"The Circuit 2"

The scariest thing about “The Circuit 2” is the number 2, which implies that there was a first installment. Hard to believe when watching the trailer for this that anyone would be clamoring for a follow-up, but then again, maybe I’m just not the target audience... although I’m not sure who is. I just don’t like prison movies with inmates beating each other up, but they seem to be a popular genre (and sub-genre, if you count the women-in-prison movies also popular with male audiences – whose popularity is even more perplexing to fathom).

I prefer my prison movies intentionally funny – you know, comedies starring the likes of Laurel & Hardy or Wheeler & Woolsey, or to give more modern examples, Gene Wilder & Richard Pryor or Leslie Nielsen.

Anyway, to make matters more unseemly, this film revolves around a corruptly run prison that allows an “underground fight club,” so I guess they’re trying to extend the appeal beyond mere criminals roughing each other up to the notion of a “club” with rules and codes (like “Fight Club”)… except just like that cult hit there really are no rules during the actual fighting. That mindset has somehow creeped from “reel” to “real life” in those “Ultimate Fighting” competitions I find oh so disturbing. Indeed, the rules only apply to everything but the fight in “The Circuit 2,” as the inmates here are fighting to the death.

So you either like this kind of movie or don’t. I don’t. But I do enjoy digging into the backgrounds of the principle stars, surely a more entertaining endeavor than watching this dreck. So here goes:

Olivier Gruner was the first French Kickbox Champion and also became a World Champion Kickboxer before becoming a model and an actor – primarily in martial arts-themed action films. Of special interest to Late Nite Landfill readers is that he starred in “Soft Target,” a film penned by our friend and fellow Landfill reader William C. Martell. Another friend, Matt Porier (aka “The Direct-to-Video Connoisseur”) wrote a nice review of the same film under its alternate title, “Crooked.”

I saw the name “Michael Blanks” in the credits and of course I did what you would do: I asked myself, could he be related to the famous Tae Bo workout guru, Billy Blanks? Of course he could… and is! The Blanks are brothers.

But I’ve saved the best for last. The main star of this film is one Lorenzo Llamas. Where to start? Maybe with the Phantom’s mother – when I was a kid, my Mom thought Lorenzo was hot stuff on the prime time soap “Falcon Crest.” Kind of weird to me, all things considered, as my Mom was otherwise silent on such matters. Llamas’s life after that soap became a soap opera unto itself. It seems he got into the habit of collecting pretty young wives. Of course, the sticky problem there is what to do with the previous wife, especially if you picked the new model up from the showroom before trading the old one in. Usually because both Llamas and his soon-to-be-previous wife were in the middle of shooting a movie and who can afford to recast in the middle of a shoot? Little did the leading lady now that when Lorenzo yelled “cut!,” he wasn’t just talking about finishing the film.

Womanizing dads almost always fall to the curse of having a daughter of their own... one who either attracts boys that are as much dogs as he was, or worse, daddy’s little girl herself is a devil-may-care fatale. Recently, Lorenzo’s daughter Shayne competed on the show “The Bachelor” and won the heart of the title star. Or at least was chosen by him. Now they’re engaged. Will Shayna have a better marriage record than her dad? Only time will tell.

I mentioned upfront that the number “2” was a scary prospect signaling there was more than one of these flicks. During the course of my video clip research (you know, for that bonus content you’ll get by clicking the bold green words), I made a horrifying discovery: there was even a “Circuit 3!”

View the trailer for “The Circuit 2” here:



Or watch the entire movie on WABC-TV Channel 7 on Saturday, June 28th at 11:35 PM... if you dare!