Two years after the events of the first film, the Brown family has since left Grover’s bend and the Brown farm following their stories of alien critters called Crites being met with disbelief and derision. Brad Brown (Scott Grimes) returns to Grover’s Bend on Easter Break to visit has Grandmother Nana (Herta Ware) who runs the local day care, while the rest of the town is less than thrilled to see Brad has returned.
Meanwhile, junk dealer Quigley (Douglas Rowe) and teenager Wesley (Tom Hodges) discover the eggs of the Crites in the dilapidated remains of the Brown’s barn and not knowing what they are Quigley sells some of them to the church for use as Easter Eggs. However, as the eggs are either exposed to space heaters or the unseasonably warm weather the eggs soon hatch leading to another onslaught on Crites this time upon the entire town.
Meanwhile in space, shapeshifting alien bounty hunters Ug (Terence Mann), Lee, and their human companion Charlie McFadden return to Earth to exterminate the Crites in order to collect their bounty. After the original Critters was a decent hit at the box office making $12 million against its $3 million budget, New Line commissioned a sequel. Dominic Muir and Stephen Herek the writers and director of the first film did not return, and in their place, we have Mick Garris as director who co-writes this film with David Twohy (credited as D. T. Twohy).
New Line offered Garris the chance to helm the sequel following his work on Amazing Stories and while initially reluctant to work on the film, eventually relented having been a big fan of the first film and wanted to make a film that upped the ante on the first one. The Chiodo Brothers who provided the effects for the first film returned making over 50 individual puppets for the film.
Upon release the film underperformed making $3.8 million against its $4 million budget and while critical reception on the first film was split with some being quite positive on the film, Critters 2 lost some of the first film’s supporters including Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel who both gave their approval to the first one but voiced disdain to the sequel with Ebert even putting it on his “most hated films” list.
Even those who worked on the film haven’t spoken kindly of it including David Twohy who claimed he wasn’t proud to have a credit on the film. Critters 2 does fall into MANY of the pitfalls of sequels to surprise hits, but there is still some fun to be had. I think the biggest sticking point for me is the very sour way the film opens as it basically retcons the happy ending the Browns were given at the end of the last film with the Browns now having become pariahs for no adequately explained reason (something about their stories nearly tearing the town apart, I guess?) and aside Megan Morgan and Brad’s grandmother Nana, most of the town’s people of Grover’s Bend are needlessly cruel to Brad and the fact that Brad has now committed to “the whole event was an excitable boy’s dreams” thing just really bothered me.
There’s also some odd time shenanigans such as the fact it somehow took two years for the Crite eggs to hatch and two more years for Ug and Lee to collect their bounty on the Crites and considering this is a new creative team and the movie came out a mere two years after the first one it’s a telltale sign that New Line probably put a rush order on this movie hence all the parts that don’t quite mesh with the first one.
Now taking aside the clumsy and flimsy continuity gaffes between this film and its predecessor, the movie does deliver on the over-the-top carnage we loved from the first film. Once the movie lets the Crites loose upon the town, we get all manner of scenes with the remorseless eating machines that while not much of a stretch from the previous film do have a larger sense of scale.
The return of the alien bounty hunters Ug and Lee is definitely welcome as they were the best part of the first film and Don Keith Opper’s Charlie has undergone some solid development from when last we saw him making him probably the only character to not get short shifted. While Ug and Lee are great in their scenes especially with a running gag of Lee’s shapeshifting ability malfunctioning, so they keep shifting to things like Roxanne Kernohan’s Playboy model or Eddie Deezen, the two are unfortunately less present here than they were in the first film and become somewhat sidelined in the third act regrettably.
There’s also the re-casting of Sherriff Harv with Barry Corbin replacing M. Emmett Walsh in a manner I forgot he was the same character from the last film. I can’t argue for Critters 2 being a “good” movie as it’s a much sloppier effort in comparison to the tight minimalism of the original, but it is an entertaining movie that delivers on the carnage and humor.
As long as you’re of a forgiving mindset you’ll find plenty to appreciate in the puppet work, action, and violence even if Critters 2 hasn’t had its rough spots smoothed out.
My Score! - 55%
Plot and Storyline - 54%
Structure - 53%
Engagement - 53%
Plausibility - 58%
Acting and Performances - 59%
55%
This is a good sequel, and a bunch of critters create a humungous ball.
