Guilty pleasures. Chocolate. Text messaging. The Backstreet Boys. Whatever it may be, we all have them and usually more than one, if not many. So I think I've just discovered another one of mine. Cheesy action movies. I was watching FX earlier tonight, and it was about 20 minutes into this movie called Undisputed II: Last Man Standing. Now as far as cheesy movie names go, that one is definitely up there. Plus, it's a sequel. A sequel to a cheesey action movie starring Wesley Snipes and Ving Rhames. Now I'm a fan of both Snipes and Rhames, but my guess is Undisputed wasn't good enough for ole Blade and Marsellus Wallace to sign on for the sequel. So this movie is pretty much doomed from the beginning, right?
I was expecting something as bad as one of the eight or so Kickboxer sequels, but it actually turned out to be more like the original Kickboxer. You know, the good one. Only this movie was released in 2006, so it's upgraded for the attention deficit disordered 21st century. The action sequences are what immediately sucked me in because they were so well done. The story is pretty typical, in that it's highly unbelievable. I missed the first 20 or so minutes, but from what I could deduce, the main character George "Iceman" Chambers, played by Michael Jai White, is the American Heavyweight boxing champion, and through some ridiculous circumstances is forced into a Russian prison to fight the inmate champ, but in MMA format. There's your standard double-cross early in the movie, which is when the trainer-slash-mentor swoops in right on cue to prepare Chambers for the "final battle".
Despite it all, I can't lie and say I didn't enjoy the movie. It was like Rocky meets Kickboxer, with a dash of The Last Castle. There were some very stereotypical moments in the movie, but they were well executed for the most part. The prisoners standing up for themselves and the "reunion" at the end; They've all been done before, but the slight variations in the characters and the setting made it work for me for some reason. In the end, it's all just a flimsy framework for the action sequences, but they really were impressive. The choreography was fast-paced and intense, and the camera-work followed the action flawlessly. The fights didn't pull any punches either, and that helped to enhance the realism. They were brutal at times, especially the conclusion to the last fight, but not to a fault. Overall, if you're a sucker for 80's movies like Bloodsport and Kickboxer, you should give this one a try. It's better than you might think.
This just in, it seems I've also been treated to The Rundown on FX after Undisputed II was over. It's another great flick that you should check out if you haven't already. I really think it has one of the best opening scenes in a long time...for a cheesy action movies anyways. The Rock is a solid "hero" in my opinion, who I would consider the natural heir to Schwarzenegger and Stallone, whenever he finally hangs it up. Plus, you can't go wrong with a movie that has Christopher Walken playing the bad guy.
"I feel like a little boy who's lost his first tooth, put it under his pillow, waiting for the tooth-fairy to come. Only two evil burglars have crept in my window, and snatched it, before she could get here... Wait a second, do you understand the CONCEPT of the tooth-fairy? Explain it to them... Wait. She takes the god damned thing, and gives you a quarter. They've got my tooth. I want it back." - Hatcher (Christopher Walken)