Overcoming an embarrassment is a perfectly righteous ambition; the ambition of Best of the Best 2 however is that it's also correct to overcome embarrassment without being rewarded.When embarrassment and when victory are part of the same situation, the logical truth is that the victory is not a victory and that the embarrassment is not an embarrassment. Instead, the victory is a defeat , and the embarrassment is a tribute.The defeat of a tribute, is the tribute of a defeat - the celebration of a weakness. And it's then at this point that Best of the Best 2's story starts to make sense.Celebrating a weakness, in actual fact, is a rational type of outlook on life. It makes sense to want to dwell on weaknesses. However, it's a correct part of the balance that celebrating a weakness isn't a reward: a reward is an objective, and it makes no sense for the celebration of a weakness to be an objective.An objective is a future. If the celebration of a weakness is a future, that means that history is meant to create a weakness so that it can be valued. By definition, a weakness is something that's meant to be moved past - so it doesn't make any sense to live history in order to celebrate moving past something. Because it's impossible, for history to conduct itself without celebration whatsoever, the balance is for the experience of tribute to be met with redundancy - the necessity of celebration gets dealt with by the relief and by the thankfulness of feeling redundant. The perversity of forced celebration is balanced out by the celebration of forced pointlessness

Somehow the makers of the first film saw way into the future and noticed me whining like a beeyatch about how Best of the Best was played too straight and didn't have enough action in it, because the sequel is all about the action! Tommy Lee, Eric Roberts, and Chris Penn are back as our Tae Kwon Do trio, now running a martial arts school. Chris, however, is bored of the antics and heads off to a place called The Coliseum, where folks basically fight for cash. Chris reckons he can take on the owner, a man so muscly he looks like a rubber glove filled with walnuts. This is Brakus, who thinks guns aren't manly enough. Chris doesn't do too well in the fight and the last time we see him he's being lowered into the ground in a box. Luckily he was stupid enough to take Eric's kid along to the fight so now Tommy and Eric are all out to get Brakus.It gets better when Tommy smashes Brakus' face against a mirror and now Brakus has a scar on his face and ends up pouting around the place in a dressing gown staring into a mirror and just getting madder and madder. So Tommy and Eric want to kill Brakus and Brakus wants to kill everyone related to Tommy and kill Tommy in the ring at the Coliseum.If you hadn't guessed already Tommy was raised by native Americans and everyone heads off to stay with them for a while a get trained up to fight Brakus by Sonny Landham of all people! That'll be Billy from Predator to you and me (before I looked up his name). Before I knew it I was shouting "Jeez you got a big pussy!" which is why my neighbours now look at me as if I'm nuts.They all have a friendly punch up and then it's montage time! This time round the film get it right, and just in time too before some of Brakus' men arrive in a helicopter and seemingly kill everyone except Tommy (Billy himself goes down fighting in an impressive Massimo Vanni style shoot-out). There's also a massive explosion for all those massive explosion fans out there.So now Brakus has Tommy to fight in the ring and Tommy thinks everyone's dead, so all he's got left is the motivation to kick Brakus in the face several thousand times. Didn't feel like Brakus thought that one through too much.This film is a lot more fun that the last one and is non-stop action and cheese from start to finish. A total winner! Even Eric's hair is more dynamic and manageable this time round.

Although not better than the original, Best of the Best 2 has more action and blood. Like the original, it is an inferior copycat of Rocky IV and Bloodsport. Does not mean it sucks, just means it is cheesier and not as good.Making their returns are Alex Grady, Tommy Lee, and Travis Brickley (Roberts, Rhee, Penn) who now run a karate studio. Funny how they are taekwondo guys in the first and are now karate guys. Travis thirsts more money and enters an illegal fight tournament in Las Vegas where death can happen. Wayne Newton (as a different character) is the sponsor and the audience are rich high rollers that love to see death. That is sickening. Why would people like that want to see people beat each other to death? Who wants to see death in general? All the Las Vegas hotshots love to see it! I know this is just a cheesy movie, but I did not buy it. When Alex's young song, Walter, sneaks in and witnesses the undefeated Brackus (Ralph Moeller) beats Travis to death, he is scarred and tells his father and Tommy right away. Sounds like Rocky IV when Apoolo was killed by Drago eh? The angry duo crash a fancy dinner and tear up the joint, then go on the run. Brackus wants Tommy, and Tommy must fight to the death in order to live another day. All the fights scenes are spectacular and the gunfights are cool too. The subplots are no as good as the ones from the first, but good enough.

