The Man with the Iron Fists 2
(aka The Man with the Iron Fists: Sting of the Scorpion)
2015; directed by Roel Reine

Though the first Man with the Iron Fists was not a huge hit by any means, barely earning back its modest (at least by Hollywood standards) budget of $20 million, it has become a cult favorite, so perhaps it was inevitable that a sequel would come out. This time, the release went straight to home video and streaming Netflix, which is where your friendly neighborhood review caught it, in between binge watching seasons of Gilmore Girls and My So-Called Life. Often, going directly to the home market is not indicative of a film's quality or entertainment factor, but here, it seems to fit the bill, because The Man with the Iron Fists 2 is a lazy, uninspiring piece of martial arts cinema.

In a bit of a twists for something that is supposedly so near and dear to him, RZA stepped down from the director's chair, giving the duties for this installment to Roel Reine, a director who has seemingly made his career out of working on direct to video sequels, such as The Marine 2, Death Race 2, and the inanely titled 12 Rounds 2. Reine directs things competently enough, in that one can recognize that this is a motion picture, with characters and a story. Everything else is kind of a mess, most notably the action sequences.

The first installment benefitted from having veteran Hong Kong action choreographer Corey Yuen working on the project. Here, the fights are coordinated by Kawee Sirikhanerut, who worked on many notable Thai films, including the last release from Panna Rittikrai, Vengeance for an Assassin. Sirikhanerut sets up the fighter's moves well enough, but the movie's camerawork (done by Reine himself) and editing (done by some dude with the balls to name himself Chuck Norris) are god-awful. At many points, it's painfully obvious the blows are not connecting and everything just looks amatuerish.

There are a few highlights here, such as Carl Ng's (son of veteran Hong Kong actor Richard Ng) wonderfully hammy villainous performance and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa chanelling his role as Shang Tsung from the first Mortal Kombat movie, down to telling people he'll swallow their soul before doing just that. Sadly, these moments of genuine levity are sandwiched between RZA mumble-mouthing his way through psuedo-philosophical banter, anchored by very poor onscreen representations of martial arts. Even if you're a fan of kung fu B-movies, it will most likely be a tough slog getting through this, because in the end, The Man with the Iron Fists 2 is simply a boring movie, and that's something all the goodwill one might have towards RZA's motivations and inspirations can't forgive.

RATING: 4