Dennis the Menace Strikes Again!

I must admit, I liked this direct to video film. George Kennedy and Don Rickles are fun to watch in this movie. The good thing is Dennis is not an obnoxious, disgusting kid who's obsessed with gross pranks and such. Instead, one annoying thing Dennis does during the movie is turn carwashing soap into cotton candy. Not necessarily funny, but at least I can keep down my meal while watching the movie. Of course that is until Carrot top comes into view in the film. The film features Golden Girl alumnus Betty White as Mrs. Wilson, and some other people you've never even heard of before. How exciting! HUH? HUH???

The first Dennis the Menace was funny but this one I got more laughs from and I think it had a better cast because they look more like the ones from the comics. Like, at the beginning of the movie, they show Mrs. Wilson from the comics decorating a birthday cake and then it fades into Betty White making a birthday cake and it looked almost identical! Don Rickles seemed to be a better Mr. Wilson than the guy from the other one. It's just better.

I really liked the original DENNIS THE MENACE. It was funny, lighthearted and with Christopher Lloyd that played a great villain as Sam Switchblade. I saw the sequel out of curiosity but I really regret it and it sorely misses the cast of the original including Lloyd.

2 years after the event of the original Dennis Mitchell is worse than ever. He goes to Mr. Wilson (Don Rickels instead of Walter Matthau) to taking a small collection of tiny animals, but this makes Wilson fall down a flight of stairs and getting his birthday cake thrown in the face by Martha. Soon Dennis' grandfather Mr. Johnson (George Kennedy) arrives and tells the Mitchells he is going to move there. Dennis is happy and begins to spend more time with his grandfather. George is then upset that he is getting older and so is tricked by two con men, the Professor and his assistant Sylvester (Brian Doyle Murray and Carrot Top) that try to convince him in buying a rare root that should be put in tea for making people return younger. But they don't know Dennis Mitchell yet as he will do everything for foiling their inane plans while also causing more trouble for Mr. Wilson.

A different cast and a different setting are the most likely reasons of the failure of this direct-to-video sequel. The humour didn't made the laugh not even once, and most of the jokes made me cringe a lot. The actors here are all very bland, they never seem to actually act except for George Kennedy who is probably the only one actually trying.

Among the worst family movie sequels ever made, but there is something positive about it and I discovered it only after lots of thinking. So, what's the only good thing about this movie? It has never been released in theaters! Otherwise they would have made at least other 10 sequels each worse than the other.

The first one was practically a classic. i remember being Mason Gamble ( the person who played Dennis in the first one ) age when it came out. and i always remembered "Hey mr. wiiiiiilson!". I saw this one and i was thinking "um, okay???". If you've seen the first one starring Gamble, this one won't be as intertaining.

I really liked Dennis the Menace with Mason Gamble and Walter Matthau, the Switchblade Sam subplot aside. It was entertaining and cute and Matthau was just brilliant. I was expecting this sequel to be terrible. To my surprise, it wasn't, but it was rather mediocre still.

The costume and set design are not too bad, in fact it is colourful, while the camera angles are quite good too. Don Rickles does do a worthy job replacing Matthau, and Betty White is good value as Martha. The music was also okay at best.

Though I wish I could say the same for the script and story, but I can't. The script and dialogue are not really that funny and come across as childish, while some of the gags are predictable and poorly timed. The story is thin and not always that well thought out, while the direction is lacklustre, the film is too rushed for my liking and is too short. Some of the actors do good jobs, but the characters are not so easy to relate to, they are not very well written at all and come across as silly. Dennis is annoying to me this time around in alternative to cute and funny, while the less said about Margaret the better.

Overall, the film is not terrible, but it is rather mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox