Darkman II: The Return of Durant
Darkman II: The Return of Durant
R | 11 July 1995 (USA)
Darkman II: The Return of Durant Trailers

Darkman and Durant return and they hate each other as much as ever. This time, Durant has plans to take over the city's drug trade using high-tech weaponry. Darkman must step in and try to stop Durant once and for all.

Reviews
Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way
Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Scott LeBrun South African actor Arnold Vosloo ("The Mummy" '99) inherits the role of Dr. Peyton Westlake / Darkman from Liam Neeson in this decent direct to video sequel to Sam Raimis' comic book style thriller. Several years later, Westlake has gone literally underground, while still conducting his experiments in creating synthetic skin that will endure in sunlight beyond 99 minutes. He finds a kindred spirit in a fellow scientist, Dr. David Brinkman (Jesse Collins), whose experiments and ambitions mesh with his own. However, Westlakes' former nemesis, crime kingpin Robert G. Durant (Larry Drake), is back after being in a coma for a long time. Durant and his goons decide to get into the weapons business, and Westlake is ripe for revenge.You do miss the solid screen presence of Neeson and directorial panache of Raimi in this routine sequel. It's got enough slickness and action to keep it watchable, but it basically just offers more of the same. That said, it's still amusing to see Westlake manufacture his masks and impersonate the various underlings in Durants' organization, just as he did before. But Durant is now wise to his nemesis' methods, and is not easily fooled. KNB do their typical efficient work with the makeup effects, and there is an impressive new weapon that the Durant gang has at their disposal. It's been devised by demented genius, Dr. Alfred Hathaway (veteran Canadian character actor Lawrence Dane, having a ball in a kooky role), whom Durant and company broke out of a mental asylum.Vosloo is no Neeson, but he does an okay job. Unfortunately, Kim Delaney and Renee O'Connor are stuck playing really insipid roles. (You can't feel a bit sorry for Delaney's character.) The late, great Drake provides the main reason to watch, clearly relishing this opportunity to rehash his villain from the first movie. Dane is fine, but most of the supporting cast is pretty nondescript.Danny Elfmans' terrific themes still resonate; the new music by Randy Miller is nowhere near as memorable.Fans of the first movie may have some fun with this one.Six out of 10.
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews It's been 5 years since the first one(at least in real-time, and I'm not sure there's anything indicating if that's at all incorrect within this), and Durant now wakes up from the... coma... he was somehow left in. Oh, he got hurt, he has... a single facial scar... well, they wanted him back, and I can't fault them for that(and Drake(back!) is enjoyable, if considerably less threatening, here... well, that goes for both titular characters, as they are given entirely too little to do, with this feeling padded because the conflict doesn't come to a head, though it seems like it could, for most of this(because it would end really quickly once it did... without an origin left to tell, this meanders instead). His "business" has deteriorated, left in the hands of those less capable, so, like before, he tries to get more territory, this time dipping into science fiction(granted, there is some of that in the predecessor to this), with a high-powered weapon. Once you hear the details of the plan, it's reasonably clever. Darkman has been... hm... you know what, I have no idea, because it doesn't seem like he's embraced the vigilantism thing. He stops a little crime early in this, but that seems incidental. Anyway, he gets new hope for perfecting the synthetic skin(I suppose that's what's been taking up all his time?), when he finds fellow scientist of the field, Dr. David Brinkman. The tactics and logic of either is lacking in this. This is a serviceable sequel. If you adjust your expectations appropriately, and you really want more of this franchise, this isn't too bad. Gone is the theatrical production quality, the dynamic quality aided by the Raimi/Pope coupling(which gave us a manic, visual feast), the fast pace(this one isn't outright boring, and it is only 89 minutes long without end credits) and the Gothic inspiration. Remaining is roughly the same amount of action(if the scale is obviously smaller) and it's exciting enough... these remain more in the thriller genre, and this can be quite tense. Also still present is that it's genuinely engaging... you want the good guys to win and the villains to suffer. With the arc of the '90 one sufficiently covered in that one, this one goes for a new thematic of "lost dreams", retaining the dark tone. New characters are fine. A reporter helps our anti-hero with some detective work that doesn't seem like it helps much. This is too similar to the one before it, in structure... it appears they somewhat understood what made that one work(without being able to recreate the aesthetic), and simply had no new ideas for "gags". There is some moderate bloody violence, disturbing content, strong language and a little gore and nudity-free sexuality. I recommend this to fans of the concept who can live with the lower... everything. 5/10
kargaan First of all in this review I would like you to meditate on the title for just a second(Darkman 2: The Return of Durant). If you have seen the first Darkman you would know that Durant dies in a fiery helicopter crash. But in this sequel somehow he survives with only a few barely noticeable scars. I was expecting at least third-degree burns but I let that go and focused on the movie as if the explosion never happened. Arnold Vosloo is the new Darkman and he does a fairly poor job at portraying him. Liam Neeson seemed to be a more powerful Darkman with extreme emotions. Arnold Vosloo seemed shallow and lacked the presence of Liam. Considering it's the second movie, I was expecting more action out of Darkman but there's virtually no action from Darkman till the end of the movie and Darkman has nothing very good to say through the entire movie. The plot was also dull and generic which really made me wanna yawn. Darkman 2: The Return of Durant is just a sorry cash-in sequel and a disgrace to the franchise.
Scars_Remain I really like the original Darkman so I was skeptical as to whether this would be a good sequel or not, but I was impressed. Like the first one, it's in no way a groundbreaking film but it is a good slice of entertainment. I think anyone who liked the first film will like this movie as well.Arnold Vosloo does an exceptional job taking over Liam Neeson's character and I'd go as far as to say that he is just as good. The story is alright but it kind of seems like a repeat of the original, I guess there's only so much you can do with these movies. I really like the effects as well. This one was fun.Give Darkman II a viewing if you enjoyed the first one and like some cheesy action. As long as you don't expect a sweeping epic, I think you'll have some fun.