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The Fly II
Take out the quality, leave in the fun
1989
Director: Chris Walas
Starring: Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga
Not essential, but always welcome, no?
THE SETUP:
Descendant of Brundlefly from the first movie grows at an advanced pace, then turns into a giant fly who is pretty fuckin’ pissed and wants his doggie.
DISCUSSION:
For a long time [before I consciously started pursuing bad movies] this was one of my favorite guilty pleasures. It takes the most basic ideas from the first film and finds something reasonably fun to do with them, and sustains a goofy light horror tone throughout. It’s like a remix of a favorite song… it’s not going to be as good, but it’s composed of elements you like and it’ll probably be a little more upbeat.
The movie opens with a woman who is not Geena Davis giving birth to a pupa, not too unlike the dream in the first film. They open the pupa and there’s a baby inside. He turns out to be super smart and grows super fast, so by the time he’s five he’s Eric Stoltz. He’s being kept as a science experiment by the company barely mentioned in the first film. He is given the task of figuring out how to work the pods from the first film, and falls in love with the nightmare of Daphne Zuniga. Actually, she’s not such a nightmare, it’s just that she’s one of those people whose very existence exudes “80s.” And her name, too. Anyway, soon Eric finds out that the company is made up of bad people and a mean security guard, so he runs away right about the time he is suddenly transforming into a big ass mutant fly, then he goes about getting gory revenge.
This movie carries over a lot of the intrigue of the first film, like the telepods and all the “issues” surrounding them, which I find endlessly fascinating, the whole mystery of figuring out how they actually work, and the final “answer” at the end, which was an extension of an idea from the first film. This movie loses all the questions of morality and sexuality and love and everything from the first film and in its place supplies a fun 80s sci-fi spookathon. And I have no problem with that. And for a film that features only one character from the first film [in a greatly reduced role] I thought they did a nice job of developing the ideas from the first film, rather than just coming up with something entirely new altogether.
I also like how the movie replaces the tragic romance tone of the first with an 80s teen movie tone that carries the first three-quarters. Then it turns into an extremely gory thriller thing wherein a guy gets his entire head squished like a watermelon, among other highlights. Fun!
Making this a win-win situation all around, this film comes complete with the original remake by David Cronenberg, still a fucking masterpiece, on ONE ESSENTIAL DVD!!!! Can you fucking believe that?!?!?! Stop reading and buy it now! It includes trailers for both original [50s] Fly films, the remake and sequel, and things like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Fantastic Voyage. Someone up there likes us.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Yes! But watch the first one first.
RELATED MOVIES:
THE FLY [REMAKE] is David Cronenberg’s reimagining of the 1950s classic and is really goddamn brilliant, but serious and deep where this one is frivolous and goofy. They’re both available on ONE low-priced DVD! BUY THAT SHIT!!!!
