L'homme aux poings de fer 2

I enjoyed the first one... OK, it's nothing new, and it's was nothing outstanding, but still, it was very entertaining...the cast had some world class names, from Russel Crowe to Lucy Liu and Dave Bautista as well...

I was awkward to see this second one... I've read the reviews, and I found myself thinking: "The first one was entertaining... the second one, as any sequel, will be mediocre, at best..."...and so, last night, I give a try.. Glad that I did... first, the cast here, is more "B-level". They are well known from Asian movies or action B-films... Dustin Nguyen, Carl Ng, Sahajal Boonthanakit and the most famous of all, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

This second movie, doesn't evolve around Thaddeus (Rza), but over Li King (Dustin), as the leader of an enslaved mining village. MAster Ho, and his henchmen, abuse physically and mentally of every villager, and those who do not submit to his will, are tortured and killed. The arrival of Thaddeus to the village, is the sign the villagers were waiting for, to fight back, against tyranny.

So, this second movie is more about martial arts, itself. Nguyen is awesome, as always, and the old kungfu moves, are very good. Even though it has it's flaws, the movie is good... from my personal point of view, I prefer this one to the first one...

But still, I recommend you to see it, and make your own conclusion. Remember, it's not class A material... but is still, a good movie.

MAN WITH THE IRON FIST 2 review by: Mike Smith

Thaddeus The Blacksmith (RZA) is back in this action adventure inspired by Kung-Fu classics. A reluctant villager joins forces with a mysterious outsider to fight off powerful evil forces, both earthly and otherworldly, in a 19th century Chinese mining town.

Let me start by saying I didn't mind the first Man With The Iron Fist movie; it was a nice Kung-Fu action Grindhouse movie but it was forgettable. Besides the start of the film, Man With The Iron Fist 2 shys away from the Grindhouse feel of the first film and focuses more on the Kung-Fu genre. One thing I was disappointed about is that this films story isn't really based around the adventure of Thaddeus The Blacksmith. The story is about a minor who must save his village with the help of Thaddeus The Blacksmith. Man With The Iron Fist 2 just helps build the legend of Thaddeus The Blacksmith a bit more, so don't expect just to watch RZA whoop ass through the whole film like the first one.

I'm not the biggest Kung-Fu movie fan but I really enjoyed myself. The fight scenes are really well done and kept me wanting more. The story is a classic stand up to evil story and this film tells it well.

Unlike the first film, there are not a lot of big named stars in this movie, but it doesn't take away from the film. Everyone does a great job in Man With The Iron Fist 2 and it feels like a love letter to classic Kung-Fu films.

But like all films, Man With The Iron Fist 2 does have some flaws, like the use of modern day lingo. You kind of forget that everyone is supposed to be in 19th century Chinese, even though it takes you out of the film I find it part of the charm. The music is all rap and/or big rap beats; I'm not by far a rap fan and yes I know RZA is a rapper so I knew what to expect and I enjoyed the beats and the scores.

Man With The Iron Fist 2 is not a top shelf movie but I did enjoy it even though it's not what I was expecting after seeing the first film 3 years ago. This film is strongly forgettable but has some fun lines of dialog. If you want to watch something a bit different and turn your brain off for 90 minutes check this out and no you don't need to watch the first film to watch this one.

Cheers and remember like won't suck as long as there is a good movie to watch.

6 out of 10

Edited by Samantha Locke

twitter: FatMikeTPK Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/FatMikesMovieReviews

What an epic waste of time and money. Far more worse than the previous one. Poor story line, screenplay, casting. The title is inappropriate also as RZA is playing a side role. Action scenes are not up to par.A complete rubbish. Only good thing is the story. It has some twist . But one can predict that easily. The castings are not good as the previous one. Without Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu and Batista this sequel don't stand a chance . The music is not appropriate with the scenes. And too much unnecessary violence. Personally, i watched it because i kind of like the first one. But the story lack continuity. It will go down as one of the worst movie in recent years.

I'm only writing this review because some of the other reviews are far too harsh. Yes, this is a bad movie, but it's not any worse than most other low budget chop socky I've watched, if anything it suffers from a lack of fighting. My biggest complaint would be that the asians in this flick all speak english to well and detracts from that asian market grindhouse martial arts feel. Anyway if you've watched more than five none hollywood kung fu movies you'll see it's Ok.

Review: What a complete waste of time! I thought that RZA would have learnt from the first movie but this one is even worse. Without Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu, this sequel really didn't have a chance, especially with its terrible storyline and weak characters. Basically it's about a evil man who runs the village and forces the men to work in a mine. The miners group together to try and take out the vicious evil-doer but they always end up getting murdered, until Thaddeus comes along. After getting saved by one of the miners daughters, Thaddeus makes them weapons to take out Master Ho and the leader of the miners, Li Kung, challenges him to a duel. With the help of his fellow miners and Thaddeus, they battle to take down his clan with there martial arts skills and weapons. The storyline is really bad and the heavy hip hop beats throughout the movie didn't match the mood of the film. The acting is pretty poor but it does look authentic and some of the scenery was impressive. Personally, I don't know how RZA was able to release another one of these movies because the first one was a joke. He seemed really out of place throughout the film and his fighting skills were terrible and hard to watch. Anyway, I personally think that this was a total waste of time and money and I'm not surprised that it went straight to DVD. Terrible!

Round-Up: Although the music throughout the movie didn't suit the scenes, I was bopping my head to RZA's beats so he should really stick to what he's good at. The whole iron fist concept really didn't play a big part in this movie and RZA seemed to be missing most of the time. On the plus side, the film didn't look low budget and some of the gory fighting scenes were OK but RZA really needs to do something with Thaddeus, who just seems to be in a bad mood all of the time. If he's going to come out with another movie in this franchise, he's need to do the Iron Fists in America because the Oriental flavour really isn't working. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into their martial movies about a group of miners who want to take down there evil boss with the help of Thaddeus. 2/10