Hoodrats 2 Movie Review, Film Still and Poster

U.S. 2008
Director: Edgar Arellano
Cast: June Marie Sparagna, Donnabelle Mortel, Arden Cho, Neal 'Xingu' Rodil, Marcus Proctor
Release Date: 2008
Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes 59 seconds

Review of the Movie

Hoodrats 2 film still 1


HOODRATS 2
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Ladies, please make room, this is a boys' movie. Not that I meant anything condescending, it's just that it seems highly likely girls will not be enthusiastic to watch this. Not that it's drenched with blood or anything, well, just take a look at the film stills scattered in this page, you get the hint right?

The story is pretty basic and could be easily followed. The king of the 5th street, or in other words the local gang leader, named Chino (Neal 'Xingu' Rodil) beats his girl up and puts her in the hospital. Lucia (June Marie) is furious to see her friend, Patty (Zulima Trstancho) lying in a state of comma like that and then she decides to take the matters into her own hands. Lucia pays Chino a visit along with her two friends Miriam (Arden Cho) and Celia (Donnabelle Mortel) who are oblivious of Lucia's plan. Confronting Chino, Lucia suddenly beats him with a bat. The girls then run away and escape the shocked Chino. This gang leader then pursues Lucia and her friends by rewarding money for any small gang that could bring Lucia to Chino. Lucia and her friends then have to fight gangs of girls every time they are on the wrong side of the hood. Will Lucia escape the heartless Chino and probably even solve the dispute for good?

Okay now where should I start... Hoodrats 2 is a bad movie but I like it very much, now I'm not sure whether I should bash this movie for the bad quality it holds or should I praise it for giving me a heckuva good time! Best, both.

Let's start with the positive ones first a'ight. Watching girls beat each other up? C'mon admit it you know you want to see it, and from this aspect I do admire one thing, that the fight scenes are not brutal-like as in those user-uploaded videos that I used to bump into (okay! I seek for them, just a bit) on the net. It's not menacing or sadistic like those aforementioned videos, the cat-fight scenes in Hoodrats 2 are just exciting! Our heroines use bats, while the other gangs are using chains, bats, a knife and even trash can lids as their weapons. They shout, yell, spitting the f-word just like they don't know any other words and they punch, kick with the spirit of the hood. The scenes are simply fun to watch.

Kudos to the cinematography also, now this opinion may vary among fellow moviegoers. However, this a hood flick, so don't expect something as beautiful as flower garden with breezing wind through the green leaves or anything as scenic as the seashore with the sunset and all. I just like how the filmmakers shot the scenes in sunny days, the shadows of our "warriors" along with their weapons are nicer to see in that bright condition instead of in the somber mood of cloudy days. Excellent choice. And the camerawork although a bit over-stylized at times but it could convey the thrill of the fight to the audience very well. And now talking about the relatively new actress such as June Marie Sparagna, Donnabelle Mortel, Arden Cho, they could deliver decent performance for this type of film, each has their own distinct characters and those three actresses could convey their emotion well, especially in the scene where they visit their friend at the hospital, and this credit also goes to Zulima Trstancho which delivers good crying scene.

Now for the awful weaknesses. First, like I said before most actors and actresses only have to memorize the F-word, not a single dialogue is even good enough to listen to. And wtf with the scene at the brothel with the king pimp Baron (played by Australian actor Marcus Proctor), it's just awkward, useless and utterly boring. There is nothing wrong with Marcus' performance, it's the dialogue among them. And it's worsened by the dance scenes that only last for a minute or so, those are really, really useless filler. There's even a prostitute in Baron's house that look directly at the camera, oh my..., that sure blows. Last but not least the final fight is not as good as the expectation built up by the previous fight scenes in the movie.

So I guess by now, you already know what to expect from this action movie. It's not a movie to watch with your date, and not with your family, my goodness no. HoodRats 2 is a movie for you to watch with your buddies. Got no date and nuthin' to do on Sat night? Call your friends, rent this movie, get some chips (lotsa of 'em) and have a blast! At least I know me and my friends did. And frankly, I'm really hoping to see HoodRats 3, with improvements of course. I really enjoy this type of film to take a load of my back. Hopefully you could enjoy it too as much as I did.