Review of 'The Gods Must be Crazy II'

godsmustbecrazy2.jpg 9 years after the spectacular success of the original The Gods Must be Crazy Jamie Uys returns to rural Africa in this sequel.

The Kalahari bushman Xixo (N!xau), now older, is back with his village with two young children who go missing in the back of a poacher's truck. Xixo quickly pursues his children, following the unusual tracks that look like those of two large snakes. Along the way he encounters several soldiers attempting to capture each other as well as a hapless pilot Dr. Stephen Marshall (Hans Strydom) and his NYC lawyer passenger Dr. Ann Taylor (Lena Farugia) who oddly but frequently seems to show off her colourful underwear throughout the film. Will Xixo be able to finally catch up with his children before they are caught by the poachers…or something equally bad happens to them?

The spirit and gentleness of the original film was always going to be difficult to recapture in any sequel and here this is undoubtedly the case. Though some might say the slapstick humour is as good as the original film it all seems a bit contrived and forced rather than natural and innocent. It seems here we are going more for extreme farce rather than straddling the line between this and nuanced humour. The budget in part 2 has certainly been increased with a great number bigger action sequences but sadly this is not reflected in the script which is banal to say the least with my extremely brief summary above pretty much covering the entirety of the plot.

N!xau steals the screen again as Xixo with his natural innocence though here he has a great deal more action sequences as he attempts to recover his children. Strydom and Farugia as the “out of their depth” white Gods are easily forgettable, never managing to capture our hearts like the couple from the first film. Inexplicably, after the first film's sequence of the heroine getting stuck in her underwear in a bush the filmmakers believed we needed to see more female flesh in this sequel so we are treated to multiple scenes of the straight-laced Farugia exposing her under garments in increasingly bizarre ways (hanging from under a plane?).

There can only be one “The Gods Must be Crazy” so unfortunately this film has to come a distant second. “The Gods Must be Crazy II” is silly and mindless but, unfortunately, with little heart.

Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2020-05-29


Directed by: Jamie Uys

Studio: Elrina Investment

Year: 1989

Length: 98 minutes

Genre: Comedy

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097443/


Other reviewed films by Jamie Uys: