Fist of Legend 2: Iron Bodyguards (1996)

User Rating:

3.4/10   

Director:

Robert Tai

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

The ultimate challenge the final fight

Plot Keywords:

Martial Art | Sequel | Second Part | Martial Arts

Cast

Bolo Yeung
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jet Le	...	Chen Jen
Feng Lu
James Nam	...	Nam Kung
Todd Senofonte	...	Lektov
Feng Tien

Movie Connections:

Follows Jing wu ying xiong (1994)

Two Films Spliced Together - And Huge Potential Wasted

'Fists of Legend 2: Iron Bodyguards'. Wow, what a title! It doesn't really make sense though because there's no reference to iron or bodyguards in the whole film, and this isn't even a sequel to Jet Li's 'Fist of Legend'. And anyway, that film was 'Fist' of Legend, not 'Fists'! I'm not sure what the guy who thought up the title was thinking, but i guess it worked, because i bought it! Actually, i bought it because the box stated it starred Bolo Yeung. In that regard, i was ultimately disappointed, to say the least...

The film stars Jet Li lookalike Jet Le as a young man on a mission to... Actually, i won't lie - the storyline is confusing and i have no idea what it was about. The confusion stems from the fact that this is actually 2 films cobbled together - new footage starring Jet Le interspersed with some old, unknown kung fu film from the '70s that has evidently had its original storyline tampered with to fit in with the new footage and make a completely new 'film'. The resulting film, to be honest, is a confusing mess, but this i do know - the new footage is great and features amazing martial arts action; the old footage is boring. Guess which footage Bolo shows up in? Basically, the only way to tolerate this film is to ignore the story, fast-forward the old bits (and save yourself the agony of seeing Bolo getting his ass kicked in another thankless thug-for-hire role) and just watch the new bits. Jet Le is an amazing martial artist and his fight scenes are always good. Also good is Todd Senofonte as 'Jerkoff' the Russian (no, i'm not joking) who wears a massive hat. The only previous work this actor has done is stunt double work for Jean Claude Van Damme, and it was actually quite amazing watching his scenes and seeing how much he looks like Van Damme, right down to his mannerisms and fighting style. The inevitable fight between him and Jet Le is the highlight of the film.

Unfortunately, its not enough to save it. This film is one-third exciting new footage and two-thirds boring old footage. And the result is an uneven mess. Such a shame because the new footage shows huge potential. Buy it only if you want to see an amazing fight between a Jet Li lookalike and a Van Damme lookalike. Don't buy it if, like me, you're a Bolo Yeung. You'll only end up feeling conned!