Post by StevePulaski on Jun 8, 2011 10:46:43 GMT -5
Jack Frost's face of innocence in Jack Frost 2.
Rating: ★★½
Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman was the first of the two that I rented when I was around nine at a local video store. When I saw it back then, I fell in love with it and couldn't stop thinking about it. Seeing it years later, I say it's not the memories I have of it being very good, but it's the nostalgic memories I have that will stay with me.
This is grade A, B movie horror at its finest. It has a goofy killer, still speaking heavily in puns and humor-orientated dialog, and it has likable characters. Had likable characters. While many characters reprise their respected role, they are portrayed as a more stressed out, scared version of the ones they played in the original film. I loved Sam's laidback sense of direction, but this movie turns him into a chicken and a coward afraid of his own shadow. Especially during the last half hour.
The plot isn't tweaked too much, the same snowman with the same goofy lines is terrorizing the same group of people, only this time not in Snowmonton, in the Tropics. Sam (Allport), his wife, and their friends get out of the town to breath different air this time around for Christmas. Until Jack shows up revenge hungry and stopping at nothing.
Jack has also brought an army of cute, but lethal, snowballs that come equipped with a retractable icicle on top of their head. It leads to some pretty humorous antics. My favorite when the group is trying to kill the snowballs and they flatten him in a wafflemaker just for it to come back to life, with burnt spots on his body and say "hmmm, toasty!"
There is a bad use of computer animation in the film. We get more scenes of the snowman, and more scenes of him that are lively instead of the annoying zoom in/zoom out focus in the original film. Some scenes in this had some of the worst CGI out. The two scenes plagued by this are the scenes when Jack jumps in the ground having terrible splash effects come back up, and the others are when the snowballs rebuild themselves. The snowball CGI I can understand, but the snowman jumping into the ground I can't understand.
Jack's overall appearance has improved greatly from the last film. Maybe it's my mind playing tricks, but it looks like the crew cleaned him up from his last adventure. Though he looks very good, I can't understand why both Dvd covers have to lie to us. On the cover of the first movie, it shows Jack with smaller, straighter head, green eyes, and razor sharp teeth. His appearance greatly differs from his film look, and the razor sharp teeth are reduced greatly in size.
On the second Dvd cover, the snowman looks more like himself, but the green eyes and teeth are still in place. And now the snowball suddenly has teeth twice the size of himself? It's like on all the Tremors Dvd covers, they have the worms with teeth the size of humans when the worms have tentacles. Why?
Jack Frost 2: Revenge of the Mutant Killer Snowman has certain appeal. It has returning cast members so the sequel doesn't feel isolated, it has some very amusing characters (like the Jamaican on the island), and the one of horror's creepiest looking villains returns. It's all good fun...for a while till logic kicks in.
Starring: Christopher Allport, Scott MacDonald, Eileen Seeley, Chip Heller, Marsha Clark, Ray Cooney, David Allen Brooks, and Sean Patrick Murphy. Directed by: Michael Cooney.