Perfect cast and a good story

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Cops Sean "Martial Law" Thompson (Wincott) and Billie Blake (Rothrock) are back in this sequel which is a quantum leap ahead of its lackluster predecessor.When one of their fellow officers ends up dead, the trail leads to a popular nightclub run by the smarmy Spencer Hamilton (Johansson). His muscle includes meathead Tanner (Lurie) and other sidekick Bree (Rose). To get closer to the truth, Billie goes undercover as a bartender. Naturally, all manner of illegal doings are emanating from the club, not least of which is high-stakes, underground Punchfighting. But why is Captain Krantz (Drago) so touchy about this subject? It's now up to Sean and Billie to take out the trash.As stated earlier, this installment in the Martial Law trilogy is far superior to Martial Law one. The colors are brighter, it has a more professional sheen to it, and not only do the main stars Wincott and Rothrock really shine, it has a solid supporting cast featuring Billy Drago, Evan Lurie, Sherrie Rose, Max Thayer and Nicholas Hill in a small role.The decision to replace Chad McQueen with Jeff Wincott was an inspired choice. Wincott is a lot more charming, and has Martial Arts skill to spare, and we just love his energetic style. As in the follow-up to this film, Mission of Justice, Wincott gets to do some stick-fighting along with his traditional vigorous style. Seeing as he resembles - in this film at least - Matthew McConaughey, rather than being a laid-back "surfer dude" who's just livin' life, he's breaking the arms and knee joints of baddies.Evan Lurie, Slash Gallagher himself, lumbers into view in an extra-meatheady performance. He has strange speech patterns in this movie. He sounds like Stallone on half speed. But his clothing choices are pretty...well...choice. It's odd seeing Billy Drago as a police captain, as he looks like an emaciated gargoyle, but you'll see why he was cast in the role. Hopefully these descriptions don't come off as too crass, we love these actors and we've seen them so many times, they're like our friends.But the main reason to watch Martial Law 2 are its quality fight scenes. It has the fights you want from the stars you like. That could almost be a tagline. Wincott and Rothrock get off some great moves, and what's cool about their scenes, is that you can see they are really doing the moves - as you all know, the way to see if a actor/Martial Artist is genuine is to see how many moves they do without a cut. For example, in some of the best Shaw Brothers movies, there are anywhere from 8-12 or more moves with no cut and it's extremely impressive. Wincott and Rothrock can also achieve this level of prowess, and it's a lot of fun to watch.And while there is a lack of Wincott in the middle of the film, and it would have been nice to see a much longer fight scene between Rothrock and Sherrie Rose, this is a classic early-90's "abandoned warehouse" actioner with a lot to offer.NOTE: Fascinatingly, there is an introduction on the U.S. VHS tape with Cynthia Rothrock advertising some of her movies. That's a really cool feature on the tape.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

There are plenty of low budget martial arts flicks in the world, many of which are total embarrassments. Thankfully, this is not one of them. Martial Law II has a plot that's simple enough to be believable but also has a few bits of creativity thrown in to make it distinguishable but not stupid. Furthermore, the actors do a good enough job with their roles to make the viewer suspend their disbelief and care about what's happening. And, of course, there's plenty of fighting throughout the movie to make it fun. It's not a great movie, but considering the limited amount of stories one can do with this genre of films, it's pretty unique and makes for an entertaining watch on a Saturday afternoon.

Steven Segal, pony tail and all, stepped onto the scene somewhere around 1990-ish with Above the Law. About a year or so later Martial Law 2:Undercover comes out ... and I have to tell you a movie with more pony tails has never been made.But this is not to knock the movie. Trust me there is lots to knock in this movie (like how the biker gang from the opening sequence intended to transport the guns they were trying to purchase back to their homes).No, I am not going to knock this movie. Why? Because I love this movie. It is over-the-top, well produced (seriously, Kurt Anderson -- the director-- has got some of the best performances out of the cast, good fights, a good look and good editing), comical (both on purpose and not-so-on purpose in scenes).The replacement of Wincott for Chad McQueen's character from part one gets a better fighter in the male lead (and in my opinion a more diverse actor).But what is it about this movie that really sets it apart, outside of all the hair and even a yawn by one actor in a scene. It is the acting by uncredited (both on IMDb and in the final credits) as Danny Borelli. I don't know why or how this guy did it, but he plays perhaps the best recovering alcoholic in film history ... well maybe second best to Ray Milland. Don't take my word for it, watch this movie. Watch the way the Borelli character continues to be engaged in conversations and scenes when he is doesn't have lines (yes I realize as an actor that is his job ... but come on, how many actors actually follow through with their jobs.Charles Taylor is credited for playing Borelli as well as Dobbs, but Dobbs is the character that Borelli was following, and while they list Borelli's wife in the end credits of the film, I did not see the actors' name for Borelli listed ...

The plot is nothing new (police corruption, a crime syndicate that uses a night club as a front, a cop investigating the death of his partner, etc.) but the fight scenes range from good to very good (the best one might be an illegal 2-on-1 that doesn't involve any of the leads). Maybe they can't match up to the best that Hong Kong has to offer, but they are choreographed in a way that showcases the fighters' power, speed and technique. My two main disappointments with this film are: 1) as already reported by another reviewer, VERY short final fight between Cynthia Rothrock and the female bodyguard (what a bummer!), and 2) no arch-villain role for the master of such roles, Billy Drago (he's just a corrupted police chief). (**)