Review of Best of the Best 2 (1993) by J M — 23 Mar 2015

A surprisingly effective sequel. It's more ridiculous than part one, but that's exactly what the franchise asked for. The makers neglect to reunite all the team members from part one, which is really a shame and would have made this even better, but they get several of them in, and it proves to be just enough. After fighting the most dangerous martial artists in the tournament circuit, our heroes now get involved with the dangerous world of underground fights to the death. This is where one giant body builder rules supreme, with an army of henchmen doing his bidding and the police asking surprisingly few questions.

We learn that Tommy, our "hero but not actually credited as important" from the first movie has one more brother than the one we already knew about. Also, he's like part native American, or something. Surprise! But for all the ridiculousness, the story is probably better than that of part one, with more actual action scenes. The soundtrack is a little underwhelming, consisting basically of a single song, but it does stay true to the original "Stand up and fight for the chance of your life, hold your head high and never surrender" (yes, actual lyrics) tone of part one, and the bridge melody is used very effectively to set the mood at several points in the film.

Overall, this one isn't any less enjoyable than part 1. After this one part 3 jumped a shark too far, ditching all actors except Phillip Rhee (Tommy) and giving him directional control. Those parts were probably a lot of fun to make, but come on, the Ku Klux Klan? But yeah, this one, still good. Very good bad movie.