Die Retourkutsche

I watched both Vabank movies in a row, the first one was passable but this one is just a bad sequel. Whilst the actors remain the same and they did kinda okay in the first Vabank, it looks like they forget how to act in the sequel. Well not all of them, but there are a lot of actors that suffer from severe overacting. In some scenes it was just awful and made the whole movie look very amateuristic. The story is also better in the first movie, in this one you feel like the writer got a bit lazy and uninspired. I thought the first movie was overrated but the sequel is seriously highly overrated. I guess a lot of Polish people rated this movie with the highest possible score, I can't see any other explanation for the high ratings. Maybe they're not used to watch good movies in Poland and are easily satisfied with movies like this one. I would avoid this one if I were you, even if you watched the first one.

In 1985, Vabank 2 was made, and to what high expectation! And it was worth waiting, since the sequel is none the worse. All the familiar guys and gals are here. Evil Kramer runs away from prison with the help of the hilarious crook Sztyc, Kwinto is threatened to be murdered, and the tight spiral of adventures begins anew. Here we see all the brilliant cast – Jan Machulski, Beata Tyszkiewicz, Leonard Pietrazak and many many others. They play with such evident infectious pleasure that you simple cannot breathe out during the film. All is here – kidnapping, murder, fire in the garage, terrible revenge of Kramer, and the extremely interesting intrigue about Kwinto's death. You cannot say for sure if he was really killed or not. Humor is everywhere here – smart lines of each actor, impossibly funny part of the prison director, as well as of masqueraded Nazi officers. Up to the end, you cannot guess what the final may be like. And the only sad part here is that you may see those Nazis and feel that very very soon the real fascist armies will take the whole Poland… This film is so clever and bright that it may be praised as one of the all-time-best sequels ever made, along with Matrix 2 or Star Wars. Highly recommended for the connoisseurs of intelligent humor and cleverly thought over plot.

"Vabank 2" is a sequel that follows the formula of the first movie . It's not strange that in the end the movie isn't as half surprising or funny as the original . It's more predictable and there aren't any interesting new characters . It seems that Machulski (writer and director ) has run out of ideas . The movie is quite surprising in the first 40 minutes . Later , it goes into standard and predictable territory : a bait , a trap and a repeat of the final of first movie.

Still it's an OK sequel . There are some good jokes here . The music is as elegant and catchy as before and acting is still good . I would only complain about performance of Jacek Chmielnik (Moks) . He's overacting so much that I was annoyed every time he was on screen. In his defense he signs really well the Vabank song that appears here. The song is really cool and to be honest that's the only really new element here.

It's no match for the first one , but still a watchable sequel. By the way , IMDb is wrong. This movie was made in 1984 , not 1985.I give it 5/10.