Pop quiz, hotshot: You want to develop a sequel to a mildly-successful theatrical release but you want to dump the modestly-budgeted follow-up onto the direct-to-video market in order to turn a quick buck. Since you're not willing to cough up enough dough for anyone particularly interesting, who do you choose to star in your little project? Jean-Claude Van Damme? Too pricey. Steven Seagal? Too unreliable. Wesley Snipes? Too crazy. So who does that leave you with? Why, you Kevin Sorbo, of course! I thought that answer was pretty obvious.

And what does the star of TV's Hercules do with your questionable straight-to-video sequel? Does he turn in a weak performance, cash the check, and stuff a month's worth of blow up one nostril? Does he refuse to do any of his own stunts, forcing you to use his double for the majority of the film? Or does he kick down the studio door, brutally stomp some random production assistant's narrow behind, and turn what could have been sloppy seconds into a true rarity in the Hollywood machine? What is this unimaginable item that I speak of, you ask?

A straight-to-video sequel that's superior to the original.

If you're wondering whether or not the crack dealer down the block has paid me a visit recently, I'm afraid that a court order prevents me from revealing that particular slice of information to anyone other than my attorney. What I can tell you, however, is that Tripp Reed's Walking Tall: The Payback is a lean, mean, no-nonsense follow-up to the 2004 Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson vehicle, which itself was a remake of the legendary 1973 flick of the same name. The Payback literally takes everything that was wrong with Kevin Bray's glossy little action picture and dips it into a bucket of southern-fried sleaze. It'll make you wanna slap yer momma, to borrow a colorful yet stereotypical southern phrase.

Yee-haw.

Heroic small screen icon Kevin Sorbo stars as Nick, the estranged son of a small town sheriff who suddenly finds himself in a not-too-friendly showdown with a band of scruffy redneck mobsters. When his father is savagely murdered by Walter, also known as the sadistic leader of this hillbilly mafia, Nick decides to follow in his daddy's meager footsteps. Unlike his pappy, however, our hero isn't afraid to bend the rules just a tad. If getting information from some generic goon means breaking a few bones in the process, then so be it. Whatever works, I guess.

To be fair, Nick tries his hardest to follow the straight and narrow by not kicking random felons in the face, that is, until he discovers that the legal system is broken beyond repair. Throwing caution to the wind, our hero dives head-first into the seedy dealings of a local band of crooks, angering quite a few locals along the way. As he and a saucy FBI agent dig deeper into this odd little conspiracy, Walter and his crew decide to get personal. Bombs are detonated, women are raped, a few likable individuals are killed — the usual stuff. Can our buddy Nick put a stop to Walter's shenanigans before this war hits too close to home?