Lady Dragon 2

This has to be one of the most spectacular cases of aiming high and missing by a mile.

In the early 90s, a slew of actors tried to break into action stardom in the post-Cannon movie world. Among hopefuls like of Daniel Bernhardt, Thomas Ian Griffith, Jeff Speakman, Jeff Wincott, Oliver Gruner, Gary Daniels and others, there was a lone female martial artist: Cynthia Rothrock. After some Hong Kong movies with amazing stunts, her American films were notable for much less impressive stuntwork, low production value and lots of cheese (like the meme final fight in Undefeated). Her early American films were usually low budget LA movies that tried to make her a star and are notable for aiming well beyond their means.

Lady Dragon 2 is probably the weirdest example among them.

Rothrock plays the martial arts champion wife of a diminutive South American soccer player who somehow sees himself as a popular leader in a corrupt impoverished country. Yes, it's that weird. They live in a mansion with a housekeeper, but somehow, when the soccer player comes across some Diamonds stolen by a ruthless criminal from the Italian Mafia (was the screenwriter doing too much coke?), he takes them to "help his people". Naturally the bad guys show up.

And what a bad guy we get: Billy Drago! He dials up his usual schtick to 11. It's a weirdly fascinating mix of gangster, psychopath, sexual pervert and rapist, effeminate wimp, and southern hillbilly. It's a ridiculous performance, and the director glues the camera to him whenever he's on screen and gives him ample time to do knife tricks, moan into the phone, give death glares or do feminine dances and gyrations. It's not a great performance, but... it's a performance.

After the initial attack and a murder, he waltzes in and out of Cynthia Rothrock's house whenever he pleases. The police even apprehend him, and he still does it. Goes right back to the murder scene, and even starts doing obscene phone calls to Cynthia Rothrock or playing pranks with a dead body (not gonna spoil that scene). The police at one point offer to keep one officer there for protection, but of course Cynthia Rothrock says no. We're supposed to think it's because she's a badass, but really it's because they lacked the budget and the script was tripping over its many plotlines already.

The writers throw everything they have at the screen: rape, ill begotten gains, stealing from the mafia, class differences, economic hardship and growing up in poverty, self-sacrifice, betrayal, vigilantiism, the police having to let criminals go for lack of evidence, martial arts, rape, sexual harassment and a brief horror scene. It's INSANE.

Cynthia Rothrock doesn't have many fights, but the ones she has are overdone. Whether pinned between a random weirdly yelling chinese swordfighter and other armed goons, or between someone with a gun and someone with a car, none of it makes sense, but it's plenty violent and stupid. Very entertaining.

Unfortunately, the soundtrack, as so often in early 90s movies, hampers the enjoyment. It's an incessantly loud melancholic synth score, melodic, with some weird military drums. It sucks the tension right out of scenes that would feel pretty intense with a more fitting soundtrack. This soundtrack feels more like for a noir movie.

As you can see, none of the puzzle pieces fit together. But you'll rarely be bored. Mostly due to Billy Drago.

A good choice for bad movie night.

Action queen Cynthia Rothrock gets one of her most serious and mature roles after her departure from working in Hong Kong film, with Angel Of Fury - also known as Lady Dragon 2 but with no connection to the first except for its star and its director, David Worth. Having also directed the great Kickboxer with Van Damme as well as Chain Of Command with Michael Dudikoff, Worth also worked as DOP on Bloodsport as well as many other Hollywood flicks!

But even with credits as long as your leg, Angel Of Fury is still just an above-average movie, playing it safe on many technical levels. Although US backed, the majority of it was shot in Indonesia (much like Lady Dragon) and stars a number of local actors, one of which is George Rudy who plays Rothrock's husband. He suffers at the hands of the camp but great Billy Drago and his men, who torture him for some diamonds and rape his wife in front of him. One of Drago's men is the towering Sam Jones, who is totally miscast in this role as a big-stupid-boy who just knows how to smash things up and fire guns.

While the production design and direction may be a little dated and average against today's standards, things are saved by a menacing performance by Billy Drago and our very own Miss Rothrock, who turns in one of her better acting gigs and still looks great in the action scenes. Yes, its far from what she was delivering in her Hong Kong films, but the fights are still pretty entertaining to watch and don't disappoint. One of the highlights being the fight involving 3 guys versus Rothrock towards the end.

Personally, I found that it was around this time (possibly a year or two later), that Cynthia's films and career started to take a slide and unfortunately, never got back on track since, and while she always suffered from a bad run of costumes and hair-do's in her Hong Kong films, I have to say that Cyndy looks great in this role. She fits the part well, pulling off a tidy performance as a widow scorned who's out for revenge. It was great seeing her back alongside someone like the late Drago, who had also starred with her in Karate Cop (aka Martial Law 2: Undercover), which allowed for more intensity between them on screen here having formed that friendship in the past.

I do like Angel Of Fury. It's not a film you would want to watch over and over again due to its slow pace and dark nature, but it does entertain. Although the score is very nineties in a Hollywood kinda way, the sound design isn't all that great, often missing an opportunity for creating more tension or impact in the right moment...

