Cassie Clare

(On Cable TV, May 2020) I don’t hold the original Bulletproof in any particular regard, so the idea of a direct-to-video sequel wasn’t much of a draw. Still, I gave it a shot and don’t really regret the experience—Bulletproof 2 is not a good movie, but it’s on the enjoyable end of the low-budget cash-in spectrum of action spinoffs. There is some wittiness in the script, especially how it positions itself vis-à-vis the twenty-five-year distant original: Here, the first movie exists as a fictionalized adaptation of an article on a real-life pair of buddies. They even comment on the choice of actors to play “themselves.” Those amusing links aside, much of this sequel is fairly standard action/comedy, with enough of a budget to be convincing and throw in a few decent action sequences. The plotting quickly gets forgotten in the mixture of comedy and action that are the film’s most memorable aspects. The action is generally reliable, with a club shootout and a desert car chase sequence clearly giving a pulse to the film. There are some intriguing characters in-between the stock material (more notably a matriarch antagonist), but the script’s best moments are best attempted in dialogue, and that’s where the comedy becomes hit and miss—while Bulletproof 2 does have some raunchy funny dialogue, a lot of it is pseudo-macho bantering between the two leads that turns into homophobic vulgarity. I liked the romantic banter better than the buddy-bonding chatter—and Kirk Fox should probably stick to his own style of comedy rather than to try to imitate Adam Sandler. (The attempts to milk some laughs out of “I’m a fan of six/seven” get tiresome on the second repetition, let alone the fifth.) Faizon Love fares a bit better as the other protagonist but frankly, I was just happy to see Cassie Clare and Pearl Thusi having some fun in substantial roles. Bulletproof 2 is good enough, but I do wish that someone else could have had a go at the script to fix some of its most glaring problems.