Friday, August 24, 2007
The Gods Must Be Crazy II
****½ The Gods Must Be Crazy II. Comedy.
Directed by: Jamie Uys.
Starring: N!xau, Lena Farugia, Hans Strydom.
Since we really enjoyed the first movie, we got the sequel from Netflix. As one might expect, it's not quite as good as the original, but it was still very enjoyable.
We're back in the Kalahari, and Xixo, the father from the first movie is looking for his kids, who were exploring an ivory poacher's truck and water wagon. As he follows the tracks, his path crosses that of the other story lines:
There's a pair of scientists--Ann and Stephen--who get stranded when their light plane runs out of fuel, and two soldiers from opposing sides who are trying to capture each other.
As with the first movie, the laughs come from the clash between the modern world and the primitive.
The children discovering what amounts to a swimming pool (they've lived their lives in the desert, remember) is absolutely adorable, and Ann trying to defend her water supply from mischievous monkeys had me laughing aloud.
Also the same as in the first movie, there's a bit of a romance--the two scientists in the plane--but this time it's played with a little more slapstick and a little less poignancy. Ann has an annoying habit of running up trees whenever anything startles her, something that's made even more slapstick because the film speeds up whenever she does so.
It's a small complaint, though, and if I hadn't seen the original first, I'd likely have given this one five stars.
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Categories: Movies, 4.5stars, Comedy
Labels: 4.5 stars, comedy, Movies
