Sunday, December 6, 2015

Movie Review - "Problem Child 2" 07/03/1991

Of course, after we watched the first Problem Child movie, we had to watch the second one so here's a review for "Problem Child 2" which came out in July 3, 1991.

Viewed 12/05/2015




Trailer:


CAST
* John Ritter - Ben Healy in "Problem Child", Ben Hanscom in "IT" - Ben Healy, Little Ben
* Michael Oliver - Junior in "Problem Child" - Junior Healy
* Amy Yasbeck - Peggy Brandt in "The Mask", Marian in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" - Annie Young (Trixie's Mom)
* Ivyann Schwan - Trixie Young
* Gilbert Gottfried - Mr. Peabody in "Problem Child", Iago in "Aladdin" - Mr. Peabody


12/06/15-  I just realized, after posting both reviews, that the reason why Trixie's Mom - Annie Young looked like Flo Healy is that it was the SAME ACTRESS! HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!



Plotline:
Junior's back! And he and Dad Benjamin Healy are moving away from the town of Cold River to a place called Mortville, where women to men ratio is 50/1 (or so says a neighbor). Divorce capital of the world or something like that... Complete with a "Love Rock" [a massive circular rock that has a pink heart-shaped marking on it]. Should Dad find a woman to marry in this small overpopulated-with-women town? Can Junior agree to any of them that Dad chooses?

Of course not!



Relationships:
* Big Ben and Little Ben & Junior
Guess who else is back? Grandpa. He never did get elected (for whatever it was - president?) and now he is broke too so he's staying at Ben and Junior's place. He brought his dog "Nip" with too, who is a pain in the rear it seems... Aside Grandpa crashing at Ben and Junior's place, there doesn't seem much relationship building between the generations. Grandpa seems to merely be around for the ride, so to speak.


* Ben Healy and Junior
Since Ben is now a single parent, he has to take care of his son on his own. That includes trying to discipline, feed, entertain, and teach him. The shinanigans that Junior pulled in the first movie are no longer against Ben but now are against would-be suitors (all the women who want to tie Ben down) because Junior just wants it to be the two of them together. Why would they need a woman in the house? They had Flo in the first movie and that didn't work well so why add another person, aside Grandpa being a squatter, to the mix?


* Junior and Trixie
Trixie is Junior's biggest trouble in the town. It started out that he shot down her balloon right as he arrived to town. She started getting after him as soon as he arrived at the elementary, mocking him and taunting him and shooting him with the fire hose. At one point, she flips him off and runs into the girls bathroom. He ends up going into the bathroom to confront her (saying "The bitch has to die") and she comes up with a stick of dynamite which she lights. [At this point I was like "WTF are you kidding me?!"] Junior says she's insane and flushes it down the toilet, where it runs through the pipes and explodes beneath his teacher's rear while he is on the toilet. We see the teacher later with gauze that looks like he has a diaper on but he seems 'okay'. Here's the scene:


At one point, Junior and Trixie end up becoming friends and stop attacking each other with their shinanigans. This is during supper at the local pizza shop where they realize that their school principal Mr. Peabody, the guy who used to be at the adoption agency that Ben Healy picked up Junior from, is at the place too. They agree that they hate the principal and end up starting a food fight, mainly between Junior's Dad/Trixie's Mom defending their kids, the two kids, and the principal. After they get kicked out of the pizza place, Junior realizes that maybe there could be something between his Dad and Trixie's Mom. Maybe, if Trixie was up to it, they could get the two of them together?



Music:
Not as good as the music for "Problem Child" but still decent. Still shows mischief caused by Trixie and Junior. ;-)



Negatives:
Let's see here. Junior causes people to throw up on a carnival ride (especially since Trixie was taunting him), petrifies a dog accidentally [which is depetrified by a can of Chow Down dog food], a kid trying to revenge on Junior drops a satellite dish onto Ben's head, Grandpa falls out of a second-story window trying to attack Junior, says that the b***h (Trixie) has to die for flipping him off, causes a food fight with Trixie, causes a scorned (ex?) husband of one of Dad's suitors to confront Dad on his date with the suitor, and puts cockroaches in a meal made by one of Dad's suitors. He also does not approve of a babysitter having a boyfriend over while Dad is on a date so he hooks up a camera and a live feed projector (in the yard) and the whole neighborhood watches the babysitter and boyfriend f**king via projector projected on the side of the house. Junior's science project is about how electricity works, via electric chair.

Trixie sprays Junior down with a fire hose at school, flips Junior off, causes a food fight with Junior, lights a stick of dynamite that Junior flushes which causes harm to a teacher, moves the Love Rock to stop a wedding ceremony, and gags/ties up classmates to be part of a puppet play.






Criteria:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.


This would be a 4.5/5 for me. It wasn't as good as the first movie, since it was a sequel, but it was still pretty good. I personally prefer the first to the second movie. Overall it was good that the two guys stuck together and that Junior was able to come to terms with Trixie. Doesn't make all the negative things in this movie right. The balance of wrongs to rights in this movie was a bit too much for me, moreso than the first movie.
Would I watch it again? Sure. Would I get a hard copy and put it on my shelf? Sure, but probably only if my hubby suggested it first.






Bonus "Deleted Scenes":

Warning: the audio on this video is so messed up that by the end of the video it is almost 11 seconds ahead of the actual video. Adds some story to the tale; just not as much as the deleted scenes from Problem Child (1) did to the tale.



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