A friend spoke well of this recently so I thought I'd give it another go and... nope. It looks good - glossy big budget action. Plenty of money for stunts and smashed glass. I really like the guy who plays one of the killer bikers, he looks like a 1989 Taylor Kitsch - I'm surprised he didn't have more of a leading man career. There's a good shoot out at a dirt bike race. Nick Nole's hair is well done - he'd been working out.
But its an uninspired story. Nick Nolte is unconvincinginly suspected of wrongly shooting a person - his gun is taken away. There's no ticking clock because Murphy doesn't have a pass - he's released from prison.
On that it felt flat that Eddie Murphy was back in prison. Why not have Nolte in prison and Eddie Murphy has to get him out? That would have made a sequel worth while.
Key moments from the first film are rehashed - Murphy singing "Roxanne", a confrontation in a bar, the final shoot out and a gag with a stolen lighter. To not much avail.
The film badly lacks a female interest. Annette O'Toole is disposed of with some dialogue. There's a pickpocket who Murphy clashes with who is promising, ditto a tough bar tended but both have minimal screentime. Brion James who plays a cop who turns out to be corrupt along with Ed O'Ross (the film's one decent surprise, sorry), whinged his part was cut down to nothing but I didn't want to see more of him - I wanted more women.
There's none of the culture clash from last time. It's very uninspired. Walter Hill was making a lot of basic commercial mistakes around this time, with this and Red Heat.
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