wars with the top dogs like Seagal, Snipes and Van Damme. Strangely he's not much of an action star despite the huge muscular frame and martial arts prowess. Ben Cross also appears and as he did in the Lundgren flick, the Mechanik, he adds class to proceedings, because he can act. He does well in making his supporting part memorable in a fairly tragic kind of role, and he gives it some humanity and some humour. Ken Lerner too makes a welcome appearance playing a role we've seen many times before from him, and he of course he'll always be remembered as the agent, Arnold stabs in the back with a pen, in Running Man. Eli Danker is also superb.

However the real star of this piece is Scott Adkins, the British born, Kickboxer/Gymnast, here playing a Russian prison tournament champ. Adkin's not only has a good screen presence but like White is built like a brick outhouse, and to add to that he's an amazing athlete for a guy so huge. If marketed right Adkins could be the next big action star, he's got the ability to be one of the best. Adkin's performs some amazing gymnastic feats here. He's not a bad actor either and I think people will actually assume he's Russian, so he does a good job here, despite playing a comically two dimensional villains worthy of Ivan Drago himself. The fights are really well done. They feel unique too, much down to Adkin's himself but also the great photography, dolly and steadi-cam work.

This may have a plot that could have been written on the back of a match box, probably reading something along the lines of "Michael Jai White is forced to fight Scott Adkin's, twice!" However the film looks polished thanks to Ross Clarkson's photography, while Florentine is allowed to show some auterism that many DTV directors for hire aren't allowed to. It's simply a few situations that are thrown in to lead into fights, but the fights come thick and fast, and as well as that they are original, and pretty awesome. Thankfully the cast are good enough to rise above the trite situations which is why it's important in these films to include guys like Ben Cross, who can act.

Overall this is a film that will no doubt gain cult status amongst martial arts fan's. It's the most Drive-ish film since Drive, something simple yet for what it is, brilliantly delivered. There's rumours of another sequel, which I'd hope to see, but truthfully if it didn't have Adkin's it would be sorely lacking a one man special effect. Adkin's is even better than Kong! ***

When is saw Undisputed I thought it was OK , and the cast made it be interesting , although the plot was simple and boring until the fight. I didn't think a sequel would be made but here it is .

From the beginning to the end this film is exciting and intriguing. The plot is solid and interesting and the cast is very well chosen. White does a very good acting as well as fighting scenes , while the other character (Boyka) assures the spectacular.

Not your average fighting movie at all ! The scenes are remarkable and very close framed , the details are extraordinary and that is what makes the whole fighting look so good and realistic . Even the training for the fight looks technical and realistic.

The other stories ... Stevie's and Crot's (Nikolai) add the drama that makes this more than just a kick , punch , block movie . They're also good actors doing a splendid job and making this movie rate high.

What else is there ... Oh ! Great soundtrack and ... almost forgot an ABSOLUTELY AMAZING ending ! Watch this movie !