I recently watched Penitentiary II (1982) on Tubi. The storyline follows Gordone, who is starting a new life on the outside with a girlfriend and a professional boxing career. When someone rapes and kills his girlfriend, he quickly finds himself at risk of ending up right back in prison...
This film is written and directed by Jamaa Fanaka (Penitentiary) and stars Leon Isaac Kennedy (Lone Wolf McQuade), Glynn Turman (Cooley High), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), Mr. T (The A-Team), and Tony Cox (Bad Santa).
You can tell every aspect of this film had a bigger budget than the first. Every character is played by a notable actor, and they all deliver entertaining performances. Every scene Tony Cox is in is comedic gold. Mr. T is exactly what you'd expect, and Hudson was an awesome villain-though I will say the "rape" and "potato salad" scenes were tough to watch. Glynn Turman is always great, and Kennedy is easy to root for because he always has something awful happen to him and the law against him. Rudy Ray Moore's cameo was fun. The boxing matches are always great, straightforward, and predictable, but you still want to see how they turn out. This is better than the first one.
In conclusion, Penitentiary II is a legendary addition to the blaxploitation genre that kicks it up a notch in all the right ways from the first film. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend seeing it once.
