Fighting Spirit

The original THE KING OF THE KICKBOXERS is a hidden gem of B-movie/martial arts filmmaking. In 1993, Black Belt Magazine declared it one of the best fight flicks ever made, and twenty years later, it still holds up well. Oddly enough, two movies claiming to be its sequel were released in the same year a little while after the original's debut. American SHAOLIN was a sequel in name only, featuring no returning performers and a new storyline but a similar production style. And while that film isn't perfect by any means, it does a lot more things right than the piece of junk I'm reviewing here. KING OF THE KICKBOXERS 2 features the return of Loren Avedon as the star, albeit in a different storyline with a much lower standard of action and production.

The story: When fighter Billy Edwards (Sean Donahue) is killed after getting mixed up with a sadistic underground warlord (Ned Hourani), it falls to his best friend David Carster (Avedon) to protect Billy's girlfriend (Michelle Locke) and avenge his death.

I was expecting the bad acting, roundly dreadful as it may be, but I wasn't expecting half of Loren Avedon's lines to be noticeably dubbed by another performer. I was expecting the low-budget, made-in-the-Philippines production, but I wasn't expecting the filmmakers to get basic things like correct scene-to-scene blocking wrong (e.g. a performer somehow travels ten feet between shots to fall off an escarpment). I was expecting the soundtrack to be forgettable, but dang if it doesn't stand out for its invasiveness as a mixture of repetitive lounge music and weird sound effects. And though the movie only runs for approximately 90 minutes, the story feels overlong and convoluted, with strange and unnecessary plot inserts galore, like David being paranormally contact by his dead friend no less than three times . It's just not very engaging.

The same can be said about the majority of the fight action. Though there's no shortage of it with sixteen brawls going on, very few of these are any good. The fighting cast also includes ex-kickboxer Greg Douglass among others, but even with a large collection of talent, the fisticuffs don't amaze: the action is oftentimes sloppy and uncoordinated, as though only the loosest choreography had been planned, and the overlong brawls aren't filmed very dynamically. These faults temporarily lift near the end of the film when Loren Avedon invades the villains' hideout and takes on a horde of thugs in a respectable randori, but the problems return promptly for the two final showdowns.

KING OF THE KICKBOXERS 2 isn't quite so helplessly bad that it deserves a one-star rating, but it's not far off. While the movie may appeal to folks who have grown up on this style of cheap adventure, it cannot hope to match the quality of its predecessor-in-name, even with the lead star at the helm. Leave this one be.

David Carster (Loren Avedon) tangles with bad guy Russell (Ned Hourani) and his brother Tony (Greg Douglass) after they kill his best friend Billy (Sean Donahue). Why did they kill Bill? Well, he was an awesome martial artist and they conned him into doing underground fights to pay for his sister's medical bills (from an attack that Russell orchestrated in the first place). Billy finds out the truth and gets angry, naturally, they kill him. But they don't count on Billy's ghost contacting David and telling to him to get revenge. Really!

Alright, a quick history lesson - KING OF THE KICKBOXERS starred Loren Avedon and Billy Blanks. Avedon went on to make this as FIGHTING SPIRIT, which was later renamed KING OF THE KICKBOXERS 2 to cash in on the success of the first film even though this one is unrelated. The director of KOTK made a film called American SHAOLIN. When that hit video, it was called American SHAOLIN: KING OF THE KICKBOXERS 2 to cash in on the success of the first film even though it too is also unrelated. So there are two films called KING OF THE KICKBOXERS 2 and they are both not sequels to the first film. Confused?

So this one is a pure laugh riot. I mean, I was watching it and you would have thought I was taking in a comedy. It reminded me a bit of NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER with the ghost angle. The acting is very stilted and the dubbing offers some great bits. But like all the other films in the KING OF THE KICKBOXERS world, the fights are well done. Avedon was an accomplished martial artist who always delivered. And having one of the awesome Donahue family members in there is great, even if his screen time is only for 30 minutes. Hourani, who is Arab looking and tall, was a staple in the Philippines action market at the time. Casting the pale, stout Douglass as his brother is funny in itself. Given the location shooting, I also got a good laugh when a cop says he is from the LAPD.

OK normally i am not very hard to please when it comes to martial arts movies. I grab a couple beer, get drunk, get in the action and i have a damn good time. Lot of titles voted 3/10 here on IMDb i actually like them a lot and voted 8. But for this one, lets say that it feel like the budget was beyond low. The action sequences are not that bad, but they are certainly not at the level of the ones of the bloodsport or kickboxer franchise. The story is not bad by itself but thats how its tell that make it look weird. You feel that either the character are stupid or very ignorant. But what was the biggest low point was the music, so out of context, didn't match at all. When in movies like Best of the Best 2 you have a very hooking music making you get even more in the movie, here the whole thing didn't match at all to the point it was really annoying. Anyway i would finish saying i saw worst movie, and i was not completely bored by it, but it could have been much better easily with a little work.