Martial Law 2: Undercover (sometimes titled Karate Cop) is an action crime flick and a sequel to Martial Law from 1990. It’s directed by Kurt Anderson, who was a producer in the first one, and stars Cynthia Rothrock and Jeff Wincott. Rothrock is the only returning lead from the first film.
Detective Sean Thompson (Wincott) and cop Billie Blake (Rothrock) team up to solve a dangerous case. Billie goes undercover at a nightclub in order to infiltrate a criminal organization that might have been responsible for the death of one of Sean’s colleagues but the bosses are guarded by powerful martial artists the heroes must face.
Surprisingly an improvement over the first movie. The story doesn't really work as a whole because it's so disjointed and muddled, but every little vignette and action sequence works quite perfectly as a small highlight that you do enjoy watching the film even if the glue that sticks it together isn't really that rewarding.
The choregraphies are top notch and not only do the fight scenes have their own beginning, middle and end but they sometimes work towards a crescendo and end in a very interesting punctuation blow to finish the sequence (like Rothrock breaking the leg of a mugger after beating all of his group) that gives it a more interesting flare not expected from one of Rothrock’s typical American films. So it's ultimately sort of creative.
The flaws from the first film, and most of the other nineties Rothrock films quite honestly, are there still but not to a higher degree. This time, the cinematography becomes quite good looking sometimes and the events do unfold in relatively engaging ways, making it of higher quality than usual.
If you are up for a worthwhile early nineties martial arts effort this one can be quite entertaining for you. Recommended for genre fans.
There was a third movie in the franchise but it has nothing to do with Rothrock and it changes concepts altogether.
