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| Available at Amazon.com |
About twenty years too late and not really a sequel at all.
Sequels to popular movies are common place these days. They usually come out within five years of the first movie or the previous movie in a series. Most believe that sequels are made for profit only and in turn aren’t that great. You would be mostly right if you had that assumption, but sometimes sequels can surprise all and actually be better than the original. However, never has the first sequel to a popular movie that has been released 20 years after the original been great. Especially not when it’s really a “remake” and not a sequel at all. Unfortunately, Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation is not going to be the exception to that either.
In Bachelor Party 2, Ron (Josh Cooke) is about to get married to Melinda (Sara Foster). To celebrate, Ron takes an offer from future relative Todd (Warren Christie) to fly him and his friends, Jason (Greg Pitts), Seth (Danny A. Jacobs), and Derek (Harland Williams), to Miami to have the weekend of their lives with women, alcohol, sun, and more women. Once they arrive, the usual “bachelor party” escapades takes place. However, Todd really invited Ron on this trip to catch Ron in a compromising position with a stranger (mainly Emmanuelle Vaugier) and break up the engagement, thus ruining his chances to join the lucrative family business.
Harland Williams is a decent enough comedian. Not the funniest comedian alive today, but he does have a cult following. Greg Pitts was also in the hilarious film, Office Space. Other than that, though, the rest of the cast is mostly made up of unknowns. That said, all the actors do make the most of what they are given. Unfortunately it is nothing new or original. There is some comedy, but not nearly enough since most of the jokes or gags have been told or seen countless times before.
On the surface, Bachelor Party 2 is supposed to look like a sequel. But really it’s just a “remake” of the original Bachelor Party that starred Tom Hanks. The “creative” people behind this movie said that they wanted to “remake” Bachelor Party for the 21st century. Sadly that means it’s not going to be that funny, since really this movie feels like it is still stuck in the 1980s. It’s your basic rude and crude T&A movie like Porky’s or Meatballs back in the day. That is fine for 1985, but the bar has been raised in the 2000s by such naughty adult comedies as the American Pie movies and any of Judd Apatow’s recent films.
Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation just doesn’t measure up to today’s adult comedy standards, which makes it even worse since the writers of this film were trying to do just that. The acting is decent enough, but they really can’t do much with a flawed script. If you liked Porky’s or Meatballs from the 1980s, then you will probably like this film but keep in mind that this film is still nowhere near as funny as those films or even the original BP.
The video is given in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen color, which is enhanced for 16:9 TVs. The video is pretty basic and nothing special at all. This is a direct-to-DVD film, so that means there was not a lot of money given to production. So there is noticeable graininess throughout.
The audio included is available in English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French as well. The dialogue and music come out loud and clear, so not as many problems as the video.
Audio Commentary – There is a full-length audio commentary from James Ryan (director) and Greg Pitts, Warren Christie, Harland Williams, Danny Jacobs, and Josh Cooke (actors). This commentary is not informative at all. In fact, it sounds like they are getting drunk while doing this commentary. They are certainly entertaining as they make fun of each other and laugh at everything in the film. But again, nothing of substance is really said here.
“The Party Never Stops: The Making Of Bachelor Party 2” Featurette – This is a 10 minute featurette that starts off with original Bachelor Party producer, Ron Moler, recalling the sequel pitches that he has rejected over the years. Why he accepted this sequel premise is beyond me, but the cast and crew try to explain why this movie is so good. Just your basic “making of” featurette that attempts to sell this movie.
“Analysis of a Stripper Fight” Featurette – This is a seven minute featurette that goes behind-the-scenes of the “stripper fight” that occurs halfway through the film. We get to see the stunts involved and comments from the cast and crew about this scene. Nothing that special, but it’s somewhat interesting.
Deleted Scenes – There are 18 scenes that didn’t make the final cut of the movie and they run for a total of 16 minutes. There is actually some funnier scenes here than in the actual movie. Nothing to go out of your way to see, but still somewhat funny.
Gag Reel – Basically, this is “bloopers” from the film or just more “deleted scenes”. Harland Williams and Greg Pitts lead the improv here and go totally off script. They probably should have done that for the whole movie as it’s lots funnier than the actual movie.
This is a decent enough comedy, but doesn’t really live up to the standards set by today’s “adult comedies”. I can’t really recommend this movie at all unless nothing else is available at the rental store. Fans of Harland Williams may want to check this movie out for sure, but others shouldn’t go out of their way to see this “remake/sequel”.
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20th Century Fox Home Entertainment presents Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation. Directed by James Ryan. Starring Josh Cooke, Sara Foster, Warren Christie, Greg Pitts, and Harland Williams. Written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft, and Jay Longino. Running time: 104 minutes. Not rated. Released on DVD: March 11, 2008. Available at Amazon.com.
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