Kill ´Em All 2

There was a time in history when action films on VHS was a big hit at the VHS rental stores. You would usually see the big muscles and big guns on the VHS cover and you already knew this was not going to be appreciated by extreme feminists. This was during the time when it was ok to make masculine action movies without being ashamed about it. I used to rent a lot of action films back in those days and i would especially look at action films with Michael Dudikoff, David Bradley, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Billy Blanks, Jackie Chan, Brandon Lee and i even enjoyed the 1991 action film Stone Cold with Brian Bosworth, Lance Henriksen and William Forsythe. If i wanted more martial arts action combined i could trust martial arts actor Billy Blanks to deliver a good time. Is every action film he did in the 80´s and 90´s really good? No, but in general i think he managed to deliver solid martial art films that was made for fans of this specific genre. For example the 1993 sci fi action martial art film TC 2000 is a fun cheesy action film about the future, talking environment issues while people kick ass future style. In this film you also find martial art actors such as Jalal Merhi, Matthias Hues and of course Bloodsport actor Bolo Yeung incuded. Since i mentioned Bloodsport the 1988 martial art classic, there are so many great films to choose between with legendary martial arts action star Jean-Claude Van Damme. No matter if you love Kickboxer, Cyborg, Lionheart, Double Impact or Universal Soldier, even until this day i watch all of his classics every year. Since the early 2000´s Van Damme have released most of his films straight to DVD and blu ray except for a couple of titles who did get cinema releases in certain countries. Some of you might remember the 2017 action film Kill ´Em All? Well here we have a sequel that no one expected ( at least not me ) to the original film. Being a true fan of Van Damme is this his best film in many years or is Kill ´Em All 2 one of his worst films since the 2002 action film Derailed?

7 years have passed since Phillip ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ) survived the hospital shoot out and is now returning to his home village in Slovenia with his daughter Vanessa ( Jacqueline Fernandez ). A gangster criminal under the name of Vlad Petrovic ( Andrei Lenart ) have been looking for Phillip since he killed his brother. He manage to locate Phillip and want him dead, this is a fight that can only lead to death.

I don´t demand much from a low budget action film. All i am asking for is some fun action scenes, some fun fighting scenes and the main character should be developed enough to work with the plot. In the case of Kill ´Em All 2 i can honestly say this has to be the laziest character development i have seen in one of Van Damme´s films. If you remember even in films like Cyborg or Nowhere To Run you at least had a character where Van Damme matched well, even though we all know his acting wasn´t always fantastic. Van Damme´s character Phillip have no personality at all, he basically just talk and give different facial expressions but without any passion. This is such a shame because we all remember that he can make great characteers such as Lyon in his classic Lionhheart. Im not saying you have to reach the same level as his true classic films because i understand he is older and more limited what he can do, but i know he can act if he wants to. And this is where i feel like Van Damme doesn´t go in fully hearted into this role, yes he does some of the fighting scenes but only limited to what he is able to do at his age. What i mean by fully hearted i would have liked him to show his more dramatic side since i know he has to adjust to where he is in life at this moment. A few fighting scenes are ok but you see his stunt double´s face several times during certain fight scenes and i feel they should have filmed in a different angle so you don´t see the stunt double´s face. What about the plot itself? Very basic action standard and that´s ok i don´t have a problem with it. I have to mention the performance of actress Jacqueline Fernandez as the character Vanessa. I am sure she is a lovely woman in real life but her performance in this film is terrible, no other way to say it. Legendary actor Peter Stormare is in this film but far too little, he should have been in a much bigger role. The few positive notes is probably some of the action scenes looks ok as well as some fight scenes. Other than that i can´t say much more positive about Kill ´Em All 2, it´s a very generic forgettable action film that we have seen so many times before. Director Valeri Milev did direct the really funny action film Bullets Of Justice in 2019 so he can do great films in this genre. Unfortunately it feels like he didn´t feel very motivated making this sequel and it shows. Not a terrible action and actually better than the original film but very easy to forget and too predictable.

Rating: DD