Penitentiary II (1982)

That was an excellent one.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Boxer Martel "Too Sweet" Gordone (a solid and sincere performance by Leon Isaac Kennedy) gets paroled from prison and hooks up again with old flame Clarisse (an appealing portrayal by the pretty Eugenia Wright). After evil nemesis Half Dead (robustly played with lip-smacking wicked relish by Ernie Hudson) busts out of jail and murders Clarisse after raping her first, Too Sweet resumes his boxing career as a means of exacting revenge on Half Dead. Writer/director Jamaa Fanaka eschews the gritty realism of the original in favor of a more blithely absurd and campy sensibility: The often ridiculous fight scenes, cartoonishly nasty villains, crude humor (one guy poops in his pants!), and excessive blood-spilling violence all give this film a certain endearingly kitschy charm. Peggy Blow lends sturdy support as Too Sweet's sympathetic sister Ellen, Glynn Turman likewise does well as shrewd brother in law Charles Johnson, Mr. T has a grand hammy time playing his own flamboyant and formidable self, and Donovan Womack cuts an imposing figure as fearsome opponent Jesse "The Bull" Amos. Popping up in funny bits are Rudy Ray Moore as an irate husband and Tony Cox as a lecherous midget. Jack Wheaton's funky-throbbing score hits the get-down groovy spot. A fun sequel.

The current DVD release available for this title is NOT the same version of the film that was shown in theaters. The DVD distributor for some reason made cuts to parts of the movie. (In particular, Ernie Hudson's ambush of the girl in the shower.) The sequence may too brutal for more sensitive viewers, but that doesn't justify making cuts to the original film.) HBO broadcast the movie in it's entirety in the 80's, and the first VHS/Beta home video releases also contain the complete film.

I didn't think too much of the first "Penitentiary" movie, finding it a cheap and slow exercise. Though it must have made quite a bit of money, because a few years later this sequel came out. And it manages to be worse than the original in almost every way you can think of. The script is a mess - it has a meandering quality, as if director/screenwriter Jamaa Fanaka was making things up as he was going along. And it never makes any of the characters real enough to be believable. The only good things about the movie were that the production values were a step up from the original, and there is a (un?)intentionally funny "Star Wars" reference. If you must see one movie from this series, I recommend you skip forward and watch part 3, which is pure (and entertaining) insanity done with slickness.

Penitentiary II (1982) is the second part of the Penitentiary trilogy. The first film is deals with an unlucky dude name Too Sweet (Leon Isaac Kennedy) who learns that the only way he can get out of prison if he boxes his way to the top. A few years later, Too Sweet is a boxing champion and living the good life. But his life is turned upside down (again) as he has to deal with an old nemesis that what's a little pay back for what happened to him in the first film. Can Too Sweet defeat his archenemy once again? Will he defend his title and win the biggest fight of his life? Why does Mr. T play himself in this film? Find out by watching Penitentiary II. Ernie Hudson co-stars as Half Dead and Rudy Ray Moore cameos as himself.Recommended for fans of low budget films.