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
