Dans les griffes du tigre 2

There is only one scenario where you should watch "Tiger Claws II".

You are on an airplane which crashes in the South Pacific. The only survivor, you swim to a nearby deserted island. You learn to eke out an existence on this island by eating tropical fruit and spearing small boars in the jungle. A monkey becomes your only friend, but every night it hurls feces at you from a tree and chatters annoyingly. And it doesn't just hurl its own feces, it actually gathers the feces of other animals and throws that at you too. This goes on every night for 15 years.

One evening you are exploring and find a cave. Entering the cave, to your surprise, you find a TV, VCR, and generator. You pull the cord on the generator and again surprised, it starts. You plug the TV and VCR in, but unfortunately the only movie is an old copy of "Tiger Claws II". You wonder whether to spend another evening with the monkey, or watch the movie.

This is the only scenario where you should watch "Tiger Claws II".

The first film was pretty boring and bad. This one is entertaining only by one bit. The old crew is back, leaded by Jalal Merhi, (always hot) Cynthia Rothrock and Bolo Yeung. And it's specifically for martial arts fans and for fans of noted action actors… Two police officers are tracking a criminal named Victor and they think that he is involved with underground martial arts tournament in which Bolo Yeung is also involved. I think that this movie would not be that interesting without Bolo, I think that he is the main purpose, the main vehicle that holds this film. Bolo has this strong presence and appearance and that unmistakable charisma. There is nothing special to talk about, the fight scenes ( for which we are here, mostly) are solid. Actors cannot act worth of crap. The script, score, editing… and everything else is just not that intriguing. The film includes "acting crew" that are mostly athletes. Overall, keep this low budget pearl to yourself, or share it with like-minded people. It's definitively not for everyone.

Why weird, you ask? Well, consider these points:

1) It's called "Tiger Claws II", but the Tiger style is barely used in it.

2) The first movie was a "track down the serial killer" story, this is more of an "underground martial arts tournament" story.

3) Bolo Yeung is now - get this - a good guy! In the film's most laughable line, he is referred to by Jalal Merhi as an "honorable man"! I guess Merhi has gotten over the fact that several innocent people - including his best friend - were killed by Bolo in the first "Tiger Claws".

4) Cynthia Rothrock (who looks very good for 41) has virtually no action scenes until the 50-minute mark, but does get a couple of good fights near the end.

5) There some half-explained sci-fi elements, including time-traveling.

Two more points: the production values are slicker than those of most DTV action sequels, and Evan Lurie, playing one of the bad guys, has a kind of slimy charisma, as opposed to the lead Merhi, who has none at all. (**)

I got this movie from the video store simply because it had Bolo Yeung in it. And he is as big and powerful as ever. But he has toned down his cruelty level, and plays a calm introspective type.

Don't let that fool you though. There are plenty of fight scenes in this movie, and lots of big name, and simply big martial artists. Also as a big plus, someone apparently taught Cynthia Rothrock how to stage fight without missing the person by two feet, although sadly she still doesn't know how to act without being annoying.

Oh BTW toward the end of the movie there are scenes of cinematic Kung Fu. Portals through time, paralyzing touch etc. But it all works out into a fun martial arts movie. Just don't go looking for plot.

Not entirely making it clear whether it is actually a direct sequel, director J. Stephen Maunder takes the helm of the idea behind the first movie and improves upon it.

This is helped by better performances from Cynthia Rothrock and Jalal Merhi, plus increased screen time from Bolo Yeung in addition to a number of interesting and fun characters that dress reminiscent of video games from the period.

Helping the film immensely are a number of enticing and engaging sets with more props and better camera work. The story remains unfulfilling and unengaging, but the entertainment is there and overall its quite fun.