8/31/2012

Lady Dragon 2 (1993)

Lady Dragon 2 (1993)-* *1\2

Directed by: David Worth

Starring: Cynthia Rothrock, Billy Drago, George Rudy, Bella Esperance, and Sam Jones












Susan Morgan (Rothrock) has a happy life: she has a career as a successful female boxer, and her husband Sonny (Rudy) is a soccer star who plays for Jakarta. They live in a beautiful house, and they have a maid/friend, Sari (Esperance) who helps them out. But their lives are turned upside down when a gang of three thugs, led by the psychotic Diego (Drago) (his right hand man is Reb, played by Sam Jones) temporarily stash their stolen diamonds in their luggage at random, in order to evade detection, as well as cops, with the intention of picking them up later at their house. They do indeed show up at the Morgan residence, but Sonny claims he doesn’t know where the diamonds are. After some unpleasant events, as well as some twists and turns, Susan decides to go after the baddies one by one and deal with them in her own way. Will she survive? And will her husband live to Socc again?

We all know Billy Drago plays a bad guy 99% of the time, but here he outdoes himself, putting in an especially creepy, scary and weird performance. As his sidekick, interestingly named Reb, Sam Jones can’t really hold a candle to it, but for an excellent Sam Jones baddie performance, check out In Gold We Trust (1991). Also, Cynthia Rothrock puts in one of her most powerful and emotional performances. One of the main problems, however, with Lady Dragon 2, is that it is very repetitive. There are so many scenes of Drago saying “I want the diamonds” and Rothrock saying “No”, you can’t help but think that maybe the structure of the plot could have gone another way. Considering the movie as a whole could have used some more Martial Arts fights, it would have made sense to have Cynthia fight more goons. But it doesn’t quite work that way here.

Director David Worth, who in a row directed Soldier’s Revenge (1984), Kickboxer (1989), Lady Dragon (1992), Lady Dragon 2, and Chain of Command (1994), allows some interesting touches, such as the fact that Drago’s gang wear shiny Jason-style hockey masks, and Sam Jones wears his with sunglasses. He even adds some horror movie-style touches at times to keep things lively, but the aforementioned repetition hurts things. With tighter writing and direction, and maybe a bit more energy and pep, and with less repetition and a shorter running time, Lady Dragon 2 could have been awesome - like a DTV action version of I Spit On Your Grave (1978). Alas, it wasn’t to be. And to add insult to injury, there are some very cheesily animated muzzle flashes during the gunplay scenes. You can’t help but wish for a little better this time around.

We remain huge Rothrock fans, but we wouldn’t recommend this one if you’re just starting to watch her movies yourself, or want to turn a friend on to her work. For that we’d go with Honor and Glory (1993) or Angel of Fury (1991). If you want to watch this one later on, fine, but we wouldn’t start with it.

Also check out write-ups by our buddies Explosive Action and DTVC!

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

8 comments:

venom said...

Worth also directed the hilariously cheesy and Shark Attack 2 and 3, but his best film was without a doubt "True Vengeance"

Ty said...

Haha, always wanted to see Shark Attack 2 and 3. Only have seen the 1st one.

Heard True Vengeance is really good. Will have to pick up a copy one of these days.

venom said...

You might want to get it sooner rather then later, i've seen films on my saved list on Amazon shoot from less then 10 dollars to over 40 dollars before I know it.

Right now you can get the film on Amazon for only 5 bucks, there's also a Region 2 DVD that sells pretty cheap.

Explosive Action said...

Thanks for the link Ty! You are right, it did repeat itself a bit - it was hilarious that they kept going back to her house over and over for the diamonds! And cheers Venom, I just ordered True Vengeance, it sounds great!

Ty said...

Venom: Cool! Appreciate the tip. 5 dollars is not a bad deal at all.

Explosive Action: No problem about the link buddy! You would think Drago would have gotten the diamonds by now!

Explosive Action said...

Haha, he certainly wouldn't give up on those diamonds!

Venom: just ordered the R2 disc for 1 penny + postage, lol.

m.brown said...

I've never seen Rothrock in anything, outside of old-school compilation movies. Might give Angel of Fury a try...

Ty said...

Explosive Action: Haha!

M. Brown: Angel Of Fury is a lot of fun. Same with Lady Dragon and Guardian Angel.