{"id":2618,"date":"2024-08-21T03:03:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T03:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2618"},"modified":"2024-10-14T12:28:57","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T16:28:57","slug":"oh-god-book-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/21\/oh-god-book-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, God! Book II"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Oh, God! Book II <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language and references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gilbert Cates\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Josh Greenfeld, Hal Goldman, Fred S. Fox, Seaman Jacobs and Melissa Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charles Fox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ralph Woolsey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 3, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Burns, Louanne, Suzanne Pleshette, David Birney, John Louie, Conrad Janis, Anthony Holland, Hugh Downs, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Marian Mercer, Bebe Drake-Massey, Mari Gorman, Vernon Weddle, Alma Beltran, Denise Galik, Edie McClurg, Rodney Allen Rippy, Howard Duff, Hans Conried, Susan Krebs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $14.5M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the Bible (Isaiah 11:6), it says \u201ca little child shall lead them.\u201d It certainly inspired the makers of Oh, God! Book II<\/strong>, a charming sequel to the hit 1977 comedy in which God, in the form of George Burns, tasked John Denver with restoring humanity\u2019s faith in Him. I guess his efforts were in vain. Why else would God deem it necessary to make his second flesh-and-blood appearance on Earth in the same millennium? This time, He takes his own advice and appears to 10YO Tracy Richards (Louanne).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Generally speaking, comedy sequels don\u2019t work because the joke isn\u2019t as funny the second time around. That rule doesn\u2019t apply to Oh, God! Book II<\/strong> mainly because it\u2019s Burns retelling the joke. Also, having a child spread His message makes for a nice follow-up act for the reason specified by the Bible verse I opened with. It just makes sense.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like most kids in 1980, Tracy\u2019s parents are separated. She lives with her mother Paula (Pleshette, The Bob Newhart Show), a real estate agent who seems to work a lot. She sees her father Don (Birney, Bridget Loves Bernie) on weekends. She makes cracks about his girlfriend\u2019s big boobs. She also likes eating at Chinese restaurants. How convenient! Now God can send her a message in a fortune cookie asking her to meet Him in the lounge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0She\u2019s skeptical until He manifests Himself. He wants her to spread the message that He exists. Unsure of how to go about it, she talks to her father who just happens to be in advertising. He tells her that the best way to sell a product is to come up with a good slogan. With a little help from best friend Shingo (Louie, Gremlins), they come up with \u201cThink God\u201d. Tracy then recruits her entire class to write the slogan on walls, hang signs and do whatever to get the word out. Every good deed comes at a cost though. Tracy\u2019s parents and teachers are convinced something is wrong with her. Only Tracy can see or hear God, nobody else. It looks like she\u2019s talking to herself. Her parents take her to a psychiatrist (Holland, All that Jazz) who recommends she be committed to an institution.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Even though Tracy and her little friends are doing something good, the mean school principal (Janis, Mork & Mindy) doesn\u2019t like it. You know, that whole thing about church and state. When she refuses to cease and desist, he suspends her from school until she gets better. It prompts the rest of the students to go on strike until they let Tracy back in school. In the meantime, the whole \u201cThink God\u201d thing becomes a worldwide movement. She manages to do what the previous guy couldn\u2019t (he\u2019s never mentioned in the movie, by the way). That has to count for something, right? You\u2019d think so, but those doctors still want to put her away. It looks like she\u2019s going to need a bit of divine intervention.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Oh, God! Book II<\/strong> plays a lot like a TV sitcom right down to the score by Charles Fox (Love, American Style). But you know what, I like it. Once again, Burns hits it out of the park as the Almighty, this time more of a grandfatherly figure. He gets off a few good lines including one about regretting making math so hard. It\u2019s fun watching the kids, including Rodney Allen Rippy, spreading His word by way of graffiti. It\u2019s said more than once that kids will write on walls regardless, so why not something good.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Louanne, who really hasn\u2019t had much of an acting career outside of this and the 1988 teen comedy A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, is a likable enough kid. She doesn\u2019t do too badly in Oh, God! Book II<\/strong>. Pleshette and Birney are passable as the parents. The movie itself is funny, gentle and innocuous. Once again, it\u2019s respectful of its subject matter. I\u2019m actually relieved it didn\u2019t delve too deeply into the church and state thing. It\u2019s mentioned, there are some protestors outside the school, but thankfully director Gilbert Cates (I Never Sang for My Father) doesn\u2019t allow Oh, God! Book II<\/strong> to get bogged down with such weighty matters. He keeps it light-hearted and nice. It\u2019s even rather sweet at times. And with George Burns confidently taking the lead a second time, it\u2019s solid family entertainment.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, God! Book II (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 94 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language and references)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Gilbert Cates\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Josh Greenfeld, Hal Goldman, Fred S. Fox, Seaman Jacobs and Melissa Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Charles Fox\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ralph Woolsey\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 3, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Burns, Louanne, Suzanne Pleshette, David Birney, John Louie, Conrad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Oh-God-Book-II-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3488,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions\/3488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}