The original movie was a bit of a cult classic, a favourite for the martial arts fanbase. The second was definitely a straight-to-video type picture, but twas actually pretty good, keeping much of the original cast whilst boosting it further. We are now firmly entering the B-movie era of this franchise. Top shelf in the videoshop, but in the far corner where no one can quite see it.
Tommy Lee (Philip Rhee) is now the sole survivor in this franchise with all other cast members falling by the wayside. In this high-kicking adventure, Lee is visiting more family members, but this time in the small all-American apple pie town of Liberty, USA. Unfortunately, this town has a problem, and that problem is an ultra-religious church with ties to a group of neo Nazis. So obviously this ain't good for business, anyone's business, so leave it to Tommy Lee, and one righteous Sheriff, to have to clean up this town.
Yeah, so this plot is one big massive cliche bubble-wrapped in predictability. The entire angle of an ultra-religious church set within a small isolated US town is so corny, it's the basis for many horror movies. Ronald Ermey portrays the preacher who runs the church, which sounds good, but alas, he doesn't really do much here. Good casting wasted there. The neo Nazis are led by Hansen, played in a menacingly cornball fashion by Mark Rolston. Now Rolston really chews the scenery well here. His snarling over-the-top racist leadership is both comical and fun to watch. He is joined by a large platoon of your stereotypical skinhead and deep South hick types, plus one musclebound goon. There is even a small subplot surrounding a local lad who is discouraged by his humdrum life in the sticks, and finds solace with the Nazi group (despite not being entirely sure about their ethics).
I think you can probably guess what type of antics these Nazis get up to in this movie, and I think you can probably predict how it all goes down. The Nazis burn down a local African American-run church and kill the preacher. Tommy Lee comes to town and immediately crosses paths with the Nazis in the local diner (best place for it). Tensions are high, but Lee is stoic. The church is slowly getting stronger within the small community (via threats from the Nazis) and wants to expand by purchasing local land for its base. Lee's family get attacked by the Nazis, but he saves the day. The Nazis disrupt a local fair, but again Lee saves the day whilst meeting love interest Margo (Gina Gershon). The locals bravely reject sale of the land to the Nazis which angers them, heightening tensions. Margo and Lee's sister are then attacked by the Nazi (again!) which pushes Lee over the line. He proceeds to take matters into his own hands.
What follows is your standard covert operation to take down the bad guys' lair. Obviously this starts as covert, only to fall apart and end up in a full-blown conflict. I think the amusing thing is this church and the Nazis have this quite large military-style base all set up on this land they're trying to buy. I think they were supposed to be stockpiling weapons for a race war, but I'm not really quite sure how far they think they'd get with that. As if you'd be able to do this unnoticed. You might be able to bribe the local cops, but it wouldn't be hard to get other help from outta State. Anyway it doesn't matter because Lee and the local Sheriff wipe them all out 'Commando' style baby.
Turns out that Lee is so righteous and heroic that right at the end, he even manages to make all the Nazis change their ways and see the light. Just enough time to walk away from the baddies lair, striding across the tarmac, shirtless, muscles gleaming, with a bit of blood strategically placed to make him look just that bit cooler. They really went to town with the baby oil here. You still have the same issue with this movie, in that you could literally replace Rhee with any other action star. The franchise doesn't die without him basically.
This third entry marks the exit from the martial arts genre, and the entrance into the all-out action genre with guns ablazin'. Wise move? Well kinda, the martial arts genre in the early 90's was saturated, and there was far more quantity than quality that's for sure. I think this franchise had reached its peak with martial arts, the second movie rounded that off pretty well. So this movie delving into the Commando/Rambo genre is a smart move. The only problem is this franchise wasn't that big or successful in the first place, so the move feels empty; it didn't reenergize anything. Also, this type of flick was ten-a-penny back in the day too. Nonetheless, this is a better entry in the cheaper action genre.
6/10
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