Black Mask 2: City of Masks

Plot synopsis:
Kan Fung had escaped from the clutches of the organization responsible for his superhuman abilities. He plans to find any geneticist who will be able to cure him. Meanwhile, he has decided to use his powers for the greater of good, calling himself Black Mask. Lang, another high ranking member of the organization, has been hired to find Black Mask and kill him.
Wrestling promoter King is gearing up for a major event and has his top wrestlers Claw, Iguana, Chameleon, Snake, and Wolf ready for battle. However, when the wrestler Hellraiser (real name Ross) is attacked by Iguana, who undergoes a radical transformation to look like a iguana-human hybrid, Black Mask comes to the rescue. Ross is seriously injured and Black Mask chases Iguana to a nearby Tower. When Iguana falls off, Black Mask catches his hand in hopes that he can help him. Iguana lets himself free of Black Mask's grip and falls to his death, angering Chameleon, who was Iguana's girlfriend. It is soon revealed that the wrestlers had been experimented under Dr. Moloch, who gave the wrestlers animal DNA to enhance their skills. However, they soon discover the animal DNA have given them the ability to undergo transformations as animal-hybrids. They now intend to use their newfound abilities to track down Black Mask and kill him to avenge Iguana.
Meanwhile, Black Mask has found the geneticist who may be able to cure him, Dr. Marco Leung. He would give her anonymous phone calls. In the meantime, Black Mask befriends Raymond, Ross's young son who idolizes both his father as well as Black Mask. When Black Mask scuffles with some of the wrestlers, he is given a dose of animal DNA, which turns him into a tiger-hybrid. Locating Dr. Leung, Black Mask warns her of the DNA and asks for her help. She learns of a chemical component that could be the key to cure the animal DNA for Black Mask. Sneaking out, Black Mask has another scuffle with the wrestlers but successfully finds the chemical needed for the animal cure. Fully cured of at least his animal DNA, Black Mask learns that his old nemesis Lang has killed Moloch and has planted a bomb that has the capability of changing DNA throughout the city. Black Mask takes on all of the wrestlers as well as Lang's top man, General Troy. While taking on Chameleon, he finally reveals how Iguana actually killed himself and that he had intended to help him. Feeling remorse, Chameleon sacrifices herself to help Black Mask. Finally, Lang takes on Black Mask. At first Lang has the upper hand, but Black Mask successfully defeats Lang and stops the bomb from explosing.
The next day, Dr. Leung receives a call from Kan Fung. She leaves the lab and gets on the back of Kan's motorcycle, which implies she has finally cured him of his original superhuman abilities.

Tags: violence

Review:
The effects were done nicely, the wire work is great, and Jet Li not reprising his role of the Black Mask is entirely forgivable.
The only gripe I have really it took me some thought after watching the movie to figure out what animal Claw was bonded with.Yes, it departs from the original's style, but aren't you getting tired of sequels that are just the same movie with different villians?
still entertaining but you've already seen it.In all the movie was excellent, aside from the oh-so-slightly cheesy costumes when the animalists "turned" which for the most part aren't noticeable (slow-mo wasn't a good idea for a few scenes).
I had pretty much heard nothing good about Tsui Hark's English language sequel to the Jet Li vehicle Black Mask.
That coupled with the fact that most of Tsui Hark's films since Chinese Feast have been disappointing and largely incoherent, there wasn't much reason for optimism.
The wrestlers turning into monsters might make more sophisticated viewers wince, but this seems to be aimed at a solidly adolescent audience, and anyone who finds entertainment value in pro wrestling or in rubber monster fare like ULtraman or Power Rangers should get a huge kick out of this.
come on, can any film with former Porn Star Traci Lords in a supporting role as a genetically modified pro-wrestler/reptilian creature be all that bad?I've only seen the (apparently lousy) version of Jet Li's Black Mask, but this one is at least as good as that other piece of garbage.
There are elements of Roller Ball here, a mixing of Australian and Thai cinematic cultures, and yeah, the whole thing loses me with its maudlin kid.But didn't you giggle a little bit, if only unintentionally, at the Doctor who went paralytic whenever she was touched by a man?A fine adolescent pass-time, worth it as the second DVD you rent.Or maybe third.OK, the dialogue blew..
