Best of the Best 2

Three years ago, Roberts, Rhee and a surprisingly mercenary supporting cast enacted the Olympian efforts of the US karate team against the mighty Koreans; but this effort, less sequel than cast reunion, jettisons the comparatively ascetic demands of the sports movie formula for the more demonstratively decadent pleasures of action-melodrama. Newton invites a select group of high-rollers to the Las Vegas Colosseum's nightly no-rules blood bout, where our horizontally-challenged pair vow to avenge the death of their team-mate (Penn). Radler's contemporary gladiator movie is little more than a crude pastiche: no matter that its prime role models come from sci-fi (Rollerball, The Running Man), at least it musters the courage of its shameless contrivance.