Imagine the first film stripped completely of logic (or what passes for boundaries in that picture) and plot, and there’s the sequel. Unfortunately, I learned nothing from the experience, outside of how unnerving a broad comedy playing to an empty theater can be.Ģ011: Despite a clear memory of my initial viewing, I was still a little unprepared for how awful a sequel “Problem Child 2” actually is. Oh, but I did cough up the bucks to see this garbage.
Or, maybe like me, everyone who saw the first movie just felt burned, unwilling to cough up more bucks to see a cruddy child actor (Oliver is simply awful in these pictures) bomb around a most diseased frame. The new filmmaking blueprint required a more severe rating, with “Problem Child 2” unable to creep past the MPAA undetected, slapped with a PG-13 rating, thus killing most of its chances at the box office, unable to lure family audiences in as easily. Instead, the follow-up retains the gross-out, hell-raising focal point of the original picture, only here the antics are tarted up with gooey “Home Alone” residue, making Junior less of a devil and more of a mouthbreathing prankster, combating oncoming threat with violence, not just simple winks of emotional disturbance. What was surprising at the time was the sheer laziness of the screenwriting (credited to bio-pic jockeys and “Problem Child” creators Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski), which barely lifts a finger to tell a story. I suppose it goes without mentioning that “Problem Child 2” was my least favorite film of 1991. So, I bought a ticket, sat down inside an empty theater (of course), and allowed “Problem Child 2” to steal 90 minutes of my life. And people openly complain that I’m a pessimist. With all that hindsight, clearly the filmmakers would ease up on Junior’s booger-smeared wrath, perhaps taking the time to actually script a story that would allow Junior and Ben some passable sincerity to alleviate the expected mischief. I could’ve skipped the move entirely and nobody would’ve cared, yet I decided to take a chance, permitting the producers a fresh shot to win me over. I ended up attending a matinee showing of “Problem Child 2,” the first display of a moviegoing compulsion that was gradually devouring my weekend plans, much like a gambling addict on the hunt for the next big jackpot. Why subject myself to a motion picture that would gladly plumb the depths of crude behavior? “Problem Child” being my first real gulp of bitter cinema, the arrival of a sequel made my head hurt.
With Ben tied up in wedding plans despite attraction to school nurse Annie (Amy Yasbeck), Junior tears up the neighborhood with a series of pranks and general troublemaking, hoping to disrupt his father’s love life.ġ991: You know, I didn’t want to see “Problem Child 2.”Īfter being slapped in the face by the original film’s incessant ugliness (making it the worst movie of 1990 and beyond), I wasn’t too keen on revisiting the poisonous world of Junior and his cold-blooded monkey business.
Junior, irritated his father has lost parental focus, decides to declare war on anything that steps in his way, including a little stinker named Trixie (Ivyann Schwan), a kid blessed with the same destructive tendencies as the ginger monster.
Taking to the newfound attention, Ben engages with the locals, finding himself pursued by love-struck businesswoman LaWanda Dumore (Laraine Newman). Nutshell: Selecting a new suburb to grow as a family, Ben (John Ritter) and Junior (Michael Oliver) are shocked to discover a neighborhood crawling with lustful divorcees.