China O'Brien II Reviews

The old saying about Chinese food holds equally true for the CHINA O'BRIEN movies: you see one, and right away you're hungry again. There's barely any susbstance to these clone vehicles for pixyish martial-arts ingenue Cynthia Rothrock. Part one concluded with the petite O'Brien (Rothrock) succeeding her late father as sheriff of tiny Beaver Creek. Now, thanks to the lady's flying feet and fists of fury, it's been designated the safest community in the state--even though there's a streetfight every two minutes so Sheriff O'Brien and her karate posse can show off their skills. The stunts get more expensive when Beaver Creek is invaded by legions of heavily armed marauders, led by hirsute Vietnam vet cum narcotics lord Charlie Baskin (Harlow Marks). He escaped from prison and wants revenge on an ex-associate, Frank Atkins (Frank Magner), residing in Beaver Creek with a cache of embezzled drug money. Wave after wave of villainous mercenaries attack and get cut down by China and her deputies. There's no real excitement because O'Brien never makes a wrong move, never gets injured, never breaks a sweat, never loses. Her elaborately choreographed battles are lively but rote, predictable as aerobics routines. The only good guys who catch a punch occasionally are supporting sparmates: China's platonic best pal, Special Forces commando Matt Conroy (Richard Norton, sporting an incongruous Australian accent) and one-handed faithful Indian sidekick Dakota (Keith Cooke, covering two minorities in one). But they always bounce back, and the defeat of sleazy Baskin is as dull as it is certain. The movie shares this dreary disinterest with the original CHINA O'BRIEN. Both also have the same fuzzy photography, location shooting in Park City, Utah, and identical offscreen personnel, from longtime chopsocky director Robert Clouse (ENTER THE DRAGON) on down. The pictures were probably shot back-to-back, as further evidenced by the reappearance of distinctive evil-henchmen from one film to another. Rothrock's impressive form is no mere act; she earned five black-belt titles before retiring from martial arts competition in 1985. She since has cranked out a number of action flicks in Hong Kong and the US, and the CHINA O'BRIEN bookends were indeed produced under the auspices of the Hong Kong-based Golden Harvest company. In her other efforts Rothrock displays genuine acting ability and a gamine charm that deserves a better showcase than these no-frills combat marathons. (Violence, profanity, sexual situations.)