During the Iran–Iraq War, U.S. Marine Colonel Doug Matthews (Michael Dudikoff) is training the Iraqi troops only to learn that America is an evil empire that often surrounds itself with even worse allies in the pursuit of blood for oil. Oh wait. I mean that he learns that some of the Iraqis, led by Ali Dallal (Steve Inwood), who are killing innocent people. He challenges Ali to a fight and loses.

Five years later, America’s enemies have changed because “The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” Iraq has invaded Kuwait and Doug’s diabetic teacher brother Ben (Tommy Hinkley) is held hostage so that the Iraqi leader — you guessed it, Ali Dallal — can get one more shot at killing Doug.

Doug has some help, a Kurd named Tanzil (Uri Gavriel) and his ex-girlfriend, Lila (Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari) who is now married to Ali. Ah, what a tangled web!

This was the last film of director Ted Post, who everyone knows made Hang ‘Em High, Magnum Force and Beneath the Planet of the Apes, but I celebrate his TV movies like Night Slaves, Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate and Five Desperate Women as well as his Chuck Norris movie Good Guys Wear Black, the somewhat giallo Nightkill and, most essentially, The Baby.

At this stage in their near-death, Cannon Films had become the world’s biggest importer of South African karate movies. This is the sequel to American Kickboxer — and not American Kickboxer 2 because why should that makes sense — and has John Barrett return as Quinn, whose name has changed from Robert to Rick. Only I care about this.

Michael Qissi has taken over for Brad Morris as Jacques Denard, the kickboxer who nearly destroyed Rick’s life back in the first movie. Ted Le Plat also is back as Willard, the caustic reporter whose entire beat is kickboxing, kind of like Matt Brock back in the kayfabe days of Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

Denard wants a fight for the belt so badly — Rick is happily retired with his pregnant wife Carol (Claudia Udy-Harris instead of Terry Norton) — that he comes to his home and needs to be warned off with the very with child Carol with a very loaded gun.

But he’s not the only one that wants Rick to start doing spin kicks again. Dominique Le Braque (Robert Whitehead) has an underground kickboxing club. Rick wants nothing to do with it, so Le Bradque takes Carol off the board with a car bomb Newt and Hicks style, negating the romantic journey they made — come on, this is a kickboxing movie, but go with me on this I guess — in American Kickboxer. Rick goes on a bender, as he does, and ends up attacking Denard, who put him in prison — yes, this movie has a lot connecting it to the first one — years ago and back to jail he goes.

Le Braque bails out Rick, puts him up at his home and then Rick learns the shocking secret of this kickboxing group: losers get shot in the head. Rick wants out of things, but he’s trapped, so he starts cucking Le Braque by going from the four corners of the ring to the four posts of the bed with the bad guy’s wife Angelica (Michele Bestbier). Le Braque retaliates by bringing in Denard as Rick’s opponent, but the two resolve their differences, kick everyone really hard and Angelica shoots her husband and gets away with it because the rich live under rules that don’t apply to the unwashed masses.

Director Darrell Roodt made the first South African anti-apartheid movie, Place of Weeping, as well as the very well-reviewed movie Serafina! Somehow, he followed that with this and people were confused because critics never really realize that artists need to eat. He’s done that throughout his career, making movies like Winnie Mandela and Little One as well as Lake Placid: The Legacy and Father Hood. His directing resume is a lot like Cannon’s releases: all over the place.

While he was starring on Beverly Hills 90210, Luke Perry was also in a few movies, some well-known like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, well, this film.

In Terminal Bliss, he plays a rich kid named John who treats everyone like garbage, such as reacting to his friend Alex (Timothy Owen) falling for Stevie (Estee Chandler; this was her last acting role and she went into visual effects afterward) by hooking her on cocaine and getting her pregnant. Yes, Perry was trying to break out of his teen heartthrob role by playing a jerk. He tops that by assaulting Stevie’s sister, so when the threesome heads off to a rich cabin in the woods, everyone just watches him drown because this is a lighthearted romp.

You can also spot Alexis Arquette as a drug dealer, acid head and someone who should slow down when she eats lobster.

Director and writer Jordan Alan shot the proof of concept trailer for this movie at the age of 17 and directed this at the age of 25.

I’m certain that this was rented many, many times by fans of Luke Perry, who were confronted by its almost oppressive levels of depression.

Also known as Over the Line, this late Cannon movie was directed by Robert Barrett, who is really Roberto D’Ettorre Piazzoli, the cinematographer of Beyond the Door, Tentacles and many many more, joined by the director of so many of those movies, Ovidio G. Assonitis, who had become the second major stockholder chairman and CEO of Cannon Pictures Inc.

Elaine Patterson (Lesley-Anne Down) is a teacher at a prison outreach program who ends up having a conjugal visit with one of her jailhouse pupils, Dial (John Enos III). She breaks things off when they get too intense; his ex-girlfriend Kandi (Lady B. Pearl) raps about the pain of losing him; he goes after Elaine for shutting down the road to Pound Town.

When Tomas Arana and Michael Parks are both in your movie, you’re doing things right. I mean, this is the kind of movie you’d watch scrambled on Cinemax in the early 90s or sneak rent at a mom and pop shop when you’re too young to walk in the double doors into the dirty side of video rental.

Written by William Clark and Fabio Piccioni (Murder Syndrome), this is a movie that dares to have a scene where Lesley-Anne Down writes “I will prevail” in the sand after all she’s been through. Perhaps we should wonder why she — in a position of power as a teacher — can seemingly be the heroine despite having an inappropriate relationship with one of her students. Ah, 1992, life was simpler and sleazier then.

American musician Rickie (Steven Weber) has fallen for a prostitute by the name of Sara (Belinda Becker) who acts as if she is a princess. They escape from their lives together before things grow dangerous.

This was director and writer Jacob Berger first film and guess what? I can’t find it anywhere. In my OCD need to see every Cannon movie ever, I’ve listed what I do know about the film and hope someday to update this post with some better information.

I would assume that Cannon only picked this movie up for distribution, as none of their regular producers worked on it.

Have you seen this? Want to let me know more about it?