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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
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Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (19) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (0) | Rotten (19) | DVD (3)
The only saving grace in a totally misguided effort is the performance of character actor Bruns who is quite funny as the slightly off-the-wall doctor.
Not even a nuclear explosion, it seems, can prevent a sequel to a tongue-in-cheek zombie pic.
... has nothing to do with George Romero's 1968 cult favorite ''Night of the Living Dead.''
[It's] hard to imagine even die-hard genre fans who adore the original have much that's all that positive to say about this unfortunate misfire.
This derivative sequel lacks the potency of its predecessor, which clearly possessed "More Brains!"
Return of the Living Dead Part II lacks the stinging humor Dan O'Bannon brought to the original.
If you're going to force a sequel on us, you could at least get creative rather than just cribbing from Dan O'Bannon's original script.
It seems to be doing so many of the same things that made the first one great. It fails, in that it does them all poorly.
One of short series that gave James Karen his place in horror movie history.
Given the abundance of films like this, Return 2 is hardly a classic, but it's far better than it has any right to be.
The movie's high points are its makeup and special effects. The movie's low points are almost everything else.
The first film was an amusing, winking zombiefest that glorified its own cheekiness. The sequel tries to do bigger and better and thus is less and worse.
The sequel follows on from the first with its very very basic and silly plot but this time it goes for the throat with full on comedy over horror and gory effects. The makeup and effects are again excellent and show what can be done with real hands on skills instead of just using CGI. This follow up is not as bloody and in your face as the first but more of a slapstick horror with icky green/brown pus favoured over ye olde claret. The odd thing in this sequel is they clearly follow the same plot route as the first. The plot is your standard zombie outbreak type of thing with toxic waste causing the usual problems, but it all feels like a reboot because the first film used toxic gas as the problem that causes the dead to rise from their graves. From there on its virtually the same spiel, literately!. The use of the same actors in the exact same type of roles, albeit with different names, is strange yet it doesn't seem to matter. The same type of humour and even the same dialog at times make this film feel like a rerun of the first film but with better effects and a lighter tone. Despite the positively evil looking poster art the film isn't very scary at all, its almost a spoof at times, but a very good one. An amusing 'Thriller' mockery moment at the end typifies how silly this franchise has become, but it is quite amusing I must admit. At the end of the day it still a very good horror comedy and doesn't take itself seriously at all which helps. I think the route they decide to take with this franchise after the first film was the right choice otherwise it would have just been seen as a Romero franchise ripoff. The actors are having fun in their roles and the special effects guys are having a blast with all the slimy gruesome gore. Its completely hokey and corny of course, but back in the day these films were fresh and popular and they still hold up today if you ask me. The ultimate popcorn flick and perfect for aspiring monster makeup wannabes.
Super Reviewer
This zombie flick is okay, but it's a sequel and not as good as the original, and the actors are bad, and the story is exactly the same as the first too.
This in my opinion tried to copy the first film without trying anything new or creative. What made the first film so great was the crazy antics of the characters and the zombies. Something that seems to be lacking a bit in this sequel. The film is not helmed by Dan O'bannon who made the first, and who created something special with the first film. The film feels tired and ragged out, and the actors try their best to act out the semingly tired out script. A so-so sequel, but considering the first film is such a classic, this is a disappointment.
I enjoyed this tremendously. It was one of the first zombie films I saw, and first of the Return series. A mix of horror and comedy can so easily be done wrong so this time out, Director Weiderhorn decided to go all out on pure entertainment-almost a light-hearted comedy on the undead. Some jokes fall flat (severed hand giving the finger, probably lifted from Evil Dead 2) but the fun of the film will draw most in and bring back nostalgic memories of the 1980s. The opening credits have recieved a lot of crap as they don't set up the plot the same way the first Return's did. But I like the song (Julian Cope's Spacehopper) and it really caught my attention and got me in a silly mood. The song is probably this film's equivilant of the first's PartyTime sequence. Some might call it lame, but they're just being too cynical. This is a good sequel in most respects and a lot of fun to watch. Like the first, it's dated in many respects but it's still a load of fun.
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