{"id":11408,"date":"2025-03-12T23:25:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T03:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11408"},"modified":"2025-03-12T23:25:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T03:25:18","slug":"bloodfist-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/03\/12\/bloodfist-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodfist II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bloodfist II<\/strong> (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Concorde\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (martial arts violence, language, brief nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Andy Blumenthal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Catherine Cyran\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nigel Holton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bruce Dorfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 12, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, Rina Reyes, Jose Mari Avellana, Robert Marius, Maurice Smith, Tim Baker, James Warring, Richard Hill, Steve Rodgers, Monsour Del Rosario, Manny Samson, Jing Castaneda, Archie Ramirez, Ned Hourani.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $1.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson is back in Bloodfist II<\/strong>, the sequel to his starring debut feature in which he plays kickboxing champ Jake Raye. It\u2019s the only sequel in the entire eight-film oeuvre that has any connection at all with the first movie. The connection begins and ends with the main character\u2019s name. The events of the previous film are never referred to at any point. If I didn\u2019t know better, I\u2019d think the Multiverse has something to do with it, but it\u2019s not that. It\u2019s more about producers Roger Corman and Cirio H. Santiago looking to turn a profit by luring in the same folks who made the first movie one of the most popular video rentals of the year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0According to Wikipedia, Bloodfist II<\/strong> did receive a limited theatrical release in October 1990. I guess Philadelphia was off limits because it never played here. I\u2019m not sure when it came out on video because I didn\u2019t bother with it. I wasn\u2019t impressed with the first Bloodfist and saw no point in continuing with the series. A recent rewatch of the original changed my mind on the matter. I\u2019ve decided to make my way through the whole series. I\u2019ll be watching one every weekend. This past Saturday night, it was the second movie. I liked it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Our story opens with Jake deciding to retire from the sport of kickboxing after killing his drugged-up opponent in the ring. If said opponent looks familiar, it\u2019s because he\u2019s Ned Hourani (Black Cobra 3) who played Jake\u2019s brother in the first movie, the one whose death he avenges. A year later, Jake gets a call from his friend and former manager Vinny (UFC champ Smith) who needs his help or so he claims. It seems he ran into some trouble with crime lord Su (Avellana, Death Force) in Manila and needs Jake to bail him out. Altogether now, IT\u2019S A TRAP! He no sooner leaves the airport when he\u2019s jumped several times before being led right into the waiting hands of Su\u2019s guys.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jake\u2019s captors take him and some other fighters to Su\u2019s private island where he runs his criminal empire from a mansion-fortress he calls \u201cParadise\u201d. This is where we meet Don\u2019s \u201cco-stars\u201d. Just like the original, Bloodfist II<\/strong> boasts a group of champion martial artists whose titles are shown under their names in the opening credits. We hear their credentials again when Su sizes them up upon their arrival. Unlike the guys in the first movie, these guys have actual dialogue thus proving their talents lie solely in their fists and feet. Are you the least bit surprised?<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, Su informs them that he brought them to Paradise to participate in an illegal gladiator tournament. In a nutshell, this means no rules and fighting to the finish. Jake manages to escape during a melee on the dock. Naturally, he returns later to rescue his compadres only to be recaptured and forced to fight. And what of Vinny? He\u2019s in on it with Su thereby ensuring a final to-the-death duel between Jake and his former pal. Oh, one other thing. Su\u2019s fighters have been injected with a new kind of steroid that renders them impervious to pain. Jake and his friends are essentially bait animals. The drug might help stave off pain, but it doesn\u2019t make the user indestructible as proven by the outcome of some of the matches. Let\u2019s just say Su isn\u2019t a happy scumbag.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wait until you get a load of Su\u2019s main henchman. It\u2019s a German guy named Dieter (Marius, Alien from the Deep), a bespectacled buffoon who\u2019d be right at home with Schultz on Hogan\u2019s Heroes. He looks like a more comical version of Ronald Lacey\u2019s villain in Raiders of the Lost Ark. This is the guy sent by Su to deal with problems like Mariella (Reyes, Delta Force 2), the female associate who led Jake to be captured in Manila. She\u2019s since had a change of heart. Fortunately for our newly minted heroine, dumb Dieter doesn\u2019t know what to do with a girl like Mariella.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Is it even necessary to comment on the acting in Bloodfist II<\/strong>? It\u2019s exactly the level of acting you\u2019d expect from a cheapie martial arts actioner from Concorde. Wilson is a little better in this second outing, but only because he looks a little surer of himself this time. He still has serious moves. In a gem of a scene, he jump-kicks a punching ball off its chain and sends it flying into a sparring ring where it knocks over one of the fighters. It was the best and only way to get the attention of the fellow (Baker) who tries to blow him off when he asks about Vinny.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Reyes is no Meryl Streep, but she can rock silver spandex like no one else. Avellana is okay playing a typical martial arts movie villain. He\u2019s like a low-rent version of Han from Enter the Dragon. The other top-billed martial artists are Maurice Smith, James Warring, Timothy Baker and Richard Hill. Smith has the range of a wooden spoon playing the duplicitous Vinny. To his credit, he has mad fighting skills. So do the others. It\u2019s too bad the fight choreography tends to look staged.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bloodfist II<\/strong> is directed by some chap named Andy Blumenthal. This is his only directorial effort. He was previously the second unit director on Time Trackers (1989) and Dance of the Damned (1989). He hasn\u2019t made another movie since. He does a serviceable job on Bloodfist II<\/strong>. He keeps things moving by giving us a fight scene every five minutes. The screenplay by the late Catherine Cyran (Slumber Party Massacre III) is one of those Identikit jobs with all the usual characters and story developments. There are no surprises here, not even the revelation involving Mariella\u2019s true relationship with Su.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There\u2019s a certain amount of charm to be found in action cheapies like Bloodfist II<\/strong>. Corman, true to form, didn\u2019t spend a ton of money on it. I don\u2019t have an exact figure, but surely it couldn\u2019t exceed half a million (or $500K). I have more fun watching movies like this than the Hollywood noisefests that cost the studios hundreds of millions of $$$. But you know this. I\u2019ve said it countless times. I sound like a broken record. Why don\u2019t I just leave it at this: I like Bloodfist II<\/strong> and I\u2019m looking forward to the third one next weekend.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloodfist II (1990)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Concorde\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 85 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (martial arts violence, language, brief nudity, drugs)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Andy Blumenthal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Catherine Cyran\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nigel Holton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bruce Dorfman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 12, 1990 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, Rina Reyes, Jose Mari Avellana, Robert Marius, Maurice Smith, Tim Baker, James Warring, Richard Hill, Steve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-b-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Bloodfist-II-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11461,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11408\/revisions\/11461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}