STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Morning *** Friday Night ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
When a teacher is killed after stumbling upon sensitive information, FBI Agent Reed (Dolph Lundgren) is assigned to go undercover in a liberal, PC modern kindergarten, where his 'no pain no gain' philosophy makes him a far from ideal candidate for the role. Gradually, he forms a bond with the kids and pretty young teacher Olivia (Darla Taylor) and liaises with his partner Sanders (Bill Bellamy), but all the while, Zogu (Aleks Paunovic), the villainous Russian mobster behind the murder, lurks about.
It's never too late to make a sequel these days, even to a more modern audience who may not even have heard of the original. Or even if it happens to be some bizarrely low budget, straight to DVD Dolph Lundgren vehicle. This is a weird, unexplainable piece of work at best, but maybe most so for Dolph. Things were looking on the up for him recently, with the well received Skin Trade signalling a return to the sort of slam bang, unpretentious entertainment he was known for. You're left to wonder what his motives for making this were: trying to show a lighter, fuzzier side to his repertoire, even if it's all little heard of, straight to DVD fodder?
The original was one of two films Arnold Schwarzenegger made to try and show a lighter version of himself, and it's been confirmed he's appearing in a sequel himself to the other one of those films, so you're left to wonder if he thought the follow up to this had lesser box office potential. Even so, many will feel he brought something to the original role that couldn't be recreated by anyone else, and it's true Dolph doesn't feel at home as much here, lacking Arnie's madcap spirit in the first film. He's joined by Paunovic's typical Russian villain, Bellamy's stereotypical black partner and Taylor as a worryingly younger love interest.
This is just an all round beguiling project. How did it come up? Who thought it would be a good idea? What was anyone trying to achieve with it? Why did it get made? *
