Straight to the eject button
WHILE it can be said the booming video market is often the lifeline for major film studios, giving them a second chance to recover their investments in box office failures, it has also spawned an unhealthily vibrant straight-to-video film industry.
If you find such action offerings from the majors too much to stomach, then you should most definitely avoid this trio.
Angel of Fury (1993, Columbia Tristar, 97 minutes) is the worst of the batch. Undisputed queen of kung fu schlock Cynthia Rothrock plays a karate champion who sets out to punish a bunch of killers led by bad guy, Billy Drago.
While few action stars can lay claim to great thespian ability, the cast of Angel of Fury must surely reach a new low.
Rothrock and company labour through this film with nary a change in expression or an inflection in tone. But the greatest weakness is the poorly choreographed action sequences which are too long, too slow and seemingly staged by amateurs.
Best of the Best 2 (1993, Entertainment in Video, 90 minutes) does not suffer from such weakness, however. The cast - including Phillip Rhee, Eric Roberts and Christopher Penn - returns to flex muscles and carry out tooth extraction and bone-resetting without benefit of anaesthetic.
In this sequel, Penn is involved with a dubious martial arts competition which results in his early demise. Rhee and Roberts are thus prompted to avenge their friend's death. It is a major step up from Angel of Fury, but the ridiculous premise means you cannot take any part of this film seriously.
Nemesis 2027 (1993, IVL, 92 minutes) features even more graphic violence than Best of the Best 2. Olivier Gruner plays a disillusioned 21st century policeman who has so many bionic body parts he may as well be an android. He discovers an evil cyborg is wreaking havoc while impersonating the police commissioner.
In the course of fighting for truth, justice and all things American, Gruner proceeds to wipe out everything in sight. Director Albert Pyun achieves the improbable for his low-budget Robocop copycat by packing in more explosions and miscellaneous blood and gore than the former.
It is almost pointless in discussing the absence of decent acting in Nemesis 2027 - there is simply no room for any amidst all the corny dialogue and loud explosions.
