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54%
Overall Rating
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Ranked #5,789
...out of 20,698 movies
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Mark and Sarah survived the mayhem from the first movie only to have Sarah on trial for a murder committed by a dismembered hand. To find the proof that will clear her, the pair travel through time and space to dimensions full of historical, movie, and book characters. However, Mark's involvement in these other worlds may not be an accident.
--IMDb
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Review by Chad
Added: July 14, 2010
Waxwork is not a movie that needed a sequel. I mean, sure, it did set one up in the closing moments of the movie by way of a dismembered hand escaping the wax museum, but did anybody out there truly want to see another ninety minutes of that sort of thing? Was there a rabid fanbase that was clamoring for a part two? Even though I didn't dislike the film, I certainly think that the budget for this release would have been better spent elsewhere. However, I did sit down with it just to see where the filmmakers decided to go with it, and surprisingly, it wasn't all that bad.
The storyline picks up directly where the first movie ends, with that aforementioned hand escaping the burning wax museum. As Mark (Zach Galligan) and Sarah (now played by Monika Schnarre) are leaving the scene of the crime, that hand hitches a ride on their cab and goes home with Sarah, where it proceeds to kill her drunken, abusive stepfather. The police label it a murder: poor teenage girl living with a drunk who likes to get physical with his kid? A classic case of a revenge killing if there ever was one, and she quickly finds her little ass facing the electric chair. Of course, her and Mark know that she is innocent, and the only way that they can prove such is by finding a piece of evidence to support their claims.
This leads them to the home of the now-deceased Wilfred, where they discover a film reel containing his final message to them, and it's a doozy: Mark is now the proud owner of all of Wilfred's strange artifacts, including a talisman that can take them back and forth through time in much the same fashion as that old wax museum allowed. What better way to find proof of Sarah's outlandish story, and with that, they're off to one "period in time" (read: movie spoof) after another, with sections such as Alien, Dawn of the Dead, and yes, even Godzilla.
On the one hand, the film is enjoyable to a certain extent, and fans of the original release will definitely enjoy the sequel: it brings the same kind of campy humor to the table, the storyline is just as outrageous, and the overall product is just as charming. The movie references come fast and furious, with the three that I mentioned being only the tip of the iceberg. The problem is that the time allotted to these movie nods is not proportional to the entertainment value that they bring.
You see, the Alien section runs for about fifteen minutes. It's an enjoyable fifteen minutes, but they did about all that they could with it without it getting tedious. No complaints there. The Dawn of the Dead section lasts for about five minutes, and maybe it's the rabid fanboy in me speaking, but I really believed that that could have gone on for much longer and brought a lot more to the table. There's also a section that is a mish-mash of references to various fifties-era haunted house flicks with a great appearance by Bruce Campbell, and again, it may be the Campbell fan in me typing this, but I thought that this section could have ran a little longer as well. The other nods are mostly quickie sections lasting no more than a minute or two, but there is one section in particular that takes up the bulk of the movie... and this is the one section that just didn't do much for me.
The section in question is another mish-mash deal, and this one centers around medieval England - you know, kings, castles, sword-fights, arranged incestuous marriages, the whole nine yards. While it may look good on paper and it did bring a certain degree of entertainment, I thought that this piece of the film was by far the weakest. The story presented here was dull, the characters weren't all that interesting, and the entire section overstayed its welcome by the midway point. Granted, it did set up the final battle and brought the movie to a close, but still, the film as a whole would have worked out so much better if this piece had been cut in half with the remaining time used to either spoof other films or to extend some of the spoofs that were there in shortened form.
I realize that I've typed a couple of sentences of praise and two paragraphs of complaints about the movie so far, but really, it isn't all that bad. The humor is more direct this time around, and though it is a bit tame, there is some good gore on display... in fact, one could almost label this as an example of the splatstick genre. Again, the storyline is as campy as can be, which is certainly a good thing for those of you who saw the original and decided to give the sequel a chance or for those of you who just want a night of cheesy fun.
Bottom line: it's a little weaker than the first movie, but regardless of that, I can almost guarantee that you will have a smile on your face when the credits roll if you enjoyed the original movie. The misplaced emphasis on what turns out to be the main chunk of the movie did hurt the final product, but it didn't prove to be a deal-breaker. Check it out if you have a soft spot for the first movie, and check out the series if you like pure, unadulterated cheese with a hearty helping of movie references. 6/10.
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