Tuesday, 18 May 1999 |
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title:
|
Caddyshack 2 |
|
studio:
|
Warner Home Video |
MPAA rating: |
PG |
starring: |
Jackie Mason, Robert Stack, Dyan Cannon, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd |
release year: |
1988 |
film rating: |
One-and-a-Half Stars |
reviewed by: |
Abbie Bernstein |
The publisher of The Audio Revolution, Jerry Del Colliano, maintains
that ‘Caddyshack II’ is the worst movie ever made. With all due respect
to my employer, the competition for the status of the worst film in
history is fierce and I cannot in good conscience say that ‘Caddyshack
II’ has what it takes to earn that distinction. Some of the performers
gamely give entirely decent performances under the circumstances; the
script by Harold Ramis & Peter Torokvei, while inane, is at least
more or less coherent, with an actual plot arc; technical credits are
professional if certainly unspectacular; director Allan Arkush gets one
genuinely funny shot of a dancing poodle. However, ‘Caddyshack II’ is
still remarkably lame. |
In ‘Caddyshack II,’ rich but blue-collar construction mogul Jack
Hartunian (Jackie Mason), a self-made millionaire, attempts to fit in
with the snooty country club set to please his class-conscious
daughter. Jack doesn’t fit in with the old money crowd, who he in turn
despises as a bunch of narrow-minded snobs. A war of legal threats and
practical jokes results, culminating in a golf match to determine
whether Jack will keep both the country club fairway (which he has
acquired and accessorized as a miniature golf course) and his
construction business or lose everything. No fair guessing how it comes
out.
It’s impossible to tell who the makers of ‘Caddyshack II’ thought their
audience was. Golf fans who loved the original ‘Caddyshack’ will be
outraged that there’s barely any golf at all until well over an hour
into the film, which qualifies as bait-and-switch, given the
advertising. Nearly everyone else will squirm in boredom at the
predictable slapstick, banal romantic subplots and the overall lecture
on class prejudice. This last is a reasonable topic for comedy or
drama, but here it’s so broadly drawn that it might as well have come
from a Saturday morning cartoon. The humor isn’t cruel or offensive,
but nearly all of the jokes fall flat.
‘Caddyshack II’ is woefully unhip and uninspired, looking very much
like a product made to cash in on the success of the original rather
than because anybody thought they had a good idea for a sequel.
Spectacularly bad films usually require initial ambition on somebody’s
part -- at some point, one or more of the filmmakers has to believe
they’re on to something unique. Nobody involved in ‘Caddyshack II’
seems to be laboring under that delusion. The results are not memorably
terrible, but they’re still bad.
more details |
sound format:
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English Dolby Surround Stereo; French Dolby Digital Mono |
aspect ratio(s):
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1:3:3 (modified from original theatrical format) |
special features: |
French Language Track; English Closed-Captioning; Chapter Search |
comments: |
email us here... |
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reference system |
DVD player: |
Kenwood DV-403 |
receiver: |
Kenwood VR-407 |
main speakers: |
Paradigm Atom |
center speaker: |
Paradigm CC-170 |
rear speakers: |
Paradigm ADP-70 |
subwoofer: |
Paradigm PDR-10 |
monitor: |
27-inch Toshiba |
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