Let me put it forward. I didn't think all that much of the original, and that's exactly the same on this one. However for some enjoyable, light-headed entertainment it passed the buck for me, compared with the first outing. The two films couldn't be anything but different though. The first featured heavily on political terrorists, as this one plays out more like a comic-book revenge story with the drug cartel in his sights. Even though he's still apart of 'The Delta Force', this time Norris goes it alone, and tackles South American drug lords led by an impressively juicy and vicious Billy Drago bad guy performance of utter evilness and slime. Norris' personal, easy-going turn, is less mechanical to his first showing of the McCoy character.
Now this one was full-throttle from the get-go, and looked like it had a sizable budget. The gritty action is furious, and at times unpleasant. Just look at some of those remarkably creative stunt works involving an intense rock climb and thrilling sky dive. Some of the potent camera work neatly dons some sharp angles, and works in the jungle locations to great effect. There are explosions. Big ones. Numerous ones. Norris is that hard to kill, that they use a grenade launcher to stop him. Alas with no prevail. And you gotta love the inter-cutting slow-motion. Aaron Norris (yep Chuck's brother) directs by throwing caution to the wind, and while it's not first-rate handling and freshly organised. He demonstrates enough to keep you watching, and lets it tick along. The material is the real weak point. The bloated screenplay is covered with coincidences, and dialogues are fairly leaden. The rest of the performances are a can of worms. John P Ryan gleefully hams it up as Gen. Taylor and Richard Jeckal skews in as a determined DEA Agent. The beautiful Begona Plaza is appealingly good too.
I was expecting worse of this sequel. Pure tempo-laced b-action fun, where the cold stare of Drago steals the show.
