Ridiculously convoluted plot involves Commie Russians (led by the gigantic Matthias Hues who looks like a model for the statue of a Greek god), nasty Viet Cong, Vietnamese Resistance fighters, and a Chinese family who escaped from Saigon. Loren Avedon is Scott Wylde, a little fellow with the ability to fight men twice his size, an American college student visiting Bangkok because his fiancé, Sulin (Patra Wanthivanond), has a wealthy father who lives in the city. Sulin is kidnapped by Viet Cong who are in cahoots with a Soviet group led by Yuri (Hues) who holds her prisoner awaiting location of her father's whereabouts. Scott plans to rescue her, while constantly evading the Thai police as well as Viet Cong hoods, joining forces with an old friend, Mac Jarvis (Max Thayer), who operates an "inport-export business" (essentially, he more or less is running an illegal smuggling/trade operation with merchandise held in a warehouse) in Bangkok supplying weapons among other things to those willing to pay him. The other character getting involved in the story is a female fighter, Terry (the flexible and energetic Cynthia Rothrock), who has a history with Mac. Soon Terry is flying a chopper into Cambodian hostile territory so that Scott and Mac can infiltrate Yuri's headquarters and rescue Sulin. Before you know it, Terry is taken prisoner and, along with Sulin, is to be fed to Yuri's crocodiles (yep, Yuri has a muddy, watery hole containing crocodiles) unless Scott and Mac can save them from a gruesome death. I would suggest, if you are planning to watch "No Retreat, No Surrender 2", to prepare for a preposterous plot, variable acting, and irksome dialogue or this will not be a pleasant experience. To be honest, I watch these movies because of the action choreography. That's just the truth of the matter, as long as director Corey Yeun (Jet Li's The Legend), can deliver some kick-happy fight scenes where men in combat perform exciting displays of martial arts then I'm a happy action fan. When I enter a low-budget 80s action film with a choice few Americans involved (most of these have co-production companies from different countries working in concert with each other giving the action pictures a decidedly international flavor) set in Thailand or Hong Kong, I simply don't ask for much. I can be easily pleased. Thankfully, this film has a few fight scenes, but mostly consists of giant buildings and huts going kaboom, along with Asian extras in soldier uniforms sent skyrocketing after the ground is exploded out from under them by grenades or mini-missiles. The best scene has to be when a cackling, demented Hues beats a poor resistance fighter to a pulp, shoots him in the ass with a gun while the poor soul is fleeing from his captors, and is tossed into Yuri's pit of crocodiles! While Thayer and Rothrock bicker and insult each other throughout their time together, Avedon will eventually engage Hues in a fight to the death, which will end up (as it should) at the crocodiles' pit. Hues has these wonderful scenes standing next to Rothrock, and it's like a giant towering over a dwarf—one scene has Hues tossing Rothrock around like a bag of sugar and you can just feel the impact of her tiny (but athletic and sexy) body hurled into wood walls. Avedon is presented as if he were an American version of Jet Li: director Yuen and his fighter extras make Loren's Scott Wylde look damn good. Not that Avedon can't hold his own in scenes where he's fighting off men that want him dead; he can move around a room, use his legs to flexibly escape numerous potential fatal blows, and land his own fair share of punches and kicks. I watched the uncut 104 minute UK version, which is the way to go, although I imagine a film like this will be considered overlong at such a length.
Review of No Retreat, No Surrender 2
