Score 2: The Big Fight

I went crazy when I have found out that a sequel to my guilty pleasure Score exists. After a brief waiting period I had the chance to watch it.

First of all I must say that Score 2: The Big Fight (I have not seen the Big Title anywhere) is nowhere good as the first one. Some of the guys from the first one play unrelated roles in Score 2 but there is no connection at all.

What made Score a great movie is straight ripping of off Hollywood blockbusters and more importantly the shootouts that would make John Woo or Johnny To proud. In Score 2 I found neither.

I mean lack of copying Hollywood is OK but the shootouts just were not up to the standard set by the first one so I got really disappointed. This does not mean that the action is bad but not nearly there.

As for the story it is as ridiculous as it comes but hey this is Score series. I mean who would hide the money there ? Exactly.

The characters were all cool especially the stunning Japanese gal and Hitoshi Ozawa with terrible mullet. The corrupt cops were quite funny as well. How about the police squad with shotguns ? Scary!!!

If you do not expect much from Score 2 you can enjoy it. I still prefer the first one, I might give it another go soon

I really like the first Score movie. It's an action crime thriller with cool violent John Woo style gun fights, over the top characters who chew the scenery every chance they get, buckets of blood and Hitoshi Ozawa has an awesome mullet. It's a cheesy B movie but it has enough positive aspects to keep you invested and it's a really enjoyable movie. The sequel unfortunately has none of that apart from Hitoshi Ozawa's still awesome mullet. About half an hour in to it i was thinking "Oh man, this sucks". and i almost turned it off and put something else on. The action scenes have pretty much no choreography, consisting mostly of people running while sparks explode around them as they get shot at, the characters are less than one note and although the plot is very simple it still makes no sense. The one brief part i thought was great was when one of the dirty cops opens his jacket to reveal it's lined with a dozen grenades and he starts chucking them (even though 2 minutes before this he told his men "no killing"). Also the actress Aya Nakamura is really beautiful.

I was excited to find out that an obscure (i think) Japanese action movie i like has a sequel but it was a major let down.

Featuring none of the characters from the first movie (although stars Shû Ehara, Hitoshi Ozawa and Hiroshi Miyasaka reappear as completely different people), and having an unconnected plot, Score 2 isn't really a true sequel; it does, however, share the same manic, gun crazy attitude as Atsushi Muroga's 1995 action flick and there is a definite similarity in style (ie., loads of John Woo type shoot-outs, bloody squibs and cool gangsters).

This time around, Ozawa himself takes on the directorial duties and very nearly manages to match Muroga's film in the fun stakes.

A gang of criminals (including a hot blonde) attempt to retrieve a stash of stolen cash, over which a fairground has been built. The trouble is, one of the gang is keen to dispatch of his partners-in-crime, and a pair of crooked cops are also out to lay their grubby mitts on the booty.

At first, this film has the feeling of a stalk and slash/giallo movie, with the unseen traitor gradually bumping off the other gang members, but before long it falls into familiar action territory with bullets and blood flying everywhere.

Don't expect any sort of logic to proceedings; just sit back and enjoy the craziness of the whole thing and you'll have a good time. Score 2 gets 6.5 out of 10 from me, but for IMDb, I'll round it up to 7 (which is the same rating as I gave Score).