We just keep getting further and further into weird ass
territory in this series. This time the
cops think Tommy Lee (Phillip Rhee (Silent Assassins)) is involved in a
counterfeiting ring (Tobin Bell (Saws), Thure Riefenstein (12 Monkeys
TV show), Jessica Collins (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Sven-Ole
Thorsen (On Deadly Ground)) so he must go on the run while trying to
clear his name and rescue his kidnapped daughter.
While this is a standard action movie plot it’s the second
sequel to not showcase a kumite. That’s
fine but I can’t quite put my finger on why this particular story is hard to
swallow. Maybe it’s because Tommy is
only a martial arts competitor and teacher and not a cop or anything like that
so getting caught up in something as elaborate as a funny money operation feels
out of place.
Anyway, by far the strangest decision made was to give Tommy
a six year old daughter. He was never
married or had kids in the previous films and the closest he came to a
girlfriend was the school teacher from part 3 so this new development
throws any sort of continuity out the window.
A close friend could’ve been kidnapped instead and would’ve worked fine
but I guess Phillip Rhee felt the daughter from the original script before it
became a Best of the Best had to remain.
There’s also a very poor setup of making you think this hard
boiled cop played by Ernie Hudson (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, The Crow)
is working for the villains. The movie
leans so hard into making you wanna hate this bastard with his insensitive
remarks and flippant behavior that it’s obviously a ploy. So naturally when a different mild mannered
cop that Tommy is friendly with turns out to be on the take it comes as no
surprise whatsoever.
The ending though is the stupidest part (spoiler for this
paragraph). Tommy races to the airfield
to try to catch the plane that the bad guys are on and he’s carrying with him a
bomb in a gym bag (sorry, too much to go into right now on how Tommy acquired a
bomb). He lifts himself up in the bucket
of a fire engine and throws the bomb into the wheel compartment as the plane is
taking off! The plane explodes. The end.
Now the movie has pulled some shit up to this point but I laughed out
loud at this particular moment. And
what’s even crazier is they set up Tommy’s throwing accuracy earlier in the
film by having him chuck paper towel into his kitchen trash bin. He does the whole basketball announcer shtick
too, you know “he’s only got three seconds left in the game, can he make it?!”
etc.
This installment is probably on par with part 3 but
at the same time it’s weirder. Like
Tommy gets in a scuffle with some henchmen in a bodega and the entire store
gets wrecked and one of the bad guys gets shot in the face and everything. His friend’s daughter also gets killed in the
crossfire and it’s a heavy moment because this scene gets Tommy tangled up in
the plot proper. But Tommy goes home,
bakes a cake for his daughter and goofs around with her as if nothing had
happened. He can certainly keep his
emotions in check when he wants to.
Generally you know you’re not dealing with the smartest film
when a lot of innocent people die in it.
A move like that is extremely tricky to pull off because it alienates
the audience and makes the film seem careless and disrespectful. But that’s one big thing they went for here by
having the bad guys mow down whoever’s in front of them without consideration and
it doesn’t work.
Another bland subtitle, another weak Best. The first half of the series is good though
with an undeniable work of genius in part II. We’ll always have that at least.
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