No Retreat, No Surrender 2 (1987) Movie Review

In 1986 Hong Kong film director Corey Yuen made a breakthrough martial arts movie titled No Retreat, No Surrender, which became highly successful and introduced Jean-Claude Van Damme to the world. While I dont think the film stands up to Yuen's better pictures like Yes, Madam! (1985) or Righting Wrongs (1986), it had such a big impact that it created a series of films, most of them unofficial or unconnected to the original one.

Today's subject is the second part of the series, that's completely independent and might as well be titled something else because it has zero narrative connection to the first film. In fact it had other titles elsewhere like Raging Thunder and Karate Tiger 2: Raging Thunder.

No Retreat, No Surrender 2 was released in 1987 and starred Loren Avedon, Max Thayer and Cynthia Rothrock. Rothrock does not play a huge part in the movie and her screen time is limited, but she shows off her skills enough for this film to fit into the blog's theme.

The plot follows Scott Wylde (Avedon) visiting Vietnam in order to reunite with his best friend and teacher Mac Jarvis (Thayer) but instead finds Terry (Rothrock), Mac's ex. Scott then meets up with Mac because his girlfriend was kidnapped by Soviets and the two of them go to rescue her. Another Rambo-knock off plot that serves as an excuse to show jungle action and lot's of shootouts.

Cynthia Rothrock's character starts out as a sidelined former lover and eventually joins in on the action later in the picture when she saves the main duo from some bad guys, only to have a small chat with them and share some screen time in the final battle. Nothing too fancy but Yuen found a way to incorporate her, even if it is somewhat shoehorned and she doesnt do a whole lot.

She also falls under the damsel in distress trope for the first time (Perhaps second time, if you even count Fight to Win to fit into that), something Rothrock usually avoided for many pictures. However, this is sort of an excuse to give us some action moments with her kicking bad guys because her hands are tied, this also leads to a pretty well done confrontation with an enemy and a highly powerful big baddie. So the trope isn't played completely straight here and serves to raise the stakes. Take that for what you will.

The biggest problem I have with this picture seems to be the same as with Yuen's direction of the first film, he seems to be adapting to the very straightforward and streamlined way of making movies in Hollywood, as opposed to the slapdash narratives of Hong Kong cinema, always diverging and moving constantly, this movie never allows for the beauty in the action to settle in, nor does it deliver a great and nuanced story, it's trapped somewhere in between the two styles but never achieving either of them successfully.

I actually  enjoyed this one more than the first one, it features more effective comedic bits, the storyline it's slightly more engaging and the actual fights are more fun to watch than in the original one. It doesn't have the abundant dull moments of wooden acting from the first film but it's also far from being a complete improvement as seemingly Yuen was still struggling to bring any worthwhile quality from his older films into these two films in the No Retreat series. I gotta say I enjoy the strictly Hong Kong affairs a lot more.

There's also a very bittersweet ending, in typical Yuen fashion, that would be completely absent if this were to be a regular American action movie.

While Yuen brings his skills and craft to the project I can't help but to feel it's somewhat lacking compared to his previous hits, it's not as free and loose as I would have wanted it too. It's well directed but it's not as interesting as Yes Madam! or Righting Wrongs from a visual and narrative standpoint. It's also possible that this is because the writers were not involved in those earlier Hong Kong movies Yuen did.

It's passable but far from great. We have seen the director do better.

Funny thing is that out of all of these early Cynthia Rothrock pictures, this one might have actually been the most influential and one of the defining projects in her career. I say this because this is her last collaboration with filmmaker Corey Yuen. This was also the film that inspired Ed Boon to create the character of Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat in 1992, at least according to IMDB, since I have yet to find proof that it was this exact movie, most sources say Cynthia was the inspiration but they never mention specific movies.

Negasonic Teenage Warhead (2024) Comic review

Negasonic Teenage Warhead has a very strange history as a character, being almost always underutilized. She first appeared in New X-Men #115 in 2001, but her popularity and modern personality wasn't truly established until the highly successful Deadpool movie from 2016 was released and introduced the character to a mainstream audience. 

This particular one-shot comic comes from the modern day interpretation of the character as a punk-like angsty teen with superpowers like psychic and precognitive abilities and it's a compilation from several issues of Marvel's Voices Infinity Comics, particularly from issues 44 to 49 featuring this specific storyline but with a new story added to it. 

We open with Negasonic helping Deadpool during average and banal missions, sequences that are among the best scenes of Deadpool since the movies but don't add much overall, only for her to receive a threatening vision of the end of the world, the only way to stop it is by kissing her future girlfriend. The problem is that she doesn't know who this woman is as she has yet to meet her.

Negasonic then reaches out to Emma Frost for help, who recruits a team of women with the most brilliant minds to help: Invisible Woman, Princess Shuri, Dr. Toni Ho, Scarlet Witch, Moondragon, Phyla-Vell, Jean Grey and Boom-Boom.

