Ok, why is this series in the Martial Arts box set? There was hardly any sort of martial arts to be seen in the first movie, mainly a lot of shooting and some knife throwing. I honestly don’t remember when I first watched it but maybe there will be some actual semblance of martial arts in this movie. If not, then I will definitely feel even more gypped about this collection than I already am. Well, let’s just see what Black Cobra 2 has to offer.
The plot: In Chicago, Lt. Robert “Bob” Malone takes part in a sting operation to capture some drug dealers but when one of the suspects drives off on a motorcycle, Bob gives chase. When the suspect is hit by a car, the driver gets out to check on him and the suspect grabs her and holds her hostage, telling Malone to back off but when he briefly loses his footing, Malone shoots him in the head. The next day, Captain Marton chastises Malone for his reckless actions and as punishment, decides to send him to Manila as part of a law enforcement exchange program. When Malone arrives in Manila, a stranger strikes up a conversation with him as he eyes a man with a briefcase handcuffed to his hands. After taking his leave of Malone, the man uses the distraction provided by a couple of kids to quickly steal the briefcase and, after taking it to baggage claim, he places the claim ticket into an envelope and mails it before leaving the airport. As Malone gets his bags and goes through customs, he realizes that the thief had stolen his wallet and goes to chase after him but ends up stopped by airport security. Malone is turned over to Lt. Kevin McCall of Interpol, who escorts him to his hotel and warns him that he doesn’t want any trouble while Malone is here. The next day, Malone is going through mugshots of various criminals and picks out the man that pickpocketed him. McCall takes him to where the crook, Eddie Mallory. lives but when they go to confront him, they find him dead. As they search the room, Malone finds his wallet and when the cleaning lady spies the body, she starts screaming. Malone and McCall quiet her and ask her if she saw anything and when Malone finds a picture of Eddie with his daughter, the lady tells them where she lives. The two officers head to speak with the daughter, Peggy, to see if she has any information and afterwards, McCall invites Malone to his house for dinner. After dinner, Malone leaves McCall’s house but when he gets to his hotel, he asks the doorman about the bar the pickpocket’s daughter works at and heads over there. Malone sits at the bar and watches Peggy sing and after her set, she approaches Malone and tells him that she received an envelope from her father. The two go for a walk , where they talk about her father and as Malone escorts Peggy to her car, they are attacked by some men. Malone is able to fend them off and the attackers run when McCall and some police arrive. As some of the police chase after the attackers, McCall checks on Malone and Peggy, revealing that they had been following Malone when he went to the bar. The next day, McCall chastises Malone for trying to start an investigation while he is a guest in the country but agrees to follow up on the leads they have on the attackers. They head to a warehouse and question the owner, Asad Cabuli, as the car used in the attack was rented in his company’s name but he claims to have no knowledge of the events. As they are leaving, Malone tells McCall that he doesn’t trust Asad but McCall says they don’t have enough evidence to proceed further at the time. Meanwhile, Asad watches them leave and then makes a phone call, saying that Peggy has the briefcase. Fearing that Peggy was the target of the attack, Malone goes to speak with her and ends up taking her out to dinner. When they return to her place, Malone checks on the Interpol agent that is keeping watch on her place and then leaves but after he leaves, someone kills the agent and kidnaps Peggy. Malone is upset with McCall over Peggy’s kidnapping and heads back to the warehouse, beating up on some of Asad’s men to try and find out information about Peggy. McCall stops him and escorts him out of the building and into the car, before informing him that he had bugged the building’s phone. One of Asad’s men calls Asad to tell him about Malone being there and then grabs a shotgun and starts shooting at Malone and McCall. McCall is wounded but Malone manages to sneak up on the guy and after a brief fight, kills him. After making sure McCall is ok, the two head to the dock, where Peggy was being taken, and see her being carried by the men that attacked Malone the night before. Before they can rescue her, they are shot at by some men and are forced to take cover. Malone and McCall then make their way towards the warehouse that Peggy was taken too, killing their attackers along the way. Malone is able to reach the warehouse but finds that Peggy has been killed, and he kills the remaining attackers, while McCall manages to wound one of them, who Malone then knocks into the water before he can shoot them. After getting the wounded man and Malone out of the water, McCall has a search warrant issued for Asad’s business and they find the briefcase there but it is empty. Later that night, they decide to head to the hospital to question the surviving attacker and, finding the guard outside his room dead, McCall bursts in the room and stops Asad from killing the injured attacker. As they are interrogating Asad, news breaks out that the terrorists plan on blowing up a building and Asad attempts to use the distraction to try and escape, but McCall kills him. Heading to the building Malone and McCall come up with a plan to climb up the elevator shaft and break into the building, killing the terrorists and stopping them from blowing up the building. Some time later, Malone is heading back to Chicago and McCall and his family are there to see him off, with McCall and Malone shaking hands and admitting they made a good team.
Well, at least there was some martial arts action involved with this movie, albeit somewhat slow and uncoordinated. Still, this was a decent time suck of an action movie for the most part. The acting was ok, with Fred Williamson and Nicholas Hammond doing decent jobs as Malone and McCall respectively. The story was kind of confusing and honestly seemed to be dragged out for way longer than was necessary just basically fill the required time limit for the movie. I will say that I did laugh at the little goof in the movie where they had the same sequence of McCall and his family waving goodbye to Malone and his turning to wave back at them play twice. It was like a weird skip/repeat on the DVD. The action scenes were incredibly slow paced when it came to the fighting. Even some of the gun fights felt kind of slow. Like I said, it is a decent time suck of a movie but that is about all it is good for.
Rating: 2 out of 5
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