While the first movie was ok, with some plot holes and non sense scenes, it at least succeeded to give the main characters some developpment and give empathy/emotion (the relationships with the girls, Shingo's mom, etc) to them. Altough with an abrupt ending, it had something between Bloodsport and Karate Kid (not only with its cast). But this one doesn't have anything of that! All the drama, character developpment started in the first movie is wiped out and worst, they came up with an all made up character (Eddie) out of their magical pocket, supposedly a well known guy (friend?) they met in the first film, except that he doesn't exist in the first film! So, it felt a bit awkward here. We would have expected some follow-up with what happened between the boys and their girlfriends (Nick's sister, which was Ruben's girlfriend) but nothing at all, not even a mention of them. Did Ruben broke up with her? We don't know but suppose yes as he goes with another girl. He wouldn't cheat on her in front of her brother! And then, they came up making Joe Son as the brother of Bolo Yeung. We've already seen him in the very first scene of the 1st film and it didn't feel like he was his brother (which he wasn't supposed to be at the time). It could have been a good film but poorly done unfortunately. Good to see Bolo Yeung and William Zabka, but that's about it. The scene were the girl wants to call the police in front of the armed guys was ridiculous, who would do that? At least, wait that they are away! We don't really feel any emotions here. To me it's a fail. Good point with the musical theme by Alex Wilkinson tough. A shame it's never been released on CD.
Review of Shootfighter II
