Hard Target 2

Hard Target 2 (2016)

Runtime: 104 minutes

Directed by: Roel Reine

Starring: Scott Adkins, Robert Knepper, Rhona Mitra, Ann Truong, Temeura Morrison

From: Universal

Be honest here, how many of you even knew there WAS a Hard Target 2? I did, due to the forums I frequent. From about 2008 to 2018 there were many direct to video pictures made which were in name only sequels to action films that were known to genre fans. Some were done by WWE Studios and this is where Dutch director Roel Reine made his name. From there he went to Universal where even more DTV sequels were made; good word was heard as to the good job he did stretching a dollar incredibly far to make those pictures more competent than you’d expect from a Death Race 2, The Marine 2 or The Man With the Iron Fists 2. As Hard Target 2 stars a name beloved to me (Scott Adkins) there was no better choice for my first Reine movie.

The plot is the same as the OG Hard Target: a martial artist hero is being hunted as human quarry by awful repugnant individuals. This time, Adkins is a disgraced MMA fighter who goes to Bangkok then is on the run in the jungles of Myanmar—not surprisingly, Thailand was the sole filming location & substituted for a country even more fraught with political turmoil now than it was in 2016. There are few surprises along the way as Adkins befriends a native who has also felt the brunt of the nation’s military.

While predictable, the film ultimately still entertained and that was the key wish I had for this sequel. Of course it looks bad in comparison to the original, despite the Woo flourishes that Reine attempted to ape at times. Be that as it may, there was martial arts, dastardly bad guys, gunfire, explosions, and other carnage that frankly was more fun than too many big theatrical action releases in the past decade or so. Besides the novelty of Adkins sporting a generic American accent, some other familiar faces appear (Rhona Mitra Temeura Morrison, Chocolate’s JeeJa Yanin for like 30 seconds) and like the first used the Louisiana setting rather well, this has nice Thai locations, whether it be cities, villages or jungles, sometimes rather unique. The movie was a pleasant surprise, in other words.