Story: A small group of criminal rob the Central Bank in Tokyo and just disappear from the circulation. But a year later, one of them is found dead and two crooked cops are now currently investigating this case, but more on a personal matter than professionally. At the same time, the 2 last remaining gangsters are planning to get their money back, which was hidden a year ago, for security reasons, in a construction site which is now an attraction park, and the only one who knew where the money was hidden is now dead. To help them to complete this task, they hire four other gangsters, which seem to hide a plan of their own.

When the right night finally comes, the small group begins the search, of course armed and equipped to the teeth. But what they were not aware of is that there's a traitor among them and suddenly, the members of the group disappear or get attacked one after another. The tension climbs and the paranoia begins to propagate among the criminals but to complicate the matter even more; the two crooked cops who were investigating their case are also determined to get their hand on the money.

Review: A Japanese yakuza movie influenced by Hong Kong action cinema, with angry yakuza, crazy cops, blood, guts and guns, Score 2: The Big Fight has a really interesting premise to please any over the edge action fans. Even if score 2 is supposed to be a sequel, it's more a "use the same concept as the first one" movie. In a sense that except the premise of putting a lot of bad guys against each other for a big sum of money, there's nothing in common with the first one, so even if you didn't see Score, you can easily follow Score 2 without being lost.

Japanese actor Hitoshi Ozawa, who played the main character of Chance in Score, is now back but this time not only as an actor but also as director, producer, writer and editor. I don't know if Score 2 was his directorial debut but we can easily see that, like his friend Atsushi Muroga [Score, Junk], he really likes Hong Kong action movies. But instead of using the same technique as Muroga, which I found consist most of the time filming some action scenes shot by shot exactly like in the original film where he got the inspiration. Ozawa's style is subtler on the inspiration but still very graphic just the way we like our HK action movies. Even if the final product might not be very original and stylish, it was still enough effective and dynamic to give you a fun time while watching the flick.

The premise, which I found was perfect for an action movie, didn't leave that much place for a decent storyline and originality. The most interesting point was the fact that there are no good guys in the movie and they were all fighting to get their hands on the money. There's still a small interesting plot twist in the movie as you are not always sure who is really the traitor among the yakuza, but even with that, Score 2 really falls in the category of no brain action movie. It still seems to use this matter to its advantage and seems to be proud of that at the same time.

If you saw Score or Junk, you will probably recognize some familiar faces, as most of the actors already played in an Atsushi Muroga movie. Hitoshi Ozawa, Shu Ehara and Kazuyoshi Ozawa who all played in the original Score are now back as new characters in the yakuza team and also Tate Gouta who played the white hair yakuza in Junk. If you didn't like the character of Score, well in Score 2 they are even uglier, darker, meaner, nastier and of course more laughable. It was something that I was expecting anyway, but I found them to be not very original for a Japanese movie but they were still enjoyable and fun to watch rather than being plain and boring. As a matter a fact, right from the beginning I already had in mind that none of them would survive and their death were actually more fun than really dramatic.

The only characters that really got me were the two crooked cops, the leader of the two was dead serious and the other one was that type of crazy out of his mind guy that you cant predict. Maybe they were very cliché, but I really like these kinds of crazy duos, especially since they are supposed to be "goods" cops. Just don't expect too much from all the characters and I think that you will a fun time with them.

If you are expecting a ground breaking and innovative story don't watch Score 2, but if non-stop action and gunfights fits you, then you might have a really fun ride with the movie. Even if the action is not breath taking, you have to give credit to these guys, because it almost never stops. There's a short introduction and development of 15 min. at the beginning and after that, well it's just blood shed, shooting and killing. This of course didn't leave that much place for a decent development of the story and character, but its still damn fun to watch. And again, like in the first one, you won't believe how many bullets these guys (or girls) can take before going down, it's just unbelievable. The only thing that really bugged me in the action is that none of the characters seem to know how to shoot, sometime they are almost point blank and they can't even hit the other guy properly, probably because the movie would have ended in the first 30 min if the knew how to handle a gun.

A brainless straightforward gun/yakuza action movie, borrowing a lot of style to HK movies, Score 2 might not be a chef d'oeuvre of action cinema, but is rather entertaining and enjoyable for an action movie. With a couple of friends and with your brain turned off, you might have a good time while watching this non-serious action flick.