American Shaolin

Yeah, the only song this entire movie had (that I could remember) was "The Shaolin Temple Blues" which really didn't sound like the blues at all, but instead a strange perversion of a Bruce Springsteen song. All of the lyrics are about working minimum wage and going out on dates Saturday Night... But the chorus says "Shaolin Temple Blues", not "Summertime Blues" like they sing at first. Of course, this can all be forgiven once we are shown Shaolin Monks playing Air Guitar.

The movie's story is about as run-of-the-mill as run-of-the-mill can get. Ugly American (and BOY is he ugh-lee this time around!) gets beaten and humiliated in the first 5 minutes of the movie, then goes and gets trained by someone who doesn't accept him at first, until he begins to understand the ways of the martial arts. From that point, he goes on to defeat the bad guy in the last 5 minutes of the movie.

This happened in "The Karate Kid", "No Retreat, No Surrender", and countless others! Even "KING OF THE KICKBOXERS PART ONE"!

Anyway, Corey Yuen did the fight coreography for this film, and it shows by the overall quality. Unfortunately, the bright spots seen are overshadowed by some astoundingly bad parts... whether it be the Shaolin Temple getting exposed to Playboy Magazine, a group of Shaolin Monks going to a high school dance, or Drew poplocking in front of his fellow student monks. What can I say? It's goofy as all hell.

For $6.99 on DVD, I can't really say it's a loss of money, but at the same time you'd be better off sticking with something else. At least "No Retreat, No Surrender" has Jean-Claude Van Damme.

One last note: Am I the only person here disturbed by the fact that the only way the main villain seems to be able to win a fight is by pulling down his opponent's pants?!

An unofficial follow-up to the No Retreat, No Surrender movies and King of the Kickboxers, this movie continues to entertain with the same amount of quality as the earlier movies. Being the first movie in this series without Loren Avedon, it still delivers on all levels. And by that I mean it delivers on the fighting. The action is great. The rest of the movie is just total goofiness of the highest order, and that's the way it should be. It's a really lighthearted movie where the focus is on the action and the fact that you just don't take it seriously at all. Sit back, enjoy this movie for what it's worth and have a great time.

this has got to be one of those films where the trailer is 50 times better than the movie itself.I first saw the trailer in 1991, it looked great.Since then i have always wanted to see it but could never find it.....until today, yes, 14 years later.

lets just say I was so disappointed its unreal, OK i knew it wouldn't be an Oscar winner but still had hopes that it would be a fun no-brain film in the bloodsport mold. Unfortunately it was not, it's Pooh

whats with all the American rock and roll music and the acting was so bad it was quite frightening.

The fight scenes were rubbish and look fake.

this DVD only cost me £5 and I believe I was overcharged by £7

Now I'm sad as I know that I will never get that hour and a half back.

If you've ever seen a movie about the Shaolin Temple, then you've seen half of this, what sets 'King of the Kickboxers II' apart from the rest is the inability of the hero to keep his pants up, and air-guitar styling of the Shaolin disciples. Awesome.

'King of the Kickboxers II' opens with our hero, Drew Carson, facing a bad-dude known as Trevor (what an evil name) in a martial arts tournament. Trevor beats Drew by pulling his pants down (just how does he untie Drew's belt whilst wearing gentlemen's sport gloves?). The obvious solution for Drew is to go the Shaolin Temple, so its off to China and good-bye to Trevor for most of the movie. Somehow, Drew doesn't have any communication troubles in China, because everyone at the Shaolin Temple speaks English, even when in the villagers talking to people speaking Chinese.

Anyway, most of the movie is your standard Shaolin Temple stuff - training sequences and fights, but all from the perspective of a loud-mouthed American who constantly gets in trouble. The fights are good, but nothing special. If you're looking for Shaolin action ala 'Shaolin Temple', you will be disappointed, but if you just want some martial arts fun, then this is for you.

5/10

This was a great martial arts film. The action sequences are exciting and fast paced. The Shaolin training sequences was a highlight, especially when the new monks demonstrated with weapons. Reese Madigan was a bit annoying, but he still can prove he is a tough fighter on screen. I don't know how they did it, but they made non-martial artist Trent Bushy look great as the evil Trevor. A must-see for all fans of martial arts films.