F/X2 (1991)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Richard Franklin

Writers (WGA):

Robert T. Megginson (characters) &
Gregory Fleeman (characters) ...

Release Date:

10 May 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

Outgunned by the mob, outmanned by the cops..... their effects had _better_ be special!

Plot:

F/X man Rollie Tyler is now a toymaker. Mike, the ex-husband of his girlfriend, Kim is a cop. He asks Rollie to help him catch a killer...

Plot Keywords:

Special Effects | Plastic Over Face | Sequel | Person On Fire | Murder

Cast

Bryan Brown	...	Roland 'Rollie' Tyler
Brian Dennehy	...	Leo McCarthy
Rachel Ticotin	...	Kim Brandon
Joanna Gleason	...	Liz Kennedy, Assistant DA
Philip Bosco	...	Lt. Ray Silak, NYPD
Kevin J. O'Connor	...	Matt Neely
Tom Mason	...	Mike Brandon, NYPD
Dominic Zamprogna	...	Chris Brandon, Mike's Son
Jossie DeGuzman	...	Marisa Velez, Police Computer Expert
John Walsh	...	Rado
Peter Boretski	...	Carl Becker, Medallion Thief
Lisa Fallon	...	Kylie, Model for Decoy
Lee Broker	...	DeMarco
Philip Akin	...	Det. McQuay
Tony De Santis	...	Det. Santoni

Also Known As:

F/X 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion
FX2

Runtime:

108 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:14A | Finland:K-14 | Germany:16 | New Zealand:R13 | Norway:15 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Dodi Fayed - Jack Wiener

Trivia:

When Rollie calls young Chris on the phone, the movie Chris is watching on television is F/X (1986), the prelude to this movie.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Rollie is telling Mike about his hidden camera, while he's talking he's reflected in a mirror and his mouth clearly isn't moving.

Quotes:

Leo McCarthy: The words "double cross" definitely come to my mind.
Lt. Ray Silak, NYPD: The word "dead man" comes to my mind.
Leo McCarthy: That's two words.

Movie Connections:

Features F/X (1986)

a surprisingly-good sequel

F/X 2 turned out to be a better sequel that I was expecting, as a result of what I had heard people say about it over the years. I was glad to see Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy share more scenes together this time around (they only had one in the first film), and I was also surprised that the story was pretty good, in the same league as the first. Sure, some parts were predictable (nearly every film has got some predictability to it), but for the most part, it was nicely-paced with some good suspense and mystery. I was hoping for a better usage of special effects by the characters (after all, the series is called F/X), but Brown pretty much just MacGyvers his way through the film, especially in the supermarket sequence, one of the film's standout scenes. My personal favorite was the scene in Brown's apartment, where he uses an animatronic remote-controlled clown to handle an assassin (who, like Cliff DeYoung in the first film, mysteriously vanishes from the movie without a trace), and the battle at the mansion at the end of the film is pretty exciting, with Brown making use of a bunch of effects equipment to stop the bad guys. All-in-all, a pretty decent sequel that has me torn between which of the two films I like more. I really can't decide. I know it's been eleven years, and since this one apparently didn't perform as well at the box office as the first one did, I doubt we'll ever see an F/X 3, but I wouldn't mind seeing it.