I dug Rage And Honor quite a bit, and so approached the sequel with some anticipation. I wondered where they could take the plot threads left hanging by the first movie. Would Kris Fairfield (Cynthia Rothrock) go back to her teaching job? Would her evil brother Drago (Brian Thompson) improbably survive the final fight scene and, more importantly, get a better haircut? Would Aussie cop Preston Michaels (Richard Norton) clear his name after being wrongly accused of murder, and would he explain to everyone in America that Australians aren’t actually from another planet? Would Hannah The Hun (Alex Datcher) please just go away? Sadly, few of these questions are addressed in Rage And Honor II: Hostile Takeover, a silly throwback to Cindy & Richard’s earlier no-budget DTV fare.

Cynthia Rothrock returns as Kris Fairfield, who has now abandoned her teaching post for a job as some manner of Government agent. I’m just trying to think of some of the teachers I know, and how they’d fare as undercover operatives. I’m guessing not too well, unless international terrorists are really scared of jackets with those leather elbow protectors. Anyway, Kris gets a new alias (Kris Fairchild – wow, how long did it take them to come up with that one?) and her first mission; to infiltrate a bank in Jakarta involved in illicit goings on. It won’t be plain sailing though, Kris hits town only to find some low-rent goons waiting for her and her partner dead.

By a rather unlikely coincidence, her buddy Preston Michaels (Richard Norton) is hiding out in Jakarta, working as a barman at Willy’s Bar (the owner of which is named Charlie – go figure). Arriving at work, Preston finds Charlie (Alex Tumundo) being harassed by more goons trying to set up a protection racket. A soupcon of Australian whupass later, the goons run for it, but Preston’s moves have caught the eye of rich kid Tommy Andrews (Patrick Muldoon). Tommy begs Preston to train him, and though initially reluctant Preston eventually agrees.

Tommy’s dad is Gerald Andrews (John J. Soucy), owner of the bank where Kris is undercover. Andrews is in league with local irritating komedy relief crime lord Buntao (Frans Tumbuan) who uses the bank to launder his ill-gotten gains. But Andrews wants a bigger cut of the action, including half of the profits from an upcoming bit of diamond smuggling. An irate Buntao sends his no. 1 henchthug Thor (Ron Vreeken) – a man with even worse hair than Brian Thompson in Rage And Honor – to kidnap Tommy. Buntao is also concerned that Andrews is working with a rival crime boss, Dazzo (the enigmatically-named Tanaka), who I kept referring to as Rizzo in my notes for some reason. Actually it might have been more fun if the rival boss had been Stockard Channing in 60’s go-go attire. But not much.

Thor and co. try to snatch Tommy from outside Preston’s gym, which means that the All-Action Australian™ is on hand to save the day. He gets into what’s shaping up to be an impressive bout with Thor, until the cops show up and the bad guys run for it. Tommy is so grateful that he invites Preston to a swanky bank party, where our hero runs into our heroine – yup, Preston hooks back up with Kris, and seems entirely unfazed by her new job with the CIA.

Kris manages to swipe some files from Andrews’ computer (ah, the heady days of 3.5" floppy discs) but she and Tommy are spotted leaving the bank by Thor and his buddies, prompting a car chase through Jakarta’s mean streets. Meanwhile Andrews finds the files missing and assumes Buntao’s behind it. When Tommy and Kris finally make it home they find Andrews dead, sending Tommy into a vengeful rage.

Kris and Tommy persuade Preston to use one of his contacts to get them a lead on Buntao. This is Jade (a horribly dubbed Yenny Farida), nightclub slut and seller of underworld information. She gives them the details of the diamond shipment and sets them up with a helicopter, but it’s a trap; she’s sold them out to Buntao. The crime boss forces Preston to fight Thor, rather rashly as the blonde hairdressing accident gets his arse resoundingly kicked. As the fight finishes, Rizz... I mean Dazzo attacks, leading to the movie’s big twist. Now, I actually didn’t see this coming, but I’m going to spoil it for you anyway. Dazzo is in fact Tommy, who wanted his dad and Buntao out of the way so he could take over the whole operation. The fake Dazzo is really Togal, Tommy’s kung fu bodyguard.

Tommy leaves Preston and Kris locked up with a James Bondesque easily escapable booby trap and heads off to do more dastardly deeds. The good guys escape – easily – and give chase. While Kris gets into a high-kicking brawl with Togal, Preston gives Tommy the beating he so richly deserves. Then with the promise of help from Kris and a few ‘borrowed’ diamonds, Preston vows to go back to America and clear his name.

Rage And Honor II: Hostile Takeover isn’t really a bad film, but given the enjoyable first instalment I was expecting more. There’s a streak of cheapness and inferiority running through the movie that wasn’t there in part 1, thanks to production company IRS Media hitting financial dire straits at the time. The most obvious manifestation of this was in the film’s music: IRS was first and foremost a record label, and the original movie was replete with a full complement of songs from the cutting edge of 1992 MOR rock, including The Infidels and Lords of the New Church. Part 2 has an uninspired, repetitive synth mess by Darryl Way, and this isn’t the only evidence of cost cutting. Rather than the original American cityscape the production is shipped off to Indonesia, which wouldn’t be too bad in itself – plenty of movies have been shot in ‘exotic’ locations for reasons of cost – except that other aspects suffer too. The cast is a definite step down, with nobody making much of an impression – except for John J. Soucy as Andrews and Frans Tumbuan as Buntao, and in their case the impression is all bad. Unfortunately this acting lethargy extends to Rothrock and Norton, who are both quite wooden. This isn’t a disaster, I’ve seen worse from both, but since they were decent in the previous film I had hoped that this trend might continue.

Something else that’s irritating is how little time Rothrock spends on screen. Sure, the original spent a little more time on Norton than Cindy, but the second one is much worse. It starts out OK, with Cynthia’s character and her mission being the main focus of the film, but as soon as Norton appears she’s shifted into the background. Don’t get me wrong, if Cindy has to play second fiddle to her male co-star I’d much rather it was Norton than Jalal Merhi or Chad McQueen, but more than that I’d prefer to see her in the thick of the action. There’s even a moment where she has to ask Norton for help during their final fights, allowing his opponent a temporary getaway. Unthinkable!

Speaking of action, it’s also of a slightly lower standard than part 1. Again, it could be worse, but there’s more of that typical American ‘stand still so I can hit you’ fighting, especially between Norton and Ron Vreeken. Apart from the two leads there aren’t any especially memorable fighters in the film: Tanaka is average-bordering-on-OK in his final throwdown with Rothrock, but Patrick Muldoon is laughable as a supposed match for Norton. If only the producers had stumped up a bit more cash for a Sophia Crawford, a Karen Sheperd or an Evan Lurie to make the last reel really memorable.

While I’ve ragged at some length on Rage And Honor II: Hostile Takeover, it’s still worth a look. It’s unfortunate that it was made by a company on the brink of meltdown, something that had consequences for other IRS films – see Bergerjaques’ review of Circuitry Man II for confirmation. But the movie is still strides ahead of Lady Dragon or Tiger Claws and, by the sound of it, Circuitry Man II. What can I say, there are some things even I won’t watch...

Dave Thomas, 24^th February 2004