Delta Force 2

DELTA FORCE 2: THE COLOMBIAN CONNECTION (1990)

Directed by: Aaron Norris
Screenplay: Lee Reynolds
Starring: Chuck Norris & Billy Drago

Chuck is back in action in the sequel to one of his biggest hits. However, gone are the snarling Lee Marvin, the great George Kennedy, the cheesy theme tune and the even cheesier motorcycles with machine guns that made the first Delta Force so great. Albeit, in a very cheesy and sometimes camp way, not to mention overly gung-ho. Delta Force 2 doesn’t feel much like a sequel to the original Delta Force, only so much in that it has Chuck Norris in it and (eventually) there is a good dose of bullet riddled action. Now Delta Force one is no great shakes in the world of action movies but is one of Chuck’s more liked vehicles and is certainly entertaining due to its ridiculous music, over-the-top jingoism and those aforementioned motorcycles with machine guns. The sequel however goes off in a different direction and instead of terrorists hijacking a plane, this time we have Billy Drago’s nasty drug lord making a nuisance of himself and Norris sent into his mountain top compound to sort him out.



While Delta Force 2 could have been a fast moving, slam-bang military action flick it instead takes its time focusing too much on Drago’s loony bad guy. He is certainly fun and seems to have taken a large amount of the coke his character is shipping all over the world but the flick tends to drag as he wanders about being evil, kidnapping some DEA guys, killing an undercover agent within his ranks and somehow also killing Norris’ best mate. This, of course, makes Norris mad and he agrees to go in and infiltrate Drago’s drug empire and bring the bad guy to justice. So, he sort of trains a Delta Force team then abandon’s them and goes off on his own and spends a good chunk of the movie climbing the mountain Drago’s hill top hideout is on. Not exactly full throttle, action packed stuff. Plus, instead of having his own elite unit of soldiers (though they do kind of pop up near the end to fire some guns), Norris is lumbered with a “comedy relief” General (at least I assume he is supposed to be comedy relief as actor John P. Ryan seems to be drunk pretty much anytime he is on screen) who does nothing for international relations, almost kills his own men when blowing up the jungle and makes light of the rape and torture of one of the female characters. All unintentional comedy I might add, as you will often wonder what the hell this guy is doing, saying and smoking.

The film does benefit from having a decent budget and when it finally gets around to it, some pretty good big explosions and firepower heavy action. There is also a neat sequence where Norris and Drago are dragged through the jungle by a helicopter. It’s all typical late 80s, early 90s Cannon fodder, a mish-mash of concepts thrown together with a star name, some cool locations and some decent action scenes. Yet, Chuck seems to be hardly in this (a good or bad thing depending on your tolerance for the bearded one), the pace too lethargic, the supporting cast unintentionally funny and Drago too bizarre for his own good.