What follows is a race against time itself, and the Time Variance Authority, in order to stop the universe from ending by having Negasonic meet with the woman she is supposed to date in less than an hour. Not an easy task.

A very engaging story about how no matter what destiny has in store for us we are all able to forge and change our paths in life with a strong enough will and determination. It avoids any potential pessimism pitfalls when it comes to visions of future doom and offers us a very clever version of this type of premise by fleshing out Negasonic and creating a very personal and intimate story that gives us more sides of her, every obstacle and conflict that's introduced serves to push her limits as a character and that's where the inventiveness of this comic begins, delving deeper into a seemingly only secondary character that was used mostly for gags. 

At first it seems like a very typical outing with the mismatched yet highly amusing duo of Negasonic and Deadpool, only to go further with the premise and reach slightly more serious topics. In fact, Deadpool and the strictly comedic portions of the book are sidelined fairly early. It's never too heavy and it's swift and concise enough to hold your attention all the way. The fact that it unites a lot of Negasonic's issues regarding agency and independence with other Marvel women, like Scarlet Witch, is also very telling of its place in culture and the troubles the target audience faces. 

At the same time, it's very skillfully done in the visual sense by artists Carola Borelli (Spider Woman 2023), Eleonora Carlini (Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hellmouth) and colorists Brittany Peer (Drawing Blood) and Ruth Redmond (Alien, Aliens, Marvel's Voices Infinity, Sensational She-Hulk 2023). Also well written by Andrew Wheeler (Another Castle, Love and War). While you can sometimes notice that the format was originally different and while the added story may feel irrelevant, the entire compilation is well worth your time if you are interested in the premise and the character. If you ever hoped to see more of Negasonic Teenage Warhead other than the brief appearances in the movies, this has you covered.

I found it very heartwarming and humorous, a quick and enjoyable read.

Buy here

Scalps (1987) Indian Vengeance - Review

Female led Spaghetti Western movies aren't really common but they aren't non-existent either, one example is this very late entry into the genre by directors Claudio Fragasso and Bruno Mattei, a duo responsible for a good amount of absurd but fun Italian horror and action genre cinema like Hell of the Living Dead (1980), SS Girls (1977), Strike Commando (1987) and the infamous Troll 2 (1990) (by Claudio alone).

Scalps follows in the footsteps of Soldier Blue (1970) or The Animals (1970): a survival/revenge plot featuring strong female characters in the savage west. It was released in 1987 and starred Spanish actress Mapi Galán in her first leading role. Scalps was also shot back-to-back with another Bruno/Claudio western titled White Apache.

A group of Confederate soldiers, led by the evil Coronel Connors, become renegades after refusing to surrender and attack a local Comanche tribe, looking to buy or simply possess the young daughter of the chief. The girl, Yarin (Mapi Galán), is captured and constantly abused by the men after her tribe is exterminated. She eventually manages to escape and encounters a lonely cowboy named Matt, who hates Indians and revenge but aids the wounded native woman. After realizing that Matt used to work for Coronel Connors, Yarin asks for his help in her search for vengeance.

The biggest virtue of the film is its very potent cinematic narrative skills, like when Yarin escapes and the way the soldiers are able to find her is by following the drops of blood she leaves on the ground, a very memorable and inventive image. There's great shots of full of sorrow and with an ecstatic thirst for vengeance by the protagonist that convey her need for revenge. I also liked how for the first half of the picture Yarin has an injured eye that visually conveys her suffering and both physical and emotional scars. The male lead, Matt, is a gray character but one that tries to get better, he's a far more stereotypical character than all of the other ones and he lacks real personality and charisma. 

Yarin is a very intriguing heroine because she is feral and somewhat primitive, her conception of the world is only her tribe and the desert, the performance by Mapi Galán is very effective in presenting that. She isn't trying to prove anything, she is just trying to survive and has zero consideration for the outside world and our recognizable morals, which explains her nonchalant savage attitude when killing men. 

The villains are very typical bigots and brutal sadists, Southerners who can't admit that the fight is lost, that they shouldn't be fighting for their nefarious cause. In contrast, Matt gave up on them and even in his hatred of natives he doesn't want more violence, this bigoted aspect is challenged and redeemed by the fact that he ends up respecting the natives and doing things their way.

While the thrills aren't missing, Scalps never manages to reach the high levels of action-packed delirium other movies by Mattei did, so it's a bit more tamed and limited, but it is more sober and approachable for most audiences because of it. 

The film isn't perfect, the pacing it's occasionally brought down by filler, some moments are downright unrealistic (if not silly) and the relationship between Matt and Yari isn't very convincing nor is it properly developed (Soldier Blue, for example, has the upper hand in that regard) but it's far from a bad picture, the visual storytelling is strong even if the actual character relations are weak, elemental at best and arbitrary at worst. 

I can recommend it to people looking for a bloody and somewhat female-driven spaghetti western, but this last element is really diluted and goes for gore and cheap exploitation rather than anything else. I mean, it is amusing because of it.