Hard Target 2 (2016)

Wes is slumming it in Bangkok 6 months after killing his best friend in a match in Vegas. He's tricked into Myanmar's jungle, where he's the fox in rich people's hunt.

Director:

Roel Reiné

Writers:

Matt Harvey, Dominic Morgan

Stars:

Scott Adkins, Robert Knepper, Rhona Mitra

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Scott Adkins	...	Wes Baylor
Robert Knepper	...	Jonah Aldrich
Rhona Mitra	...	Sofia
Temuera Morrison	...	Madden
Ann Truong	...	Tha
Adam Saunders	...	Esparto
Jamie Timony	...	Landon Marshall
Peter Hardy	...	Jacob Zimling
Sean Keenan	...	Tobias Zimling
Troy Honeysett	...	Jonny Sutherland
Katrina Grey	...	Kay Sutherland
Gigi Velicitat	...	Maduka
Amarin Cholvibul	...	Win
Thira Chutikul	...	Thai Youth
Geoffrey Giuliano	...	Vermeulen

Storyline

Retired mixed martial artist Wes "The Jailor" Baylor (Scott Adkins) can't refuse a million-dollar purse he's offered for one final bout in Myanmar. But when he arrives for the fight, he learns he's been tricked into becoming the target of a human hunt. Carrying only water and a ruby-filled money belt for the last person standing, Wes must outsmart the heavily armed group that has paid to kill him. As he fights for his life in the treacherous jungle terrain, the hunters become the hunted.

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Plot Keywords:

rolling downhill | mma | mixed martial artist | mma fighter | title fight | 

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Genres:

Action | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Scott Atkins and JCVD were both in Expendables 2 and both were the main characters in the hard target movies.

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Goofs

After Baylor takes the minicam from Landon he opens the waterproof shell, removing the memory card, and tosses the camera away. Later Madden finds the camera and looks it over, and as he hands it to Aldrich he announces "Memory card's missing" -- except he never opened the housing, so there would be no way he could know it wasn't inside.

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Crazy Credits

The movie title is written from parallel lines formed by darting arrow, similar to the original Hard Target.

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Connections

References Pulp Fiction (1994)

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Soundtracks

Bring The Ruckus
Written by Josh Macintosh, Christopher Greenwood, Adam Messinger
Performed by Manafest
Courtesy of Manafest Productions
Under license from Tunecore, Inc.
Courtesy of Capitol Christian Music Group
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

Don't Hunt What You Can't Kill

Scott Adkins has definitely taken after Jean-Claude Van Damme after a few movies together like Universal Soldier (2012), and The Shepherd. I'm one of his behind-the-scenes fans.

I'm quite impressed that so many features and themes of the first firm are played out in the second: the opening chase scene; the lead actor meets a girl who tags along; the single-load gun wielded by both lead villains, and the human hunt theme. Here, Aldrich and his corrupt minions pick on a 'piece of meat' they can't chew.

I like recurrent the hand-to-hand fights, and the idea of Adkins' survival with little or no use of weapons, it retains Van Damme's style of fighting, including having a favorite (finisher) kick. This is a movie about hunting humans, so I think the villains could do with a little more of gruesome deaths, like Sofia's (remember how Arnold Vosloo was killed in the first film).

I saw Thriller as one of this movie's genres, but frankly it's far from thrilling. The plot was quite predictable. For me the actors are not really to blame for any lags in the plot. The actors were great, but Reiné overlooked certain unrealistic scenarios. The minefield, for instance. The time between Baylor shooting at Tobias Zimling and his getting to a safe distance from the explosion is unrealistic for me. I also think with all the hunters' expertise, high-tech weapons and escorts, they shoulda hit Baylor at least once, that would raise the thriller scale.

It's just another movie by another director on the human hunt theme. I wouldnt dabble into which is better, this or the first movie. Roel Reiné did a fine job nonetheless.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 September 2016 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hard Target 2

Filming Locations:

Thailand

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal 1440 Entertainment, Living Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1