Totally unprecedented mix of stylism!What's the most fascinating that this film is using extremely subversive methods challenging the constraints of the movie (or genre) language and also our own reality by creating an artificiality in a futuristic multi-cultural highly advanced purely philosophical dimension that somehow represents the world of our wildest imagination, subconscious desires and illogical dreams, and de-facto reflecting our modern social thinking and time of the globalization...
It's like watching one of the Guyver films, only instead of the Guyver, you have Black Mask, played decently by newcomer Andy On. There always has to be one who thinks differently of everyone and if I am the only one, so be it!!!
I liked Black Mask 2, even though I don't consider it a true sequel to the original.
Polished performances, lightning action, great special effects, exciting characters, non-stop plot developments, horror thrills and chills, poignant moments, unpredictable, well-made flick.
Not really sure if I like this one or not, so I gave it 5/10.There were some well choreographed fight scenes and some nice CG environments involved, but on the other hand there were some really poorly strung together stunts (where you could actually still see the safety lines attached to the actors) and some quite appalling CG work on some of the monster shots.
One thing to mention as you've probably heard is that RVD is in this film, which is pretty cool, although he doesn't say an awful lot he seems to act better than expected.
And Yuen Woo Ping hasn't lost his touch: he makes Traci Lords look like just about the best female wrestler you'll ever see, even BEFORE she is transformed into a semi-invisible chameleon.
In short, if you like one or more of the following things - "Batman", "Mortal Kombat", "Power Rangers", wrestling, Yuen Woo Ping and general craziness - you'll probably like the film.
Not even "Black Mask" (that's referring to the at least funny attempts in the first movie with Jet Lee)!
And I won't even go there to talk about actors (nonexistent or at least maybe hiding behind a "mask"?!?) or a plot (also nonexistent, but even if you tried to search for it you wouldn't find it behind any mask!).Now if we'd leave those two facts out of the equation, you still could have a fun decent little b-movie here.
The first Black Mask was not a great a movie, but it was not a really bad movie either, and contained at least some excellent action courtesy of Yuen Wo Ping and Jet Li. No Jet Li for the sequel, but Wo Ping is back and this time Tsui Hark steps up from producer to producer & director.
The movie was actually completed back in 2001, but shelved by Columbia Tristar until Christmas 2002, when they decided the world was finally ready for Black Mask 2.Well they were wrong.
Amateurish, dull and frankly a bit weird (the weird is probably Tsui Hark's contribution though), the script makes Black Mask 2 feel like a really bad made for Sci-Fi Channel b-movie.But it's not just the script!
The one thing you can normally count on Tsui Hark to do well is shoot cool action, but here he lets us down in this respect too.I was prepared for the worst already, having read not one positive comment about the movie...
The original "Black Mask" was a gritty HK action film starring Jet Li. For the sake of Part 2, "City Of Masks", the exclusion of Li can be forgiven.
Nothing ELSE can be, though.First of all, the main plot consists of Black Mask (even though he GAVE UP crimefighting at the end of the first film) taking on a bunch of Pro-Wrestlers - yes, Pro Wrestlers - who have been infused with the DNA of animals...
In other words, people with semi-human bodies and prosthetic animal heads.Tsui Hark and Yuen Wo-Ping were helming this project, which is really a major letdown considering that Hark is responsible for great movies like "Time and Tide" and "The Legend Of Zu".
Wo-Ping is probably best known for his fight coreography on "The Matrix."  The main problem here is that you have two great HK directors trying to do what they can with a poorly slapped-together American Movie idea.
I am the kind of viewer who gleefully accepts the jeers of his friends when they see his shelves full of cheesy flicks from both the action and monster genres (and those are right next to some of the finest serious attempts at film making as well mind you).
The actual martial arts bits are pretty inconsequential - as is anything established in the original Black Mask, apparently.While I personally reckon I've seen worse, I will always remember Black Mask 2 as being the film that plunged a hardy co-viewer into a fog of stress for an entire weekend and drove him to claim that "it was so bad it actually made me ill"..
I know that the first Black Mask was no work of art, and that without Jet Li this movie wasn't going to be all that to begin with, but when I heard Tsui Hark was directing and producing, especially after the excellent Time and Tide, and that Yuen Wo Ping was doing the fight scenes I had high hopes it would rise above it's B-List cast of actors and wrestlers, especially the unknown in the lead role.
