Good movie but grossly overrated

As Good As It Gets

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This movie is suppose to be a sequel to the movie which starred Jean-Claude Van Damme. Only now the movie revolves around the brother of the character that Van Damme played. David Sloan is the brother Van Damme's Kurt Sloan. He runs a Karate gym. Now Mr. Sangha, the Thai government official who handles Tong Po, the brutal kickboxer whom Van Damme in the previous movie, wishes that Tong Po would have another shot at Kurt Sloan, so he could vindicate himself but Tong Po in a fit of rage shot and killed him thus depriving him of an opportunity to face him again. But when they hear of David, they decide that he will be the one whom Tong Po will face to regain his honor. But when David is injured, Xian David's teacher is brought over to help him with his recovery. And when he recovers, they set David up to fight Tong Po; who will survive? Kickboxer 2 is an insult to the Kickboxer Franchise simply because it's an awful direct to VHS sequel instead of bringing back Kurt they choose to murder him in cold blood which i found it pathetic and how many brother's are out there seriously? The tagline for this film should have been changed to "Worst Sequel Ever"

KICKBOXER is one of my favourite Van Damme movies. It has many classic moments, from the heightened revenge plot, to those classic, tortuous training sequences to the outstanding ending, one of the best-filmed fights of all time. It's a classic feel good movie. This sequel is none of those things and is in most respects an awful film. Van Damme passed on the chance to reprise his role, so we're saddled with the spurious 'missing brother' claim and the resultant film must be one of the most pointless ever made.In essence, Tong Po didn't die at the end of the first film. He's back and seeking revenge, along with some loyalist Thais (a nation cast as the bad guys here, somewhat unusually). Mitchell, playing Van Damme's brother, ends up fighting Tong Po in a severe re-match, but before then there's lots of boring stuff about 'doing what's right', following one's path and all that nonsense. The first hour of the film is boring and the action sequences are few and far between; even they are mishandled. In one ring match, we watch as Mitchell beats the hell out of his opponent, with slow-motion blood sprays and the like; he's portrayed as a sadistic bully-boy, and this is the guy we're supposed to root for! Mitchell reaches a new low for an action hero in a genre already populated by guys cast for their brawn rather than brains.Much of the blame for this film's failure must rest at the door of Albert Pyun, who really is one of the poorest directors in modern cinema. Absolutely all of the films I've seen that he's directed have been bad: I'm thinking CYBORG, TICKER, OMEGA DOOM, DOLLMAN, along with many others. In none of those films has the direction been good. Here, he shows himself to have no idea of pace or how to handle a decent fight scene, often shooting on the other side of the ropes in the ring battles! Sure, the blood and gore quotient is upped from the first movie, but it goes to show that that alone doesn't make a decent film.In one, single respect does KICKBOXER 2 surpass the original, and that's in the casting. This film has an excellent cast. It's a shame they're not put to better use. The likes of Peter Boyle are here, along with Dennis Chan reprising his role from the first, even though he's utterly wasted. There's an early turn for Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as a stock bad guy, and man-mountain Matthias Hues pops up for a match. Michel Qissi also returns as the villainous Tong Po, but even though he looks the same he has none of the power or impact that his character had in the original; that goes to show how Pyun's direction sucks. In the end, this film is a wasted opportunity and time would be better spent watching the first film again rather than sitting through this mess.

David Sloan (Sasha Mitchell) is Kurt's younger brother. He runs a gym in LA teaching kids kickboxing. Justin Maciah (Peter Boyle) runs United Kickboxer Association and wants him to fight. David doesn't want to fight like his brothers but the gym is struggling. His best protégé Brian wants to fight and even David has to fight to keep the gym open. After winning against the champ, David quits and bad-mouths UKA. They retaliate by burning down the gym and Xian Chow (Dennis Chan) returns to help David recover from the burns and the lost. Sangha (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) has a plan to bring Tong Po to fight David. Tong Po had shot dead Kurt and thereby losing the opportunity to regain the country's honor in the ring.What's the point if Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't in it? Sasha has just a fraction of Van Damme's charisma. It is simply a waste of time. It also lacks the exotic locations of the original and the fights are poorly shot. Besides all that, the story takes forever to get going. The crux of the drama is the return of Tong Po. That's the villain fans want to see. If Tong Po killed Kurt, I think that's enough reason for David to seek revenge. All the other stuff at the beginning is unnecessary. In fact, they should have Tong Po right at the start.

This was just a dream. What REALLY happened after Kickboxer, was that Kurt and Eric decided to live in Thailand where they opened there own Muay Thai school. Kurt eventually married Mylee and they are still there partying today.As the first movie pointed out, there was only two brothers. There was never a secret brother. The "brother" subplot was used in the first one, even if they did have yet another brother (man what a cheesy, excuse to do a sequel!), they obviously don't care too much about him as they said in the first one "there's only you and me". I can't imagine Eric saying. "Dad was always on my case. But he made me harder. Oh wait on me AND David! I somehow forget that I grew up with a brother here!" Satcha Mitchell is really weak and wimpy looking. He could never be the brother of Kurt and Eric (as Tong Po correctly states in this movie, "You're the weakest of all the Sloanes". That's no bulls**t. It's true). He's really boring and can't act. I would stick to 'Step by Step', Satcha, because as an action star, you're pathetically weak. Kickboxer was a success mainly for the presence of Van Damme. When you put in an unknown actor who's as dull as ditchwater, you know you're in trouble. It basically confirms that this is not a sequel as the actor you see in the flashback is obviously not Van Damme. Maybe this is another person Tong Po fought that was also named Kurt Sloan (cause the Kurt Sloan we know only had one brother, Eric). When you put in a villain that was already defeated (Tong Po), it's kinda mindless. But somehow, despite being soundly defeated, the movie attempts to show him as "stonger than before (how?)" And if Tong Po REALLY killed Kurt (which he didn't, as I said, this film didn't happen), just bashing him up in the end is not getting revenge. Knowing he is a killer, you can only be satisfied if he is killed at the end and gets what he deserves (which he doesn't), so there's no stopping him from doing the same to David Sloan. I could relate to Kurt, I certainly couldn't relate to this "David Sloan". I didn't know who he was and I couldn't care less. I hope the fans of him were just and p**sed off as I was about Van Damme, when he was dumped from the series. The unexciting presence of Satcha Mitchell led to this being a series of direct to video sequels, which he was happy to star in (being a no-name actor). To most of us he's simply making money by being in Van Damme's movies. He wouldn't even have got to be in those without Vann Damme, so don't you dare think of him as the Kickboxer actor. I suppose if David was killed off and it was revealed there was yet ANOTHER brother you'd call it cheesy. Well I found this too cheesy to contemplate. Like I said, this was a Kickboxer imitator, not a sequel. There is no such thing as a "David Sloane". Just Kurt and Eric who are still living it up in Thailand.