Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday

 Mike Fallon, Accident man (the redoubtable Scott Adkins) hasn't had that bad a time after having to go against all his assassin co-workers in his first on-screen adventure. Sure, he's had to leave his native UK behind, but he ends up in Malta, where we learn job openings for an accomplished assassin-for-hire are plentiful.

 Besides some lingering guilt issues, he's fine. He's got himself a nice pad, and has money enough to hire Siu-Ling (Sarah Chang), a kung-fu master, to unexpectedly show up every now and then and beat the shit out of him Cato style.
 Yes, a Pink Panther reference. Accident Man: Hitman's Holiday is a much goofier movie than the first one. But that's OK; enough of the jokes land. It's funny! And the fights are still outstanding.

 Mike's thinking he's got his life sorted, when suddenly Fred (Perry Benson), one of the fellow assassins he betrayed back in the UK, pops out of the blue. Fred's a loveable old geezer who made a living inventing ways to murder people, and Mike had a soft spot for the man that was apparent even in the first movie. It turns out Fred is there on personal business, and after some back and forth they decide to join forces and share the contracts.

 The first act is a bit episodical; There's a montage of the boys testing out random assassination methods, of them hanging out (along with Siu-Ling), and a couple of random hits. The movie's plot only gets started almost half an hour in when someone tries to kill a powerful mobster's son using Mike's disguised-as-an-accident MO.
 Mike successfully avoids being framed, but due to his reputation the mafia boss enlists him to protect her son; She takes Fred hostage, and threatens to kill him should Mike fail and her son die.

 The son turns out to be a jackass called Dante (George Fouracres), an entitled, whiny man-child whose whole sadly unfunny schtick is to be painfully obnoxious. This is not even a Lethal Weapon 2 situation where he's got a good heart - the kid is a piece of shit through and through.
 But at least while Dante himself is not a funny character, it is pretty funny to see him get manhandled and put through the wringer in various ways throughout, and the movie understands this well.

 The meat of the movie is kind of the action movie equivalent to a videogame boss rush; Mike, trying to keep Dante from harm, has to go against a colorful roster of assassins gunning for the nine-million-euros bounty - at one point that's translated into a smaller amount of British pounds, which is a kind of unintended joke given recent events here in the UK. A painful, unfunny one.
 The fights are plentiful, a lot of fun, and excellently choreographed and blocked. Some are noticeably better than others, but the bad ones don't drag on enough for it to be a problem. The camera is very dynamic, zooming in and out of the action to emphasize blows, and constantly moving around the combatants to show off their moves. I found it a little bit distracting at first, but while I'd prefer a more traditional setup it did grow on me; If nothing else, it's impressive just how much planning must have gone into integrating the camera moves into already busy fights.

 All in all I don't think it's as good as the first one; Directors George and Harry Kirby do a good job, but they're no The limited budget is a lot more visible here, some of the humor doesn't quite work, and even when it does I prefer the first movie's smart-ass action movie tone rather than the goofier, more overtly comedic take this sequel chose to go with.
 But damn if it isn't still a great, fun, martial-arts-packed movie, packed with great jokes. Not as essential doesn't mean that it isn't essential as well.