Thunder II - Le guerrier rebelle

A much needed sequel...bawahahaha

Another movie from the king of trash, surprisingly not as good as the first movie.

Its C grade amusement but you know what you are going to get :)

The opening credits of "Thunder II" are extremely reminiscent to those of the original "Thunder". In fact, I even paused and double-checked if I was watching the correct film, because the VHS-boxes accidentally could have gotten mixed up in my movie closet. Turns out that titular Navajo-hero Thunder is transported through the desert in the back of an old pick-up truck in part one, whereas he drives his own jeep in part two. Small detail, but it had me fooled for a minute! Anyways, "Thunder II" is a passable and sorely disappointing sequel, mainly because co-writer/director Fabrizio De Angelis incomprehensibly opted for a feeble PG-13 rating. Basically, this certificate means there are numerous of supposedly spectacular car chases and crashes, the latter always shot in dreadful slow-motion, but almost no casualties. Thunder returns to the same little Arizonan desert town that he wrecked in the original film, only now he's a law enforcer. You'd think they station him elsewhere, but no, of all the little redneck towns in Arizona they send him back to Yavapai County. Rusty Weissner, the same deputy who previously made Thunder's life a living hell, is still calling the shots in town and he possibly even became more corrupt, relentless and psychotic. With Sheriff Roger (wasn't he called Bill, by the way?) struggling with domestic problems, Rusty now doesn't even bother anymore to cover up his drug-trafficking and murdering of innocent Native Americans. Rusty is truly awesome and ought to run for President! He rams people's heads through the windshield, threatens helicopter pilots at gunpoint and frames his new colleague Thunder so that he gets send to a primitive and racist state prison. When our Indian hero can finally avenge himself, all he does is hang from a helicopter rope. I had good confidence that "Thunder II" would become an excessively violent and trashy exploitation knock-off, particularly because Dardano Sacchetti is also listed as a writer, but the sad truth is that it balances somewhere between a "Cannonball Run" and a "Police Academy" sequel. The car stunts are memorable, but mainly because nobody even bothered to make them look authentic. Instead of the characters, you can plainly see the stunt drivers with their helmets.

My review was written in June 1987 after watching the movie on TWE video cassette.

Thunder is back and Bo Svenson's got him in "Thunder Warrior 2", a photogenic if uneventful sequel to the Italian made-in-U. S. A. Action pic of several years back.

Indian hero Thunder (Italian thesp Mark Gregory) returns home in the sequel, appointed by the governor as a deputy sheriff to Sheriff Roger (Bo Svenson), who had him sent to prison in part one. His adversary once again is the corrupt deputy (Raimund Harmstorf), running a profitable drug trade. An Indian chief is murdered by the frug ring and Thunder is out to get to the bottom of this when Harmstorf frames him for muder and it's back to Arizona's state pen.

Thunder escapes on cue and there's plenty of chases and helicopter stunts in Monument Valley until the hero puts on his war paint to go after Harmstorf. Finale is disappointing and confusing with Svenson sending the hero (with wife Karen Reel) away and cryptically taking aim at their car with his rifle in the final shot. Never fear, a third installment is in the works.

Monument Valley is a lovely backdrop for this nonsense, rendered a bit hard to take by the pidgin English dialog. Filmmaker Fabrizio De Angelis evidently gets away with minimal efforts like these, but even a lowkey hero like Thunder will need more interesting challenges to keep an audience coming back for more.

This is a low-budget ripoff of "Rambo", and although the original "Rambo" was no great shakes, it's "Citizen Kane" compared to this stinker. Mark Gregory is such a terrible actor you feel embarrassed for him, but no one else is much better. Bo Svenson is the only American in the cast--even though it was shot in New Mexico--but at least they didn't dub his voice, like they did everyone else's (and, as is usual with these dubbed Italian movies, the dubbing is atrocious), so the best thing you can say about his performance is that you can recognize his voice. The action scenes aren't handled particularly well--a fight in a desert diner at the beginning of the picture is laughable and a bank robbery and chase scene toward the middle is so poorly coordinated it makes you wonder if anyone actually directed it, or if they just told the drivers, "OK, drive around town and bump into each other." There are plot holes you could build an eight-lane highway through and characters do things that make you shake your head in disbelief. For example, when Thunder is being chased and shot at in the desert by a helicopter, does he try to get to a place--behind boulders, among rocks, etc.--where the chopper can't see him or get to him? No, of course not--he stands out in the open, grabs a rope and tries to lasso it! What did he think he was going to do, pull it out of the sky? Anyway, the whole movie is filled with stupidities like this.

So, to recap, there's bad news and good news. The bad news is that "Thunder Warrior II" is a tenth-rate copy of a movie that wasn't particularly good to begin with, the script is laugh-inducing, the "acting" wouldn't pass muster in a porn film, the "action" scenes are shoddy and poorly done, the dubbing is not only terrible but annoying, and its "hero" is about as stiff, bland and colorless as they come. The good news is that, because a friend gave it to me, I didn't pay anything to see it. And that's pretty much the ONLY good thing about this picture.

this movie rocks. its got so much bad its good. you have to truly like a good bad movie to enjoy this, so take warring, but im my opinon fantastic!!!!! From the awful overdubs to awful acting to gut renching editing and a plot that makes no sense. did i mention a awful soundtrack, constantly reused footage, and the fact that you can see the stunt drivers IN THE CARS!!??!! amazing is all i can say. the surprise ending is also genius! 10+