Picking up where the original abruptly left off, John Frankenheimer’s sequel (one of the first to use Roman numerals) finds Gene Hackman’s hardened rogue cop a fish out water in Marseilles, still obsessively pursuing the drug kingpin who got away. A bit less gritty than William Friedkin’s original, the sequel is nevertheless one of the most cynical action thrillers of the 1970s, ending with a sense of finality that is so harsh, so sudden, and so brutal that it draws your attention less to the idea of justice served than it does to the brute simplicity of violent retribution and the ultimately indefatigable nature of crime. (Blu-Ray)