- Also known as Snake Eater’s Revenge
- Directed by George Erschbamer
- October 21, 1989 (Italy) / January 25, 1991 (Canada) / April 11, 1991 (US)
A former Marine teams with a young man to protect a neighborhood from drug traffickers.
The most startling thing Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster are the extended moments of significantly better production values as compared to the first. That is contrasted by other sections of the movie that look slightly less cheap than anything seen in Snake Eater.
Our story eventually falls into the same ludicrous and poorly written nature of the first film which I guess is almost expected. This, like the first, comes off as a kid’s idea of an action movie. Unlike the original it’s as if somebody stepped in and occasionally told that child writer what he was doing was a bad idea and to fix it. They just didn’t fix enough.
It tries for a veneer of social consciousness amidst cartoonish efforts at revenge. What should’ve had some serviceable heart and on the surface been topical is lazy and dumb. Soldier (Lorenzo Lamas) is drawn into the conflict because while he’s working a community program that is part of his duties (though he’s on suspension) with his young buddy Speedboat (Larry B. Scott), a kid dies of a drug overdose. Consumed with guilt he decides to take out the local drug pushers.
The script is said to be a rework of an unsold script by Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster writer Don Carmody. That is almost obvious with a change in tone compared to the first and new characters taking the place of old. Detective Santucci and Detective Bronsky, who were the only other two officers we saw in the first movie, were nowhere to be seen or mentioned. Yet Torchy (Ron Palillo), who popped in during the closing minutes of the Snake Eater, makes a return but Soldier fails to comment on knowing him.
New to the series are Lt. Broderick played by Mark Brennan and Det. Lisa Forester played by Lamas’ then-wife Kathleen Kinmont who reportedly had strict rules concerning her husband’s contact with female costars. Also missing is any mention of his kid sister though she does not matter to the story. Soldier is only one of TWO returning characters.
For a bit Soldier finds himself locked in an insane asylum. Why? Because he kills a bunch of drug dealers and his lawyer gets him put in there. It’s just a poor attempt at some bad comedy with Soldier coming and going from the asylum with relative ease aided by the patients. He hangs out in this asylum for nearly a third of the runtime before those making this remember about the drug dealer threat and get back to that.
Soldier and Speedboat engage in what can be best described as cons to set up traps to stop the drug lord. It is something a child might think works but a cynical adult can see is just too silly to believe in a serious movie and not silly enough to work in any comedy. It takes some inspiration from The A-Team but lacks the polish of what was done in that weekly TV series.
Lamas and Scott had fine chemistry, but this was more interested in trying for action over shoring up any weakness with attempts at characterization. They are thrust together because we need two cool guys to be heroes. Speedboat had some cool to him which helped with the cartoonish machismo of Soldier.
The villain is a generic drug lord whose accent comes and goes. My guess is he’s trying to be Colombian, but I also don’t know if we ever get a name from him. More importantly, I don’t even know if he realizes Soldier or Speedboat exist. He knew somebody was ruining his operations but blames a rival faction. Considering he’s pushing cocaine his comeuppance is bluntly poetic though I think Scarface could’ve handled it.
The action is poorly staged and the dialogue is just, well, not good. While Lamas is more invested this time around, the script is not worth an improved effort. I am guessing because this started as an unrelated script, it feels like something completely independent of the first. Giving it a new name might have helped.
Snake Eater II: The Drug Buster is not as much of a waste as the first one. Still a waste of time though.
