Rating: **
Review Date: 3/9/25
Cast: Stacie Randall, Dan Gauthier, cameo by James Lew
"All I want is to live one second longer than Frank Lydell."
Harly Cordell (Stacie Randall) is a tough-as-nails ex-Special Forces soldier who was shot and left for dead by her former lover, Frank Lydell (Dan Gauthier). Now, all she wants is to see him dead. Conveniently, a witness to a mob murder orchestrated by Lydell catches her attention, and she heads to Los Angeles to track him down. The only problem is that she prioritizes her vendetta over a critical brain operation that she needs, which results in her becoming disoriented at inconvenient times. There's also some romance and cop drama thrown in for good measure.
While the title implies that it's a sequel, it actually has no connection to the original "Excessive Force" (1993). Regardless, the film is moderately entertaining and has a fair amount of fisticuffs, gun fights, car chases, and explosions, and it's a real treat to see stuff actually blowing up with real fire and explosives instead of all the CGI crap that you see in modern films. While Stacie Randall is definitely athletic, she's not very physically convincing, especially when she kicks people through the air and across a room. To her credit, it looks like she does a lot (if not all) of her own stunts, but the camera work and editing always obscure the action, leaving her efforts feeling limp. She's a decent enough actress, although she's strapped with some truly dreadful dialog and a not-so-great wardrobe. But it was the 90s, so I have to cut her some slack in that department. Her hair consistently looks nice, though, and the shoe continuity is excellent. Bob Gauthier makes an effectively nasty antagonist, but Cordell spends way too much time just pointing her gun at him without actually shooting, which gives him too many chances to get away and/or fight back.
Overall, it's a competently made B action movie that serves up a nice dose of 90s nostalgia. It didn't really satisfy my girls-with-guns itch, but I appreciated the effort, and Randall's delivery was consistently strong. It was also fun to see her get into a martial arts scrap in a graveyard with a long-haired James Lew.