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Cast:
Jet
Le
Todd
Senafonte
Tai
Chieh
Lu
Feng
James
Nam
Larry
Lee
Bolo
Yeung
Action:
Lau
Kar Wing (new footage)
Robert
Tai (old footage)
Director:
Robert
Tai
Score:
 
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FISTS
OF LEGENDS 2: IRON BODYGUARDS
AKA:
Fist Of Legend II
Year:
1996 Reviewer: Tony
Ryan
In
a blatant attempt to cash in on the limited international
success of the amazing 'Fist
of Legend' starring Jet Li, new footage was shot with a
look-alike (named Jet Le!) and incorporated into an old school
flick to produce this inferior hybrid production.
Supposedly
set after Chen faked his death in 'FOL', the film starts with
a short re-creation of the original's finale using the
look-alike Jet. Once the scene has been set, the plot
technically follows the attempt made by Dr Sun Yat Sen to make
his way into China (Sun was a real life historical figure -
and can also be seen in films like 'OUATIC
2'). Chen is apparently involved in this attempted
passage, but spends more time getting into random fights than
furthering the loose story.
As
mentioned, this is a cut’n’shut job pasting two
films together - one film being a late '70s old school flick,
with the other being a collection of new Jet Le fight
scenes. Le is never seen interacting with anyone from the
other film, and as such appears to do very little except
fight. This creates another problem, as one scene will be a
modern styled and edited fight, with the others being
typically old school, meaning that the film looks even more
disjointed.
Action
wise, there is much to enjoy. Some of the old school fights
are enjoyable, with one in particular featuring a cameo from
Bolo fighting a Bruce Lee look-alike! Some nice choreography
and nunchaku fighting (from the Lee-alike) is on display and
is both amusing and entertaining. The fight scenes featuring
Jet Le are all quite good, particularly his friendly
duel against a travelling Russian Boxer played by Todd
Senafonte. Interestingly, Todd was Van Damme's stunt double
and displays the same prowess for doing the splits as Jean
Claude himself. The fight scene in question is ironically
better than any JC has ever been involved in himself!
This
is, in all honestly, a very bad film. However, if it were
purely being judged on the action, then it would easily gain 3
stars. Unfortunately, the incomprehensible storyline, dodgy
integration of old and new footage along with all round
tackiness means it can only manage 2. Bruce Lee, Jet Li and
Van Damme look-alikes are all on display and make this an
amusing, camp film which I recommend people to take a look at
if it's cheap. Bizarrely entertaining, but I suspect it will
gather dust very quickly!
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