Imagine a blend of the first Black Mask, toss in elements of MANIMAL, SWAMP THING 2, GUYVER 2 and the prerequisite MATRIX, and throw in some over the top WWF and comic book gimmicks and you might have some idea on what to expect, and I dont mean this in a good way.
From terrible acting all around( I mean, c'mon, most are wrestlers) to some really horrid F/X and tremendous use of wires, there's nothing to recommend besides the few glimpses of some decent fighting and what started out as almost being a cool blend of an over the top action and comic book movie.
Not since the day I was introduced to the vomit inspiring cinema of Uwe Boll have I ever seen a movie so obnoxiously bad as "Black Mask 2".
Hell, I was at least expecting to have a good time and watch some martial arts fighting and cheesy dialogue on the "so bads it's funny" side.
To say that "Black Mask 2" is a bad movie is an understatement.
Tsui's attempts to create drama by adding the boy whose father has become a victim to the evil wrestlers's boss as a supporting character does even more to deteriorate the film's already low quality.
Filled with an insane amount of bad CGI it makes me crave for the days when Bruce Lee was alive and kicking, at least his movies had a feeling that you were actually watching a fight rather than these almost dance-like action scenes here."Black Mask 2" is not something I can recommend to anyone but the people I hate the most.
Black Mask 2 is not a kung fu movie, it's glitzy, over-budgeted, loathsome piece of garbage.
To sweeten the pot, Black Mask 2 features a script so convoluted, unlikely, and out of touch, that it makes you feel like handing the screen writers behind Vin Diesel movies an Oscar.The Kung Fu choreography reminds you of the way a director would have Tom Hanks fight; actual, impressive maneuver are completely replaced by fights confined to camera pans and zooms.
altho porn queen traci lords shows us she can still kick ass, as seen in first wave and blade.in this movie, jet li ran away, and for good reason, some fool picked up his role and took it, as best as he could i guess, he did look good.
Little wonder Jet Li took a look at the script and said "You're kidding?" As a follow up to BLACK MASK (itself no Oscar contender) Hark has more than a LOT to answer for.
I just watched this movie.Had it for a while but watched others then remembered I had it.I personally think it was one of the best,well done action movies in a long time.Including 300 and many others.I thought it would be another lips out of sync movies.It must have been made here the acting and words,action,all first rate.I wish they would make more like this.I saw a lot of foreign movies that sucked this was great.I don,t see what others were looking for.This one had good realistic action.300 was even a little boring waiting for things to happen..
This time, the language is English, Li's gone and the story became even wackier.The Black Mask has to fight a group of crazed and drugged up wrestlers who become demons in the process...
Many critics thought that the first Black-Mask film was too over the top to be believable, let alone likable.
For me it worked.In making this film, Tsui Hark seems to have kept one eye on developments in Hollywood surrounding the rise of the comic-book movie, of which the X-Men films became exemplary.Big mistake.
Also, this isn't really a sequel to Black Mask at all, these are all new characters - I feel cheated!
The Black Mask in this movie isn't the Michael/Simon character that Jet Li portrayed in the first movie.
As in the original, Black Mask is a genetically enhanced super soldier who has abandoned his creator to become a protector of the people.The creator in question is in fact a giant brain in a fish tank, or at least that's what he looks like.
The plot involves Black Mask fighting corrupt scientists and promoters who have genetically altered wrestlers using animal DNA.
This means that Black Mask main opponents in the movie are a snake-man, a spider-man, a chamaeleon woman and a freaking wearwolf.
Adding to the brain dead wrestling element of the movie are real wrestlers Rob Van Dam and Tyler Mane (who broke into the movie scene as Sabertooth in X-Men).
Polito has a passing resemblance to real life wrestling icon Mean Gene Oakerland.There's too many things wrong with Black Mask 2.
This one looks more like an episode of Power Rangers than a Hong Kong action movie..
Tsui Hark is the director of the greatest action movie ever made.
Black Mask 2 must be Tsui Hark's worst movie...
but it is A CRAP compared to movies like Once Upon a Time in China, Time and Tide or DAO - The Blade!But even this piece of garbage has some good in it...
