Starring Timothy Ly, Roxie Vuong, Robert Trieu, Maria Tran, Brian Lee

Fight Choreography by Timothy Ly

Directed by Timothy Ly

Maximun Choppage Round 2 is another Australian indie martial arts film from Rumble Pictures (What the hell?! Get your shit in gear, America!) and has a flavor all its own. The film begins with a hilarious dream sequence where we see a fake Bruce Li film (never thought I’d ever have to say that. He calls himself Bruce Ly, which dammit is a play on Lee I haven’t heard of. It’s a wonder why no one used it before) that is all in the mind of the main character, Tim, who has just won a martial arts tournament, and all the pressure that comes with it. Such as the pressure to meet women, which Tim is not so good at. He gets plenty of practice when his cousin Rob the Fob visits, and takes him on a hilarious montage sequence of Tim trying out some of Rob’s pick up schemes on the poor local women in his town that ends in dance off that begins well enough and goes horribly wrong. Not since Bruce Lee’s love scenes in Fists of Fury have we seen a martial artist so inept when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex. His luck seems like it might change when he bumps into Roxie (Vuong), a pretty girl infatuating him enough to capture his attention, which at first she is repelled by him just like the rest of the women in town. When she has her bible stolen by a thief, Tim chases him to get the bible back, and finds that the bible was only a Macguffin to get him into a series of fights designed to test him, from the double danger of a brother/sister team of ass kickers to an old friend who cheats his fights like Bolo Yeung did at the end of Bloodsport, until Tim can face the Champ (Brian Lee), a martial artist who wants to face Tim and prove who the real martial arts champion is. Tim isn’t alone however since he has Roxie and Rob…wait, no, he’s pretty much on his own!

Maximum Choppage Round 2 is a film that could have been mistaken for a Yuen Biao Golden Harvest film back in the day, just change out the There is a lot of humor that plays very well to the story, and the acting is pretty good save for a few places(I have to toss kudos to Robert Trieu, who plays Rob the Fob. He mixes the right character of true friend and womanizing jackass all in to one character), but where they really score big is with the fight choreography. There is a lot of complexity to the fights, and with the exception of a second here or there, the camera captures it all in a stylish manner. Overall the camera work is really above average for an indie low-to-no-budget film. The choreography is fast paced and fun, and really shows off the skills of the actors. The best fights–at least, to this humble critic– were the fights between Tim and the brother and sister duo, transitioning well between the fight and slapstick comedy moments, and the final fight between Tim and the Champ. The music score was also an unexpected bonus, courtesy of Zeljko Lazic. It really complemented the events of the film very well. Here is another film that does a great job using their locations to their maximum effect. To think Hollywood will spend millions of dollars to recreate the same locations…on their terms.

This is a really fun film, and if you like martial arts films and want to check out something different, you may want to seek out this film. I’m sure there is more to come from Timothy Ly and crew, and I can’t wait to see it.

You can check out their website here: http://www.mc2movie.com/