IslandGuru Who payed the critics

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Francene Odetta It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Comeuppance Reviews Dirk Longstreet (Gruner) is a school athletic coach and dog lover, and has the pride of knowing he has the most awesome name in town. His girlfriend Nicole (Harris) is an newspaper reporter, and her latest assignment is to find out the dark secrets of Ogden Correctional Institution. While there, she is attacked so badly she's put into a coma. Dirk, with the help of Nicole's editor Max (Lamas), working as his contact on the outside, decides to enter Ogden and get to the truth. But the corrupt guards are running Punchfighting matches, known as "The Circuit" - they even compete against other prisons' illegal underground Punchfighting Circuits like it's some kind of NCAA seed. But Dirk is an able fighter, and he's going to have to be to take on the reigning champ, the evil Pike (Shagen). What will happen to Dirk - and what will happen to Nicole? We may never know! The Circuit 2: The Final Punch, even though its subtitle contains the word "punch" (a surprisingly rare thing, even for Punchfighters), it's surprising that there are actually THREE Circuit movies. Why? Can anyone answer this? Anyway, as you've already surmised, it's a combination prison movie/Punchfighter, but it's no In Hell (2003). Olivier Gruner (or is it Daniel Bernhardt, I can't really tell anymore...) is fairly solid in the immortal role of Dirk Longstreet, but Lamas is underused here, even wasted. You can tell he doesn't really care, but, in his defense, would you? But his "I don't care" performance is actually appropriate and one of the better aspects of this movie.Besides the cheapness, unintentional "laffs" and out-and-out stupidity, which gets pretty grating after a while, there's a certain dullness about the movie. Sure, it has a cool training sequence, but that's just not enough. Even the scene where Chino XL and a bunch of his homies show up to the newspaper where Lamas works to say "we don't like what you wrote about us" (hey, it's plausible...doesn't it happen all the time?) is funny, but we can't really tell if it's on purpose or not.Jalal Merhi, who's in the movie for a few minutes (and literally phones in his performance) delivers, as a director, a movie with an amateurish structure. Plus you can't really tell when the movie is from. Apparently it came out in 2002, but it seems mid-90's. The second half of the movie is largely back-to-back fighting on the beach, strongly reminiscent of The Ultimate Game (2001). When J.D. Rifkin is your role model, there are some serious problems.As far as the "seedy jail" sequences, most of the major clichés are on show, such as the classic "prison speech" when the inmates first get to Ogden. The prison T-shirts have the name and number seemingly written-on in marker, and Michael Blanks, Billy's brother who also appeared in Expect No Mercy (1995), plays the sympathetic friend to Dirk. But, Dirk doesn't use his own name while in prison, presumably not to sully it, much like how a hand model always wears gloves. He goes by the name "Jim Morrison". Presumably his first choice for a jailhouse moniker, Engelbert Humperdinck, was already taken.In all, even though the cast is solid, the dumb and dingy Circuit 2 is not. It's not offensively horrible, but we still felt kind of bad for Lamas and Gruner (and pretty much everyone else), because they should be involved with better projects. Did we mention Gruner's name in the movie is Dirk Longstreet? For more action insanity, drop by: www.comeuppancereviews.com

Frank Markland Olivier Gruner stars as a kickboxer who goes undercover (Using the alias Jim Morrison) behind bars to take down the bad guys who injured his reporter girlfriend. Also on board is Lorenzo Lamas who doesn't really have much to do. Much fighting ensues in this completely botched fight flick. One of the major problems with the movie is just how ridiculously stupid it is. We have Gruner looking more like Yul Brynner trying to kick ass, completely oblivious to the fact that a fight sequence needs a director who can hold the camera steady. I must admit I watched this movie, only because I found it for one dollar and I admit that the movie had me in stitches at regular intervals. It's just too bad the movie is meant to be so serious because it was just laughable. The fight sequences are also so sloppy and indeed i'm shocked that martial arts experts choreographed this fight sequences. I mean you take a B.grade action flick like Kickboxer 2:The Road Back (Seriously comparing this to even Kickboxer 3, is just too good for a movie like this) and you have fight sequences pumped up with much blood ready to flow. Circuit 2 comes off as if the choreography was done by people who don't know the difference between martial arts and disco dancing. Some unintentional laughs aside this is very bad stuff. However it's frequently hilarious and is a must for fans of goofy cinema. Watch the ending and note that we never learn the girlfriend's fate! * out of 4-(Bad)

CitizenCaine Olivier Gruner, world kick-boxing champion, is at it again in this sequel to The Circuit. I think 3 characters repeat from the original; otherwise, it's a sequel in name only, as its story has nothing to do with where the first one left off. Gruner is still Dirk Longstreet, a college physical education guru, who gets involved in, what else, another low budget circuit with bad acting. This time he goes behind bars to find out what happened to his girlfriend from the first movie. That plot thread is badly handled, and it merely serves as an excuse for us to watch a host of fighters engaging in after hours money fights for the benefit of the warden, etc. Gruner shows off some impressive skills while beating a succession of fighters to a pulp during the fights. The only problem is none of them are worthy opponents. The only two who would be are left with none fighting roles: Lorenzo Lamas is wasted as a reporter that gets Gruner into the prison and Gary Hudson is also wasted as a sadistic prison guard. Director Jalal Merhi again plays Bill the reporter for a total of about 5 minutes. Forget the ridiculous plot in here and enjoy the almost none-stop barrage of fighting, some of it brutal. Gruner looks like a much better fighter in this one than in the original, but the ending is again not that satisfying. * of 4 stars.

randl1999 I have liked Olivier Gruner since his "Angel Town", and have enjoyed, if nothing else, his physical performances and skills over the years. I have also liked Jalel Merhi's pictures, at times, and he, himself is no martial arts slouch. However, in "the Circuit 2", somebody went to sleep in the cutting room. First,it's not well directed, and it appears choppy and disorganized. Loose ends abound. The killing of Nicole took forever, and was bad theatre in the story's context. I mean she was assaulted, raped and in a coma, and one murder squad had already been deflected. The second attempt, only mentioned not confirmed, seemed unlikely, now that hospital and police were alerted and on guard since the first attempt. The denoument at site of the big last fight did not make a lot of sense to me--unless we're going to see "The Circuit 3" Lorenzo Lamas was misused, and what newspaperman goes on police raids armed and shooting? C'mon, Jalel, you can do better.