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SEQUEL, PART II: FX2, TERMINATOR II: JUDGEMENT DAY

© Sean Gallagher

Another year, another set of sequels to deal with. The two under question here - Richard Franklin's FX2 and James Cameron's TERMINATOR II: JUDGEMENT DAY - are both linked not only by being sequels, but also by being sequels to films which were made on the cheap but paid unexpected dividends, both financially and creatively. Alas, as usual with a sequel, they don't pay off a second time creatively, though the latter film is better than it has a right to be.

When the original FX (directed by Robert Mandel) came out in 1986, with no stars and a strange title, no one expected it to do well. Instead, it became a modest hit in theaters, and a cult favorite on video, back when video could truly give films a second life. Mandel, unfortunately, wasn't able to capitalize, as his follow-up, BIG SHOTS (1987), flopped. However, stars Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy managed steady, if modest careers (though both did appear in hits; COCKTAIL and PRESUMED INNOCENT, respectively). So, Franklin (PSYCHO II) and writer Bill Condon were brought in to make another movie, but while it's certainly not terrible, it's not that involving.

Brown returns as Rollie Tyler, the special-effects whiz who has turned his back on all of that. Now he's a toymaker, with a girlfriend, Kim (Rachel Ticotin), and her son Chris (Dominic Zamprogna) to take care of. Chris' father and Kim's ex-husband Mike (Tom Mason) is a cop, and things are pretty cordial between them all. So much so that Mike asks Rollie to come out of retirement to help him with a case. Rollie is hesitant at first, but eventually agrees. In the process, however, Mike is killed, and Rollie begins to think cops might be involved, again. So when he's being pursued by bad guys and hanging from a fire escape, he's immensely relieved to see Leo McCarthy (Dennehy) coming to the rescue. Leo and Rollie, if you remember from the first one, took money a mobster had hidden in a Swiss bank account at the end, so while Rollie's a toymaker, Leo opened a bar. But he somehow still has contacts with the police department, so he agrees to help out.

As with many sequels, there are a lot of similarities to the plot of the first one, primarily that Leo doesn't appear until halfway through. As he did in the first one, he gives this one a jolt, and brings some much-needed character development (it's nice, for example, to see him back with police computer whiz Velez (Jossie DeGuzman)). And the best parts of the movie have him dealing with Liz Kennedy (Joanna Gleason), the D.A. and ex-girlfriend of Leo's who knows a lot more than she's telling. They have good chemistry, and give off the feeling of two old pros who are going to do their jobs no matter what's surrounding them.