Major League II (1994)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simply Perfect

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Well, it's got some amusing parts. However, much of the movie is painfully reusing story points and gags from the first movie. Some interesting characters from the first movie are either missing (Russo, Snipes) or mailing it in (Bernsen, Whitton). Story lines involving the changes to major characters seem forced and generally don't work well. Add to that a general lack of character empathy, and you have a movie which shouldn't be enjoyable. That said, it's watchable, with the same general flavor as the original, but be prepared to roll your eyes occasionally (okay, more than occasionally) at the soulless, generally lazy rework this movie is.

In my opinion, the biggest flaw was that it was supposed to be the 'very' next year, but in reality the movie was filmed five years later. This really showed with some of the characters. Rick Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) was a rookie in the first film, but he's obviously not a kid anymore in this one. When Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) first stepped out of the taxi at the beginning of this movie, he looked so much older that it was stunning. And Margaret Whitton (Rachel Phelps) had aged so much and gained enough weight that I literally didn't even recognize her at first. All of this just took a while to get accustomed to, not to mention Willie Mays Hayes now being played by a different character. They just casually slipped that in there like we weren't supposed to notice, but I never really could accept this as being the same character that I loved so much in the first film.As far as the comedy, it's a bit more slap-stick than the original. The character of Rube Baker (played by Eric Bruskotter) is likable, but borderline goofy. Also, Roger Dorn's character (played by Corbin Bernsen) has transformed from an egotistical bad-boy to a wimpy cry-baby. I had trouble believing that was the same character as well.But all of that aside, I still liked this film pretty well. It just took me a while to adjust to the changes. I enjoyed it better the second time I watched it, once the initial shock had worn off.

What do you get if you take "Major League" and make it all over again: same people, same concept? You get "Major League II", a watchable but weak sequel to a classic film.Charlie Sheen carries this film, easily. If he was not in it, the whole movie would have been worthless and nobody would ever have rented it. This is evident in "Major League III" where SHeen is absent and nobody has ever rented that installment. But even in part 2, Sheen does not offer the story he had in part one. He's now just a pitcher who cannot pitch.Wesley Snipes was replaced by Omar Epps. This was a poor move on the casting director's part. While I understand Snipes had other places to be, the rule to follow to get people to see your film is this: for every big name lost, get a new one to replace them. Epps does not have that star power. So some other celebrity should have conveniently joined the team, or made a guest appearance.Bob Uecker was great, maybe even better than the first movie. But the real selling point -- if there is one -- is Randy Quaid, whose "Wild Thing" taunts were just about the only funny parts in the whole film.Worse a look if you liked the original, but you might just be better off pretending this one never existed.

The first "Major League" was enjoyable (even if it wasn't great or anything) whereas this cash-in sequel is basically just to suck the money out of a film that made more cash at the box office than anyone expected.The first "Major League" came out in '87 and this one in '94; the seven-year gap surely didn't help much with profit. As far as I'm aware this didn't do nearly as well as the original in theaters and it's not hard to understand why.Most of the original cast returns - mainly Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen though - to once again spoof baseball. It's not as wacky a comedy as, say, "Hot Shots!", but it's close.The real problem with this film is that it's basically extending a story that doesn't need to be extended and recycling a lot of jokes we've already seen. It's worth seeing if you catch it on television, but don't go out of your way - especially if you didn't care much for the original.