ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

ActuallyGlimmer The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Comeuppance Reviews You better watch out for Trevor Gottitall (Bushey). Just by his name you can tell he is an evil, arrogant jerk with a ponytail. He is a kickboxer whose finishing move in the ring is to pull down his opponent's pants. Really. Fighting in a match with Trevor in front of an enthusiastic audience, young, idealistic fighter Drew Carson (Madigan) loses to Trevor's underhanded tactics and is humiliated when he falls prey to his infamous coup de grace. After consulting with his elderly master, the All-American Drew goes all the way to the original Shaolin Temple in China to become a monk. While there, the monks teach him, and he teaches the monks, and his fellow disciples a thing or two as well. After an unspecified length of time at the temple, Drew emerges to take on Trevor Gottitall in a rematch."American Shaolin: King of the Kickboxers II", despite being one of the longest titles of its many titles, doesn't feel like a long movie while you are watching it. It is quite entertaining and enjoyable.Madigan is perfectly cast as Drew. He starts out as a "typical" American with his omnipresent backwards baseball cap, yellow walkman and sports jerseys. Through his disciplined training, he learns humility and grace. But not before teaching his fellow students how to dance and sing American rock and roll. A highlight of the film is an impromptu music video where Drew leads his fellow monk hopefuls in a rousing rendition of "Summertime blues". While they are cavorting around using sticks as guitars and microphones, Drew changes the lyrics to "Ain't no cure for the Shaolin Temple Blues". If you don't wince in embarrassment, it is charming. Later, at another dance sequence, the one and only song is "Summertime Blues". It must have been the only song the production could afford.Also Drew teaches his Chinese friends about the ancient art of Playboy magazine and pranks. This Martial Arts film almost becomes an 80's romp when they try to pull a prank on the head monk. The film is mainly a long training sequence, and the title would seem to indicate that this film is a reference to "The 36th Chamber of Shaolin". The culture shock is a major element. He must overcome some prejudice as a Chinese monk says about Drew, "this Monk smells". Apparently anyone can just show up at the Shaolin Temple, provided they sit outside on a tree stump for a day or so.Interestingly, this film bears no relation to "King of the Kickboxers" (1990), starring Billy Blanks. Speaking of things bearing no relation, the box art for the Academy VHS release is somewhat misleading. It makes it seem like a dark, disturbing and angry punchfighter. The truth is that it is fairly light-hearted and there are many life lessons in the film."AS:KOTKII" is an above-average film of this kind. The actors seem to care about the proceedings and the audience gets sucked into the plot, despite some clichéd touches here and there.Your collection hasn't "Gottitall" unless this is in it! for more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

ravenwood80 this has got to be one of those films where the trailer is 50 times better than the movie itself.I first saw the trailer in 1991, it looked great.Since then i have always wanted to see it but could never find it.....until today, yes, 14 years later.lets just say I was so disappointed its unreal, OK i knew it wouldn't be an Oscar winner but still had hopes that it would be a fun no-brain film in the bloodsport mold. Unfortunately it was not, it's Poohwhats with all the American rock and roll music and the acting was so bad it was quite frightening.The fight scenes were rubbish and look fake.this DVD only cost me £5 and I believe I was overcharged by £7Now I'm sad as I know that I will never get that hour and a half back.

Jordan-M Yeah, the only song this entire movie had (that I could remember) was "The Shaolin Temple Blues" which really didn't sound like the blues at all, but instead a strange perversion of a Bruce Springsteen song. All of the lyrics are about working minimum wage and going out on dates Saturday Night... But the chorus says "Shaolin Temple Blues", not "Summertime Blues" like they sing at first. Of course, this can all be forgiven once we are shown Shaolin Monks playing Air Guitar.The movie's story is about as run-of-the-mill as run-of-the-mill can get. Ugly American (and BOY is he ugh-lee this time around!) gets beaten and humiliated in the first 5 minutes of the movie, then goes and gets trained by someone who doesn't accept him at first, until he begins to understand the ways of the martial arts. From that point, he goes on to defeat the bad guy in the last 5 minutes of the movie.This happened in "The Karate Kid", "No Retreat, No Surrender", and countless others! Even "KING OF THE KICKBOXERS PART ONE"!Anyway, Corey Yuen did the fight coreography for this film, and it shows by the overall quality. Unfortunately, the bright spots seen are overshadowed by some astoundingly bad parts... whether it be the Shaolin Temple getting exposed to Playboy Magazine, a group of Shaolin Monks going to a high school dance, or Drew poplocking in front of his fellow student monks. What can I say? It's goofy as all hell.For $6.99 on DVD, I can't really say it's a loss of money, but at the same time you'd be better off sticking with something else. At least "No Retreat, No Surrender" has Jean-Claude Van Damme.One last note: Am I the only person here disturbed by the fact that the only way the main villain seems to be able to win a fight is by pulling down his opponent's pants?!

AlbertV79 This was a great martial arts film. The action sequences are exciting and fast paced. The Shaolin training sequences was a highlight, especially when the new monks demonstrated with weapons. Reese Madigan was a bit annoying, but he still can prove he is a tough fighter on screen. I don't know how they did it, but they made non-martial artist Trent Bushy look great as the evil Trevor. A must-see for all fans of martial arts films.