It seems ridiculous to say that this sequel — 29 years after the fact, a naked cash grab to play on nostalgia and juice Disney+'s subscriber numbers headed into the holiday season — improved on the original.
But here's two confounding factors:
- I did not see the original until a few years ago, and I did not like it very much or at all (outside of the terrifically campy performances by the leading triad.)
- The only way this movie works is with the full-throated commitment of that same leading triad, two of whom frankly have better things to do with their time than to grab that sweet Disney money just for the sake of it.
And so I think this movie works. It is extremely cozy and fairly calculating, but the performances are straight-up better than the original and the script a little more apt to wink at the camera. (The Roomba bit was inspiring; the aggressive Walgreen's placement less so.) It is not a Bad Time and I think succeeded at Disney's goals, to thread the needle they are so desperate to thread: a piece of consumption that works both for the younger generation and the older.
★★★
Highlights
My doing has been my undoing. My folly, my fate.
Magic has a way of uniting things that ought to be together.
