11/26/2013

Delta Force 2 (1990)

Delta Force 2 (1990)- * *1\2

Directed by: Aaron Norris

Starring: Chuck Norris, Billy Drago, John P. Ryan, Mark Margolis, and Richard Jaeckel












The DEA is hot on the trail of Ramon Cota (Drago) - an extremely evil (and extremely rich) drug lord. He controls whole Colombian towns with threats, murder, and intimidation. DEA agent John Page (Jaeckel) is in over his head, so he calls in the best - Col. Scott McCoy (Norris) - to help take down Cota once and for all. When Cota attacks the wrong people - people close to McCoy - things become personal and McCoy brings all the force he has to bring down Cota and his organization.

Sure, Chuck Norris has no emotion but there is none needed. At least he can do martial arts, unlike other emotionless actors like Kip Pardue and Ryan O’Neal. They have no physical skills, range, OR screen presence. So if one of those three choices have to be sacrificed, at least for action cinema, you can lose the emotional range. On the other end of the spectrum, in a career of playing villains, this is one of Billy Drago’s best. He’s sinister and menacing, as he usually is, but his portrayal of Cota is scary and downright sadistic. Drago did a great job once again.

John P. Ryan gives an energetic (some might say over the top) performance as General Taylor, and he makes some priceless faces along the way. This role could have been played by Dennis Hopper or even Terence Stamp, but Ryan gives it some extra, A-Team-like wackiness. Also it should be noted that an evil General (isn’t there always an evil General?) that’s working with Cota, Gen. Olmedo (Margolis) looks exactly like nutty politician Ron Paul. It’s really funny every time he pops up on screen in his General’s uniform, because anyone’s first instinct would be to yell “That’s Ron Paul!”


It would have been nice to see more members of the Delta Force team from the first film, especially Steve James. He was probably busy working on a Dudikoff film at this time. (Actually, both men were slated to be in an early incarnation of this film). And once behind “enemy lines”, trying to attack Cota’s stronghold in “San Carlos”, the action becomes very dumb. Let’s not forget Aaron Norris directed this particular Cannon production.

While this movie was shot in large part in the Philippines, that great filming haven for action movies, the plot becomes dangerously close to an “El Presidente” movie. (Please see our review for Hour Of The Assassin  where we coin the term and explain what it is, if you don‘t already know). Perhaps needlessly taking a cue from the first Delta Force film, this sequel is unnecessarily long. There’s no reason for that. But the training sequence and Chuck-Fu are what make this movie worth seeing, when you get right down to it.

Featuring the song “Winds of Change” by Lee Greenwood, Delta Force 2 isn’t a life-changer, but it’s a good entry in Chuck’s canon.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett

11 comments:

Exploding Helicopter said...

Interesting that Dudikoff and James were slated to be in an earlier version of this film.

Interesting as Dudikoff and James made Avenging Force which was originally intended as a sequel to Norris's Invasion USA.

Weird how Dudikoff and Norris career's intersect like this.

Ty said...

That would've been interesting to see. Dudikoff and James had excellent chemistry. Dudikoff's name in AF is Matt Hunter just like Norris. Haha.

Roger Renman said...

Actually, I liked this one more than the first, but I'm a sucker for jungle slogs.

Ty said...

Haha, happy you like jungle slogs, have you've seen Striker or Last Flight to Hell? Solid Jugle Slogs. Haha.

Nigel M said...

I didn't really like this one anything like as much as the first one. No real reason why, I just didn't engage with it quite as much I guess.

Roger Renman said...

I've seen Stryker, countless Rambo rip-offs and all of Cirio Santiago's jungle slog oeuvre (or JSO for short). I haven't seen Last Flight To Hell, though, so I guess I'll have to put it on my wishlist. I'm guessing it's like AC/DC's Highway To Hell, only faster and with refreshments.

Ty said...

Nigel: Completely understand. Hard to beat the 1st one.

Roger: Last Flight to Hell is worth-watching. Classic Reb Brown.

Snake Plissken said...

Billy Drago rules. Not a worthy sequel but it has it's moments. They tried to pull off another plot from the "news headlines" by 1990 Pablo Escobar was U.S enemy no1) but it didn't worked so well this time.

Never made the connection with Margolis and Ron Paul, i must re-watch the movie assap!



Ty said...

Totally agree. The plot was pretty weak, but Drago killed it as the villain.

venom said...

I found the first film slightly overlong, but for me the length in this one was just right.

Ty said...

That seems to be about right.