2001 Maniacs was not bad at all. It was cheaply done but well done, and a lot of fun. I hadn't expected this sequel, and was excited when I saw that it would star Bill Moseley, because the world does not get nearly enough of him.
Well, we still don't. Neither he nor Lynn Shaye can save this movie. They are not given any good lines or good scenes, or any opportunity to show their considerable talents.
Well, there would be a lot to have to save. Most of the actors in this movie are just painful to watch. Most notably bad is Miles Dougal as "Jerry Schmidt". It's like these people aren't even trying. So many scenes are just so irritating I found myself wishing the movie were over just 10 minutes in.
There's some eye candy. Christa Campbell and Andrea Leon are very nice to look at, but like everyone else in this movie, they aren't given ANYTHING interesting to do.
Ther problem is that the makers didn't get their own concept. The first movie was good, but could have been better. A sequel should have just been an attempt to do it better. Same concept, the ghostly southern town and its tormented inhabitants, some hapless travellers, cue the fun and then the carnage. That's all that was needed here.
Instead, they try to take on current reality TV tropes, they move the venue, they get tired of exploring southern stereotypes and try to do stuff like have Lynn Shaye do a mock performance on Michael Sembello's "Maniac" song from Flashdance (Oddly enough, it's not called "Maniacs", it's called "Cannibals"). Unlike the rousing "The South Will Rise Again" number from the first movie, neither "Cannibals" nor any of the other musical attempts are listenable.
No one wants to watch reality TV, so why would we want to watch a parody of reality TV? The idiots are like the Jersey Shore idiots. It seems like it might at least be fun to see them all get massacred, but it takes forever and the kills are all pretty spare.
The filming is very rushed. Each scene has so many quick cuts that no actor really gets to stand out. Each scene and each cut in each scene feels hasty, yet at the same time the movie drags its sorry arse endlessly until all the protagonists are finally, FINALLY killed. Not that I'm some homicidal maniac who wants everybody to die, but it is only after all the deaths that this sorry excuse for a film can be over.
Well, we still don't. Neither he nor Lynn Shaye can save this movie. They are not given any good lines or good scenes, or any opportunity to show their considerable talents.
Well, there would be a lot to have to save. Most of the actors in this movie are just painful to watch. Most notably bad is Miles Dougal as "Jerry Schmidt". It's like these people aren't even trying. So many scenes are just so irritating I found myself wishing the movie were over just 10 minutes in.
There's some eye candy. Christa Campbell and Andrea Leon are very nice to look at, but like everyone else in this movie, they aren't given ANYTHING interesting to do.
Ther problem is that the makers didn't get their own concept. The first movie was good, but could have been better. A sequel should have just been an attempt to do it better. Same concept, the ghostly southern town and its tormented inhabitants, some hapless travellers, cue the fun and then the carnage. That's all that was needed here.
Instead, they try to take on current reality TV tropes, they move the venue, they get tired of exploring southern stereotypes and try to do stuff like have Lynn Shaye do a mock performance on Michael Sembello's "Maniac" song from Flashdance (Oddly enough, it's not called "Maniacs", it's called "Cannibals"). Unlike the rousing "The South Will Rise Again" number from the first movie, neither "Cannibals" nor any of the other musical attempts are listenable.
No one wants to watch reality TV, so why would we want to watch a parody of reality TV? The idiots are like the Jersey Shore idiots. It seems like it might at least be fun to see them all get massacred, but it takes forever and the kills are all pretty spare.
The filming is very rushed. Each scene has so many quick cuts that no actor really gets to stand out. Each scene and each cut in each scene feels hasty, yet at the same time the movie drags its sorry arse endlessly until all the protagonists are finally, FINALLY killed. Not that I'm some homicidal maniac who wants everybody to die, but it is only after all the deaths that this sorry excuse for a film can be over.