UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Merolliv
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
Jonah Abbott
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
BrickNash
China O' Brien II picks up where the first film left off and it's almost literally more of the same which means TV movie quality plot and acting interspersed with some martial arts action.As a film it's certainly not the worst ever made and it's about as solidly entertaining as any episode of Columbo or Walker Texas Ranger. As with the first one where the film excels is the fight scenes which are dynamic and very well choreographed with some brilliant OTT sound effects.The film's plot centres around some bog standard pap about an escaped convict terrorising the town and in that it makes some mistakes. As with the first film, the main bad guy is an older dude with no fighting skills whatsoever and so there is really no final threat or showdown, just a big free for all brawl involving loads of people.It would have been nice to have China go up against another female martial artist hench(wo)man or even a female villain with fighting skills. Even a bog standard martial arts villain would have done but alas no.Still in saying that, watching China beat the s-h-i-t out of endless waves of plaid shirted goons is satisfying enough although the story:fight ratio is a little off in favour of the "boring" bits.Still, as thin as the plot is it's executed well enough to keep the pace going and fans won't be disappointed by the highly satisfying action one bit. One for the collection!
Leofwine_draca
Set two years after the first film in the series, this cheap and cheerfully brainless chop-socky adventure has all you'd ever want from a B-grade martial arts flick: a ton o' action, lots of hulking henchmen and other assorted goons, some painful emoting on the part of the unknown cast, and slick direction. The latter comes from Robert Clouse, the man who directed the first and also ENTER THE DRAGON in his heyday, and he still knows how to shoot a decent fight scene.The plot is as insubstantial as it is unbelievable. China gets involved in a murderous plot by an escaped criminal, who we see at the beginning of the film bumping off all the people who took him down (my favourite death is the judge's, a hilarious magic-trick-gone-wrong jape). There are lots of stand-offs and various fight scenes until the massive climax, in which the massive gang of bad guys TAKE OVER THE WHOLE TOWN, leaving the heroes of the movie to take them on. That's the kind of climax I like! Imagine ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, except that the good guys leave the police station and beat the hell out of the baddies instead – that's what I love to see.The central trio of martial artists return, very much unchanged, from the original film; hell, they even wear the same costumes! Rothrock kicks ass with relish and seems even more supple and athletic than before, performing lots of flips and gymnastic stunts in mid-air. Norton is the heavy-hitter who whacks the hell out of anybody who comes close, while Keith Cooke continues to channel the fighting spirit of Bruce Lee. Harlow Marks is another craggy villain, and lots of the henchmen from the first film return as more goons waiting to get beaten up. What's amazing is how many people (including Cooke) went on to star in MORTAL KOMBAT movies after making this flick… anyway, I digress. Muscleman Billy Blanks also pops up as a badly-dressed '80s baddie who gets his ass whupped in an alleyway, although my favourite fight scene is between Rothrock and the Chinese guy with the Freddy Krueger gloves. Way to go! Sure, CHINA O'BRIEN II makes for lowbrow entertainment, of interest only to fans of B-grade action flicks who know exactly what they're getting themselves in for. I did, and I loved every minute; I can't help but feel that the time is ripe for a "twenty years later" third film in the trilogy, rounding up Rothrock, Cooke and Norton for a final slice of small-town ass-kicking. We can but dream.
Comeuppance Reviews
China (Rothrock), Matt Conroy (Norton) and Dakota (Cooke) are all back - and we're definitely happy about that, but there's a creeping suspicion that this sequel never really needed to exist. Famed director Clouse should have re-purposed the cast and settings into an all-new movie. But as it stands, it's decent enough, as China and the gang fight an evildoer named Charlie Baskin (Marks) and his goons as they try to disrupt their idyllic small town life with their crime spree. That's pretty much it for the plot. Technically, that's all that's really necessary to make a good Martial Arts movie, but this particular outing lacks intensity most of the time. Obviously the fights are the highlights of the film, and that is where everything clicks and comes together, but what surrounds it is kind of mushy, if that makes any sense.China O'Brien 2 is "country Cynthia" - as opposed to City Cops (1989), we presume. She fights overweight bumpkins named Bubba while pedal steel music plays in the background. It shows her versatility. Plus the all-acid wash outfit she wears while fighting is awesome. Keith Cooke's fighting style is quite dynamic, and he adds a lot of life to the proceedings. It's hard to believe Billy Blanks went uncredited. His pants alone are worth a credit. His zebra print Zubaz, or ZPZ's for short (you'd be surprised how often we need to abbreviate this) single him out and bring him to the forefront, so how dare they not credit him? Oh well, fans know it's him, so, it doesn't really matter in the end.Toshishiro Obata, who has had an interesting career, having been in many movies covered on this site, from Ghost Warrior (1985) to fellow Rothrock/Norton vehicle Rage and Honor (1992), among others, stands out as well as "Man With Claws", a goon who wears Wolverine/Freddy Krueger-like metal claws on his hands. There's also a baddie who dresses like Indiana Jones and even brandishes a whip. So there are a few little standout things, but China O'Brien 2 isn't really essential viewing, unless you're a fan of Rothrock, Norton, or Blanks and need to see everything they've done. It's not a bad movie at all, but the stuff in between the fight scenes is a bit lacking.
gridoon
Although this film is a Golden Harvest co-production, don't expect the fight choreography to be much better than average. For one thing, the villains are not very skillful fighters, and even those few who appear intimidating at first are defeated rather easily (I hate it when that happens). There is still some of the usual good stuff from Richard Norton and Cynthia Rothrock here, but the rapid-fire Keith Cooke easily outshines them both. Biggest disappointment: early on, the movie introduces a super-fit stripper / assassin, and I was hoping for a climactic fight between her and Rothrock; not only does that never happen - she also disappears completely from the film! (**)