Best of the Best 2 (the title on the version I saw said Best of the Best II) starts in Las Vegas where US Karate team champion Travis Brickley (Christopher Penn) has been participating in illegal underground fighting, a tournament called & held in The Colleseum under a casino called the Stock Exchange has both great dangers & great rewards for any fighter brave enough to enter. Get past three hand picked Gladiators & the final fight will be with the undefeated Brakus (Ralf Moeller) who kills all those he defeats. Brickly makes it to Brakus but is killed in the ring, witnessed by Walter Grady (Edan Gross) the young son of fellow US Karate champ Alex Grady (Eric Roberts) he tells his father who along with friend Tommy Lee (co-producer Phillip Rhee) want to avenge Brickley's death. However Brakus & his people play unfair & force Tommy to fight in the Colleseum while his armed men set out to hunt down & kill Alex & his son Walter...Directed by Robert Radler this was the sequel to the somewhat successful original martial arts film Best of the Best (1989) which was also directed by Radler & also starred Roberts, Rhee & Penn as martial artists. While the original was full of itself, wanted to preach a moral message & actually featured very little fighting Best of the Best 2 is an improvement in every way on it's predecessor. The script is far more balanced & far more like what I would call a proper martial arts action film rather than a lesson in how to get on & band as a team. While the original Best of the Best featured only a few very tame officiated fights Best of the best 2 has far more varied action scenes including car chases, shoot-outs, no holds barred fights & even the odd explosion. It's just a far more enjoyable film to watch & has much more action. The switching from an official tournament with fair play to a self proclaimed one where 'the only rule is there are no rules' is a wise move & makes for much more brutal & dramatic combat that includes weapons as well like staffs, silver nunchucks & even a bloke's ponytail. Sitting besides the martial arts fighting is a fairly basic but appreciated thriller as Alex & his kid Walter are hunted down by armed bad guy's, it's nothing amazing but it breaks the film up a little bit. Again the script tries to throw in all sorts of moral messages, from using ones inner strength, realising the importance of family & friendship to if at first you fail to keep trying. The whole script makes allusion's & references to ancient Roman gladiatorial battles from the name of the arena to the fighters themselves being called gladiator's to ancient stone style fighting ring to the costumes. It's not all perfect though, it's fairly predictable, at over 100 minutes it's too long & apparently by some bizarre coincidence Tommy Lee's brother is only one of three people in the entire world who can train someone to beat Brakus, gee that was lucky wasn't it?The fight scenes are very good here with no CGI computer effects, no machine gun editing & no shaky hand-held camcorder crap. The fights look impressive & look like proper fights where people get hurt, there's none of that ever so slightly embarrassing hugging & becoming best friends like at the end of the original Best of the Best. Having watched the original Best of the Best a couple of days ago I feel I am qualified to talk about series continuity, US Karate team member's Alex, Tommy Lee & Travis return while the other two don't. The villain from the original Dae Han also returns & helps out. Alex is now living in a nice big house rather than with his mom. Travis still likes to wear big Cowboy hats that make him look like a knob. Footage from the original is used during the opening credits. The rating has gone from a PG to an R (here in the UK the original was a 15 while this was an 18) which mean the violence levels have increased, from bloody gunshot wounds to blown off fingers to bloodied fighters Best of the Best 2 is far more brutal than the original. While the original had something like six musical training montages Best of the Best 2 thankfully features about three minus the awful 'Best of the Best' theme tune.Filmed on a bigger budget than the original Best of the Best this has good production values & looks decent enough, a lot of the cast return from the original with Wayne Newton, Patrick Kilpatrick, Meg Foster & Sonny Landham appearing. Kane Hodder plays a different character but pretty much the same role as he gets beaten up by Alex. It's not surprising that the notable absentee is James Earl Jones who does not appear.Best of the Best 2 is far more enjoyable than the slushy original, there's more action & it's more brutal, there are proper bad guy's who actually speak English & there aren't as many musical training montages. It's all good & it's all an improvement over the original while being quite enjoyable for what it is in it's own right. Followed by Best of the Best 3: No Turning Back (1995) & Best of the Best: Without Warning (1998).