As a huge fan of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, having gone to the midnight screenings and even won a costume contest for my faithful reproduction of Riff-Raff, I felt it my duty to see the sequel once I discovered it existed. In retrospect, the fact that it took several years after my first viewing of RHPS (in 1987) to discover that there WAS a sequel should have been my warning. Regardless, I dutifully searched dozens of video rental shops until I found a copy of this . . . ahem, film.
I was looking through the IMDb list of the 100 worst films of all time, just for kicks, and thought of this film. In disbelief that I did not find it on the list, I looked it up, and discovered to my horror that there were actually people who gave this grotesque cinematic abomination a 10! Obviously, they were thinking of a different movie. At first, I thought maybe it was just that they had not been exposed to the original, in all its laughably earnest campiness, and were not, as I was, grievously disappointed by the contrast with the sequel. But as I pondered more on the subject, I was forced to discount that theory. Even beyond the failures of this pitiful offering in contrast to the original, there really was nothing of merit in this film even as a stand-alone work. It fails to instruct, enlighten, inspire, entertain, or move the audience in any way. The performances were dull and lifeless, without even the charming shallow campiness in the worst performances in the original film. The script was probably partially to blame for the lacking performances, as it offered nothing upon which the actors could even attempt to build interesting characterizations, or even any consistent motivations. The plot was tortured and convoluted, showing the author's desperation to find some direction for this stinker to go. The songs, well, let's not even go there, it's sufficient to say that, as bad as all the other elements of this film were, the songs, in their writing and execution, made the rest of the film seem like riveting entertainment.
All of the above comments are made on the basis of this film as an individual entity, apart from any comparison to its predecessor. Just to contrast, let me say this. The Rocky Horror Picture Show endures DESPITE its obvious fallacies, based on the very elements it had (energy, naughtyness, a sense of nostalgic tribute, earnest performances, thoughtfully constructed songs) that this "sequel" lacks. In sum, RHPS at least had SOMETHING to say, even if it was said in such a way as to make it a subtext to the campiness of the production as a whole. This film talked without saying anything, and was devoid of any passion or cleverness that might excuse the absence of its message. If you're not a fan of RHPS, avoid this waste of plastic. If you are a fan, find a bunch of other fans that have not seen it, pitch in to rent it, then watch as much of it as you can bear in a large group so that you can console each other over the wasted opportunity Richard O'Brien had with the considerably larger budget and timeframe he obviously had to make this. Or, take my advice. It's a tragedy. It's like watching Boris Karloff in The Terror. It's like watching Bela Lugosi in the Ed Wood movies. No, better yet, it's like watching Orgy Of The Dead, one of those movies Ed Wood made after Bela died, which had no plot, no script, and no characters, just a series of topless girls in spooky make-up dancing soullessly and endlessly to inane music. It's like looking inside someone and finding their soul has taken its leave, but the body refuses to die. Run away. Save yourself.
I was looking through the IMDb list of the 100 worst films of all time, just for kicks, and thought of this film. In disbelief that I did not find it on the list, I looked it up, and discovered to my horror that there were actually people who gave this grotesque cinematic abomination a 10! Obviously, they were thinking of a different movie. At first, I thought maybe it was just that they had not been exposed to the original, in all its laughably earnest campiness, and were not, as I was, grievously disappointed by the contrast with the sequel. But as I pondered more on the subject, I was forced to discount that theory. Even beyond the failures of this pitiful offering in contrast to the original, there really was nothing of merit in this film even as a stand-alone work. It fails to instruct, enlighten, inspire, entertain, or move the audience in any way. The performances were dull and lifeless, without even the charming shallow campiness in the worst performances in the original film. The script was probably partially to blame for the lacking performances, as it offered nothing upon which the actors could even attempt to build interesting characterizations, or even any consistent motivations. The plot was tortured and convoluted, showing the author's desperation to find some direction for this stinker to go. The songs, well, let's not even go there, it's sufficient to say that, as bad as all the other elements of this film were, the songs, in their writing and execution, made the rest of the film seem like riveting entertainment.
All of the above comments are made on the basis of this film as an individual entity, apart from any comparison to its predecessor. Just to contrast, let me say this. The Rocky Horror Picture Show endures DESPITE its obvious fallacies, based on the very elements it had (energy, naughtyness, a sense of nostalgic tribute, earnest performances, thoughtfully constructed songs) that this "sequel" lacks. In sum, RHPS at least had SOMETHING to say, even if it was said in such a way as to make it a subtext to the campiness of the production as a whole. This film talked without saying anything, and was devoid of any passion or cleverness that might excuse the absence of its message. If you're not a fan of RHPS, avoid this waste of plastic. If you are a fan, find a bunch of other fans that have not seen it, pitch in to rent it, then watch as much of it as you can bear in a large group so that you can console each other over the wasted opportunity Richard O'Brien had with the considerably larger budget and timeframe he obviously had to make this. Or, take my advice. It's a tragedy. It's like watching Boris Karloff in The Terror. It's like watching Bela Lugosi in the Ed Wood movies. No, better yet, it's like watching Orgy Of The Dead, one of those movies Ed Wood made after Bela died, which had no plot, no script, and no characters, just a series of topless girls in spooky make-up dancing soullessly and endlessly to inane music. It's like looking inside someone and finding their soul has taken its leave, but the body refuses to die. Run away. Save yourself.