This is Cynthia's 'big-girl' film, and I do wish she had gotten more of this type of thing (albeit with a stronger director). There are a few moments in Angel Of Fury that surprised me, such as when her exhumed husband appears at home sending her into melt-down, and Drago's death at the end. But hey, it is a thriller after-all..!

Overall: An underrated (albeit, flawed) thriller with a great performance from Rothrock, both in the action and acting department.

I actually don't know the length of this film. It is a very poor one, and the tale of death, rape and revenge by the widow has been told so many times, both in major, and cult movies!... This film has two outstanding elements, though, that make it mandatory viewing for fans of Cynthia Rothrock: herself, playing her character to the hilt, despite she's surrounded by mainly C-grade professionals; and the most violent, well played, well filmed 3 minutes of women karate you possibly can have. Ring action is interspersed with the credit titles, and apparently non-related scenes - however, important to understand the following dramatic events. Therefore, you feel as if the actual ring time is longer than it is, and therefore adding to the strong, powerful scenes of karate - excellently played by sportswoman Cynthia and, no doubt, an Eastern black belt who has never been seen in movies before, or after - at least under that name.

In the new and moderately improved sequel to David 'Kickboxer' Worth's original Rothrock-starring action-distraction 'Lady Dragon', our plucky, punch-happy heroine returns once more to avenge the murder of her beloved husband by a gang of heartless, mask-wearing killers led by the glacial, stone-hearted villainy of B-Movie kingpin Billy Drago. We see Susan 'The Golden Angel' Morgan strut her entirely strut-worthy stuff in the ring making hard work of an enjoyably rough, slam-bang bout as the exquisitely evil Diego (Billy Drago) callously wipes out three wealthy goombah's for their plentiful diamond booty.

Having only barely survived this awful Diego-led home invasion, the ignominy continues as the frantically murderous obsession over the ownership of the contraband diamonds merely increases the terrible levels of ensuing violence. Choosing blunt street justice over the uncertain vagaries of law, this 'Angel of Fury' must initially get down an' dirty in the scum-clogged bowels of the city in order to 'flush out' the diabolically foul perpetrators and take them out one by one.

While 'Lady Dragon 2' isn't by any stretch of the imagination a top-tier Rothrock skull-rocker, since it focuses mainly on sleazy theatrics than relentless 'Undefeatable' style Kung Fun overkill, but there are a few stand out bravura sequences of righteous skell annihilation, which capitalize strongly on Cynthia Rothrock's quicksilver punches and devastating Roundhouse kicks to enormously cinematic effect! I have always found Rothrock to be a dynamic and hugely engaging screen presence and certainly no less so as vengeful Susan 'The Golden Angel' Morgan, and when she inevitably unleashes her signature lightning-fast flurry of titanic Thug trashing, tibia terminating terror it is ALWAYS guaranteed to be a next level boss beatdown!

There's some additionally joyous incongruities on display here which playfully elevate the formulaic proceedings, namely Sam 'Flash Gordon' Jones's singular decision to zestily play his lunk-headed bully boy Reb as a bizarrely perma-cackling cartoon super villain, making for a weirdly satisfying buzz-cut creepozoid that ultimately proves no match for the sinfully savage Cynthia! Much like the powerhouse star, 'Lady Dragon 2' is generously top loaded, saving all the groovy goodies for last, as even a lesser Rothrock actioner is far better than most at their best. I had a B-Movie blast watching Cynthia 'sticking' it to the deliciously diabolical Diego and hopefully other Rothrock fans might get no less of a 'kick' out of watching 'Lady Dragon 2' than I did!

I like American martial arts B movies. I am a big fan of Cynthia Rothrock, even if people say her American stuff is bad, some movie where really good for me, enjoy them a lot, like China O'Brien, Rage and Honor, the original Lady Dragon and others, i like this type of B action movies. But here, im sorry but this is uber crap from the get go. David Worth... its the guy that directed Kickboxer? How come he could do something like this? I mean OK he may not be the story writer but still... This is bad from the get go, the plot is stupid, the bad guys are bad caricature of villains, the music is probably the worst of them all, its a track that would fit to an old 60s horror movie... not a martial art movie of the 90s...

A couple fight of Cynthia let me give it a 4... but damn i can't believe this is name after LADY DRAGON, the first one was a good movie, i loved it, even if it was cliché American kickboxing style movie, but thats what i like, but even for me, this is too much.

I saw this movie on sale on ebay for like 50$ cause i guess its rare... yeah im glad i paid only 10 bucks, cause the seller didn't had the cover... i would had been so angry if i paid 50 for that... Cynthia is awesome, David Worth did kickboxer and even another movie i really liked... Honor. But this... is pretty bad... Man even Billy Drago i enjoyed him in other works like Demon Hunter, Charmed, and a few other movies, but in this... his character is so bad... Im sorry but EPIC FAIL for this one.