F/X2 (1991)    Orion/Action-Thriller    RT: 108 minutes    Rated PG-13 (violence, language, brief nudity)    Director: Richard Franklin    Screenplay: Bill Condon    Music: Lalo Schifrin    Cinematography: Victor J. Kemper    Release date: May 10, 1991 (US)    Cast: Bryan Brown, Brian Dennehy, Rachel Ticotin, Joanna Gleason, Philip Bosco, Kevin J. O’Connor, Tom Mason, Dominic Zamprogna, Jossie DeGuzman, John Walsh, Peter Boretski.    Box Office: $21.1M (US)

Rating: ** ½

 You could say that I came to F/X2 with fresh eyes. I hadn’t seen it in its entirety since it first came out in May ’91. The only thing I remembered was the robot clown Bluey and the telemetry suit that controlled its movements. Today, this effect is known as motion-capture, but it seemed pretty fresh in ’91.

 I decided to rewatch F/X2 after recently visiting the 1986 original, a movie that I like very much. It stars Aussie actor Bryan Brown (Breaker Morant) as Rollie Tyler, a movies special effects designer double-crossed by the Justice Department after helping them stage the fake murder of a mob informant. He uses the tricks of his trade to defeat them and save his life. Five years later, Rollie has shifted his attention to creating high-end robotic toys. He lives with his girlfriend Kim (Ticotin, Total Recall) and her young son Chris (Zamprogna).

 This time, it’s the NYPD that needs his help. Chris’ father Mike (Mason, Men Don’t Leave), an NYPD detective, asks Rollie for his assistance in nabbing a serial killer. After what happened last time, it’s understandable he doesn’t want to get involved. He changes his mind and helps them set up a sting entailing a switcheroo and Mike in drag. Naturally, it goes wrong and Mike ends up dead. However, it wasn’t the serial killer who did it. There was a third person in the room and Rollie has it all on tape. He also has video of dirty cop Lt. Silak (Bosco, The Dream Team) fabricating evidence against the serial killer, shot to death on the scene.

 With his life in danger once more, Rollie calls his old pal Leo McCarthy (Dennehy, First Blood) for help. The retired cop is now a PI who specializes in divorce cases. Together they try to find out why Silak would want Mike dead; Leo in his way and Rollie in his. Silak and his accomplices, of course, are on to them and try to silence them at every opportunity.

 I could say that F/X2 isn’t as good as the first one, but isn’t that stating the obvious? F/X worked because it was something we hadn’t seen before, a special effects guy using his special set of skills to outsmart the villains. Rollie had a lot of neat tricks up his sleeve. We didn’t know what to expect from him next. In F/X2, we know what to expect. Although more elaborate, they’re less fun. While trying to evade a dangerous thug in a supermarket, Rollie sets up a MacGyver-like trap involving aerosol cans, a lighter and cans of baked beans. It’s fine but pales in comparison to his Krazy Glue trick in the first movie. It’s so simple yet so brilliant. It also stays within the bounds of plausibility unlike the robot clown flying the helicopter a bad guy uses in his getaway attempt in the sequel.

 Another superior aspect of the first F/X is the plot. It’s a standard action plot but it works. In an attempt to raise the bar in F/X2, director Richard Franklin (Psycho II) gives us a dumb and needlessly complicated storyline involving dirty cops, stolen gold medallions, Michelangelo, the Mafia and the Vatican. The screenplay, written by Bill Condon who would go on to greater fame with Gods and Monsters and Dreamgirls, is filled with plot holes and leaves more loose ends dangling than a macramé convention. For example, isn’t it reasonable to expect that Silak would know that Rollie knows what’s about to go down after his supermarket confrontation with Mike’s real killer? Wouldn’t it be advisable to change the plan? And how would Rollie have the time or opportunity to rig a Mob safe house with booby traps? Aren’t there guards regularly patrolling the property? Remember the videotape of how Mike’s murder really went down? What happened to it after Rollie’s fight with the real killer in his apartment? It’s never seen or mentioned again.

 Even with its problems, F/X2 is still a reasonably entertaining flick. It has some well-staged action scenes like the scene where Rollie charges into a mall to save Kim and Chris from a bad guy with a gun. The jazzy score by Lalo Schifrin (Dirty Harry) is pretty good; however, I would have preferred to hear “Just an Illusion” over the closing credits again. The chemistry between the two leads, shown briefly in the first movie, is still strong. Brown and Dennehy, each a good actor on his own, are a winning pair. Dennehy, an extremely likable guy, is ideally cast as a tough Irish ex-cop. Brown is good too even though it’s clear his heart really isn’t in it this time. Ticotin, so awesomely tough in Total Recall, is relegated to girlfriend-in-distress here. Bosco plays a standard-issue dirty cop. O’Connor (Lord of Illusions) is a standard-issue low-level criminal involved in the plot. Joanna Gleason (Boogie Nights) shows up as a prosecutor friend of Leo’s. It’s a case of a good cast doing their best with not-so-great material.  There’s very little, almost nothing really, in the way of character development.

 In the end, F/X2 is definitely watchable even if it falls short in its efforts to up the ante. In already knowing not to believe everything you see, some of the fun is taken out of it. Still, it’s not a bad choice for a dull weeknight.