It reminded me of the time when I used to watch Turtles from TV!Unfortunately Yuen Wo Pings Choreographies are even worse than in the Matrix (Matrix has very boring action choreographies) and the visual effects are mostly horrible...It seems that the Asian directors should stay in there and continue making GOOD movies...
A fight seen between "Snake" (yes a CG snake, think of someone going full on Kung Fu one the snake from "Anaconda")and "Black Mask" can only be described as interesting.
It was made by two of my favorite HK directors, Yuen Woo Ping and Tsui Hark, who have made so many great movies I cant even list them all.
It makes me sad that so many great people were involved in this movie, but I should have known it wasn't good because Jet Li didn't return for this, and taking his place is some guy i dont know, and he's fighting a bunch of pro-wrestlers.
I KNOW THIS IS A BAD MOVIE.The screenplay is really bad,and the actors are unknown and the budget is pretty low.But it has it's entertaining moments.The acting and the direction are decent.And this movie is original in it's own bizarre kind of way.I wouldn't recommend this movie to people who love to watch quality movies.Although it has some funny moments and good action scenes and decent CGI it is a pretty bad and trashy movie.But it is not the worst movie ever made.Have you ever watched The foreigner with Steven Seagal or Derailed with Jean Claude Van Damme.Those movies are much worse than this.This movie is at least original and it does not contain clichés.This is a bad movie,but it is not a painful experience to watch it,and it is semi-entertaining..
If you're willing to kick back and simply take in the visual pyrotechnics,  Black Mask 2 is fun and certainly better mounted than most direct to video action sequels.
Whoever made that possible in the first Black Mask should make another action movie!
My biggest issue with the film wasn't the bad special effects, the overly theatrical martial arts action or the lack of a stable plot (Seeing as the biggest threat in the film was a last minute idea of one character, instead of being a planned and looming threat).
For starters, the main character is clearly not the same "Black Mask" from the first film.
The Black Mask in this film is NOT the same character.
(Neither was the brain!!!) Also not present in this film, was the fact that the main character GAVE UP BEING BLACK MASK AT THE END OF THE FIRST FILM!
(Neither were the exaggerations of his abilities as a super-soldier, or the fact that he wasn't trying to find a cure to save his life) These elements even more so than the absence of Jet Li, gave this film an entirely different feel.
But even if they didn't, Tyler Mane, Rob Van Dam, Traci Lords, and new comer Robert Mukes (both as humans, and in their animal forms) have such amazing screen presence you can't help but admire their performances.My only problem with the movie is that the wrestlers weren't the main story, or even the main good guys, or bad guys, the goal of the film seemed to be, to make them as neutral, or meaningless as possible, so that we as the audience focus more on the suffering of Black Mask.In the scene where the main bad guy tells the wrestlers that if they are scared they can always leave, but then holds out a million dollar check for each one of them, you can really see the character come through; Wolf (greedy, and makes rash decisions that in the end leave him angry at everyone but himself, which is why he is my least favorite of the group), Claw (he is emotionally strong when it comes to protecting other members of his team, which is why he can't seem to walk away from a bad situation), Snake (playing up on Robert Mukes's innocent looking face, snake is the weakest member of the group, both physically and emotionally).Chameleon and Thorn , however, do get a decent amount of time to reveal the inner-workings of their characters, as Chameleon spends the entire movie trying to find a way to cure her animal powers, and Thorn is loyal to the bad guys because he has already evolved his powers to the point where he can control them, therefore he has a level of self confidence not shared by any of the other wrestlers.As for the Asian actors, the main characters.
Black Mask 2 is a silly good time..
Black Mask sure has his hands full this time!
We liked the idea of combining ideas from the worlds of wrestling, comic books and genetic engineering (!) - we felt that was creative and original so we'll look the other way at some of the dodgier aspects of this movie.On top of that, there are actual Martial Arts fights, as well as wire-fu and more traditional stunts, all overseen by the great Yuen Wo-Ping.
Joining him as the Kato-like Black Mask are fan favorites such as Rob Van Dam (Bloodmoon, 1997), Tobin Bell (Best Of the Best 4, 1998), and Traci Lords who looks...odd...and we prefer her in things from her classic non-porn DTV era such as A Time To Die (1991), Raw Nerve (1991), and Intent To Kill (1992), but she did liven things up in an already pretty lively movie.