Regreso de los muertos vivientes, segunda parte

I saw this on the Sci-Fi Channel yesterday, and I was meaning to rent it for a while, so I was glad I'd get a chance to see it. And despite how amazingly mindless this was, it was so entertaining, and kept my interest the whole duration of the film.

Young Jesse is going to be initiated into some club, led by bully and tough-guy Billy. They find a drum of toxic gas at the graveyard, and open it up, only for Billy to be covered in the stuff, and Jesse locked in the mortuary. Meanwhile, teenaged Johnny is leaving his ditzy girlfriend Brenda for a night to help out Ed, who needs to get the heads of some buried bodies for some museum or science lab, I don't remember. They find Jesse, who then escapes home, where his older teenage sister Lucy berates him for being out, and locks him in the room when the cable guy, teenaged Tom, shows up. This is all just the setup of characters when the gas from the drum escapes out into the graveyard, and even comes in contact with Ed and Johnny. Soon, zombies are rising up for fresh brains, and after the town is evacuated (except for the select few, who don't get away) and sealed off by the army, all hell breaks loose. With the help of Doc, next door to Jesse and Lucy, the handful of likable characters fights to escape and survive, all up to the surprisingly suspenseful climax.

This is by far one of the most brainless horror movies, seeing as that it has more comedy than horror, but my God, I could not get over how entertaining this really was. I mean, from start to finish, my interest was held. I liked all the characters, I laughed a few times, I was scared a few times, and really liked this. I recommend this, without a doubt, for anyone looking to just watch something fun and exciting, and not think, for about ninety minutes. Definitely rent, buy, or look out for this on TV. It's a great movie!

Did we really need a sequel ? We have nearly the same plot, some of the same actors, definitely some of the same lines and practically the same actors. Yet, right when Thom Matthews was about to be type-cast in horror movies, he said, "Sure, I'll do it." Later, you know he screaming, " They drove up to my house and dumped a truck load of money on my front porch......" I mean, what are the odds that two idiots who look exactly alike will befall the same fate ? Admittedly, Thom and James Karen could make a very funny comedy team, but not in the same roles saying the same things like some asinine Martin and Lewis series. That said, this movie is a lot funnier than the first. Phillip Bruns replaces Don Calfa and has some very funny lines. A sub-plot involves juvenile delinquency and acceptance as the zombies horse around, steal the scenes and get in the way. One in particular in a dark suit and a few others just keep returning in other scenes as if that wasn't really obvious. I guess there was a shortage in extras. Mitch Pileggi of the X-Files has a very obvious role and I'm sure I recognized the zombie on the hospital phone as from an old episode of the original Twilight Zone. If I had written the script, I would have tossed in a vampire to spar with the zombies because he sure would have been immune to that bite of their's.

In what's essentially a loose remake of the original, a barrel with a zombie inside falls out of a truck and is discovered by some kids. They open it, toxic fumes are unleashed, they get sick, and start craving brains. Soon enough, zombies are coming out of the ground with the same cravings for brains.

Return of the Living Dead Part II is a much sillier film than the original, which is saying a lot because the original could get pretty silly at times, too. James Karen and Thom Matthews return as different characters, but these characters are far more shrill, whiny, and annoying than the ones they played in the original. Even worse, there's a girlfriend character who only adds to the shrillness.

There are a couple of funny gags throughout the film, but it can't hold a candle to the original.

Disappointing experience. First of all, it's supposed to be a sequel but two of the main characters from the first movie come back in totally different roles and that was very distracting: I've spent the first 15 minutes wondering whether it was really a sequel or maybe some sort of weird reboot, a la Evil Dead 2. But the main problem is another one, and much much worse. The problem is that they took away everything that made The Return of the Living Dead great (witty dialogues among well-written characters, convincing zombies, splatter & gore...) and the result is an ordinary and quite boring movie about whining and unpleasant human characters constantly crying and yelling while a bunch of suddenly stultified undead chase them around. Yawn.

Honestly, this is a very bad movie. The first Return of the Living Dead was a great movie, and highly entertaining. This second part, however, was just plain stupid! The acting was poor, the script was poor, and there is virtually NO GORE! I think there are only three or four deaths in this film, and they are all incredibly LAME. The zombies in this film are supposed to be funny, but I never laughed once. Stay away from this one, watch the first one instead.