Martial Law II: Undercover (1991)

Let's be realistic.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Absolutely Fantastic

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Cops Sean "Martial Law" Thompson (Wincott) and Billie Blake (Rothrock) are back in this sequel which is a quantum leap ahead of its lackluster predecessor.When one of their fellow officers ends up dead, the trail leads to a popular nightclub run by the smarmy Spencer Hamilton (Johansson). His muscle includes meathead Tanner (Lurie) and other sidekick Bree (Rose). To get closer to the truth, Billie goes undercover as a bartender. Naturally, all manner of illegal doings are emanating from the club, not least of which is high-stakes, underground Punchfighting. But why is Captain Krantz (Drago) so touchy about this subject? It's now up to Sean and Billie to take out the trash.As stated earlier, this installment in the Martial Law trilogy is far superior to Martial Law one. The colors are brighter, it has a more professional sheen to it, and not only do the main stars Wincott and Rothrock really shine, it has a solid supporting cast featuring Billy Drago, Evan Lurie, Sherrie Rose, Max Thayer and Nicholas Hill in a small role.The decision to replace Chad McQueen with Jeff Wincott was an inspired choice. Wincott is a lot more charming, and has Martial Arts skill to spare, and we just love his energetic style. As in the follow-up to this film, Mission of Justice, Wincott gets to do some stick-fighting along with his traditional vigorous style. Seeing as he resembles - in this film at least - Matthew McConaughey, rather than being a laid-back "surfer dude" who's just livin' life, he's breaking the arms and knee joints of baddies.Evan Lurie, Slash Gallagher himself, lumbers into view in an extra-meatheady performance. He has strange speech patterns in this movie. He sounds like Stallone on half speed. But his clothing choices are pretty...well...choice. It's odd seeing Billy Drago as a police captain, as he looks like an emaciated gargoyle, but you'll see why he was cast in the role. Hopefully these descriptions don't come off as too crass, we love these actors and we've seen them so many times, they're like our friends.But the main reason to watch Martial Law 2 are its quality fight scenes. It has the fights you want from the stars you like. That could almost be a tagline. Wincott and Rothrock get off some great moves, and what's cool about their scenes, is that you can see they are really doing the moves - as you all know, the way to see if a actor/Martial Artist is genuine is to see how many moves they do without a cut. For example, in some of the best Shaw Brothers movies, there are anywhere from 8-12 or more moves with no cut and it's extremely impressive. Wincott and Rothrock can also achieve this level of prowess, and it's a lot of fun to watch.And while there is a lack of Wincott in the middle of the film, and it would have been nice to see a much longer fight scene between Rothrock and Sherrie Rose, this is a classic early-90's "abandoned warehouse" actioner with a lot to offer.NOTE: Fascinatingly, there is an introduction on the U.S. VHS tape with Cynthia Rothrock advertising some of her movies. That's a really cool feature on the tape.For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Sean and Billie are undercover cops and martial arts masters. Investigating the death of a cop, they uncover a deadly ring of murder and corruption at a glitzy nightclub where the rich are entertained by seductive women and protected by martial arts experts. Billie goes undercover to infiltrate the crime ring, leading to an explosive finale....There is nothing to like at all about this movie, we know what is going to happen the minute when Wincott starts his new job. If the captain is Billy Drago, than obviously the department is going to be corrupt!! And when we meet his friend at the beginning, we know he is going to wind up dead the way he acts when he see Dobbs.But i have a little place in my heart for films like this. Between 88'-92' the video shelf were rife with these. Some instant cheesy classics like this, others really not so good.The film has aged really badly, the clothes look like something from a Rick Astley video, and the hairstyles are in pony tail heaven.The fight scenes are typical from these sort of releases, they just get a little bit more tougher for the hero, just like a video game, until they face the final boss at the end.The two leads are what you expect, and if you have seen their other movies, you will get some enjoyment from this.this also includes the best opening credit music in a movie ever.Trashy but enjoyable.

This was a good movie.The story is nothing new i.e. dirty cops, gang, team of cops taking the problem on.The music was nice and reminded me of the 1980s action movies even though this movie was made in 1992.The cast was decent and everyone did what they were supposed to. In these type of action flicks the acting is minimum and the music and action take over.The fashion (needs a comment) was terrible' as it looked like something from the miid-1980s. Not even Chuck Norris action films from the 80s looked that old. They could of turned this into a martial arts sequel. It's a shame they don't make movies this straight forward anymore. Thankgod for Movies4Men channel on my sky!

The plot is nothing new (police corruption, a crime syndicate that uses a night club as a front, a cop investigating the death of his partner, etc.) but the fight scenes range from good to very good (the best one might be an illegal 2-on-1 that doesn't involve any of the leads). Maybe they can't match up to the best that Hong Kong has to offer, but they are choreographed in a way that showcases the fighters' power, speed and technique. My two main disappointments with this film are: 1) as already reported by another reviewer, VERY short final fight between Cynthia Rothrock and the female bodyguard (what a bummer!), and 2) no arch-villain role for the master of such roles, Billy Drago (he's just a corrupted police chief). (**)