When the WWF (now WWE) took off in the early 80s I enjoyed
watching the weekly spectacle of heroes and villains. I wasn’t an addict but I
enjoyed the humor as well as the matches coming out. When my son was small he
loved to watch it. He posed like Hulk Hogan and wanted to go to matches when
they were nearby. Then it changed and as those children grew older the
wrestling promos did as well gearing themselves to more early adult images. It
did indeed become more business oriented. The WWE has since moved forward into
making movies, using their wrestling stars in major roles. Some have been good
but most mediocre or just out right bad. THE CONDEMNED 2 turns what was a
decent film into an unbearable sequel.
Randy Orton plays a bounty hunter whose latest target runs a
high paying underground gambling operation. This bad guy is so low that his
current competition involves two homeless man being killed with electricity
while a group of gamblers yell for one to die first while they place their
bets. As Orton and his team enter a gunfight ensues and the bad guy is killed.
Orton loses his license as a bounty hunter (although why this isn’t seen as
self-defense makes no sense) and is told to keep his nose clean or he’ll go to
jail.
Returning home to his dad, the man who founded the business,
with his tail between his legs Orton decides to quit the family business.
Unfortunately keeping out of trouble won’t happen any time soon. The bad guy’s
right hand man, Raul, has learned from his boss and set up his own gambling operation.
And his newest featured attraction is betting on the death of Orton.
With a high tech gambling hall and using camera ready drones
to put the event on view for all to see, Raul recruits the members of Orton’s
old team to do him in. Each has their own specialty and uses that against him.
Orton has no clue what is going on until one of those members refuses to take
him down and helps him instead. Now the two of them are facing off against men
who are some of the deadliest opponents out there with the odds stacked against
them. How and if they survive is yet to be seen.
So what’s bad about this movie? Pretty much everything. The
concept has been used far too many times. The initial gambling den looks so
no-tech and has so few people betting that it makes you wonder how anyone could
afford the costs of a car battery let alone a hidden location with 20 armed
guards. The later gambling den looks more high-tech but still is filled with so
few people that it makes you wonder how the bad guy can afford the rent let
alone any drones. That it doesn’t seem to be televised as it was in the first
film makes it even more implausible.
The film is filled with explosions galore and car chases
made even more boring by the fact that they’re done in the desert. In case you
didn’t find that boring enough, they decide to have a number of these things in
slow motion. Trust me, it doesn’t add anything but makes it even slower than it
was without the effect.
The acting is fair to middling with Orton showing that he
has potential but not in movies like this. His strengths are in the ring and
not on screen, at least not if this is what he has to offer. While Eric Roberts
was once an actor to be looked up to he’s since made the decision to appear in
anything that will offer him a paycheck, from this film to BIGFOOT VS.
D.B.COOPER. A look at his name on imdb.com shows he is in 55 completed or in
post-production films coming out in 2016! He’s by far the best actor here but
not given much to work with.
Let’s face it, this movie was made for fans of Randy Orton
and the WWE and not many others. Its low end budget is readily apparent, its
choice of locations adds to that point and it offers nothing new to this genre.
Rather it takes much away from it. When sitting down to write about the film I
tried to be generous at first but the more I thought about it the more I felt
like it was a waste of time. For myself even watching reruns on TV when the DVD
shelf is bare is better than watching this movie.
Click here to order.
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