Feast II : Sloppy Seconds - Unrated : Release Year - 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall Rating : 6/10 Directed By : John Gulager Jenny Wade (Feast) Clu Gulager (Feast) Diane Goldner (Satanic) Martin Klebba (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) Supplied By : Dimension Films Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock Date Reviewed : October. 8, 2008 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PLOT It's the morning after the initial attack and the nasty flesh-eating monsters are invading the nearby town. Those lucky enough to have survived the night join a twisted group of locals whose only goal is to stay alive --- no matter the cost. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE REVIEW FEAST II : SLOPPY SECONDS virtually picks up where the last installment left off, as we begin with a scene in which the characters drive of in the black Trans-Am. Meanwhile somewhere close, a female biker pulls up to a bar, it's quiet, but after a further look, she notices something strange. She notices a fog nearby with a detached human hand in it's mouth. After retrieving the hand she notices that it bares the tattoo of her sister(who was a victim in the first film). Out of nowhere the woman known as "Biker Queen" is startled by someone hiding nearby. It turns out to be The Bartender who survived the first attack, but is wounded and beaten. Biker Queen and her all female gang take The Bartender hostage as he says he knows who left her sister for dead(Bozo, who has since left in the previously mentioned Trans-Am). They all make their way back into town and it isn't long before they are encountered and cornered by the creature themselves. Also in the mix of things, are a band of very different characters, including a shady used car salesman and a tag team of miniature wrestler siblings. The group must learn to put all differences aside, if the want to have any type of possibility of getting out of town alive. Back about to years ago when I first reviewed FEAST, I first didn't know what to expect, especially since it was produced by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and for the fact that it was spawned from the reality show PROJECT GREENLIGHT. Well, despite initially not knowing much about it, it turned out that I actually loved FEAST....it was a great action packed Horror film, and definitely one of the best films that year had to offer. So, when news of the upcoming sequel began to make rounds, I couldn't help but to be excited for the follow-up to John Gulager's unexpected hit. Now that the wait is over and I have seen the said sequel, what did I think about it you ask? Well, to some it all up, FEAST II : SLOPPY SECONDS, is still on track, but it does veer off to the left a bit, and is just not as accomplished as the film's original. With the first FEAST film, PROJECT GREENLIGHT allowed John Gulager a limited budget to shoot on, so many of the scripts action sequences had to be cut or shortened to accommodate the lower budget. Now I know you're probably thinking that this is a bad thing, but after seeing FEAST II, i'm not so sure that's the case. With this film, i'm guessing that a slightly larger budget was in place because this film has more action scenes as well as the use of more CGI. With the budget, it's obvious that Writer/Director Gulager took ,ore liberty to sort of go wild with the script, so much so, to this time around, the film seems more about the gore and stunts, rather than the plot, which is what I really liked about the original - you had well developed characters as well as genuine humor in the mix. Here in this film, yes there more new characters introduced, all of them are very different, but I feel that none of them are truly developed in the way that the characters in the first film were, and with that, the only really solid characters were those that returned from the first film. Also one thing I liked about the first film was it's unexpected gore, you just never knew when you'd see gore, or what kind it would be - at any given moment you could have an alien spewing green vomit all over an unsuspecting victims, it was at times both gross and funny. In FEAST II : SLOPPY SECONDS, we have even more of the same, but only this time, it's even more frequent, that after awhile it isn't as effective, and in my opinion it's like beating a proverbial dead horse so to speak - but hey, at least it's still there. Another thing that remains intact is the films production value and direction. In this one the style of direction doesn't skip a beat as the second offering shares the same raw ans intense feeling as the original. But in some areas here, the film does suffer. In the first film, also what i'd guess was due to it's budget, the film stayed in one location for a majority of the film(the bar). This happened to work out for the best for the film which is rare. As for FEST II. there are actually scenes that use extensive CGI for the backdrop, which suggests a lot of this film was probably shot on some kind of sound stage(the scenes more in question are the ones that take place on top of a building) - I don't know about anyone else, but when CGI is obivious, it just bugs me, the original didn't have the budget for such elaboratively CGI aided scenes, which in my eyes, is again a good thing. As for the acting in the film, I thought the performances were quite mixed. As I said, a lot of new characters were introduced, and naturally some were better than others. Out of the new characters, I found the most interesting to be one of two Dwarf Mexican Wrestlers, a character named Thunder(Martin Klebba, whom has made appearances on the show, LITTLE PEOPLE, BIG WORLD). Along with his brother Lightning, they are tag team partners in the ring, as well partners in running a key store. These days, the most well known little person is of course Verne Troyer. The reason I am guessing is tat it's because the popularity of his breakthrough movie because I have yet to see Troyer in a role that requires him to truly act. But I have to say that Martin Klebba is really impressive in terms of acting, and most of all is likable. The characters that are the two that are reprised from the original, Honey Pie(Jenny Wade) and The Bartender(The Director's film veteran father, Clu Gulager). In this sequel, my most favorite character, is without a doubt The Bartender. The character was one that stood out in the original, but it is in this film that Clu Gulager had more to do, and he is absolutely genius with the way he delivers his often sarcastic lines. Overall, FEAST II : SLOPPY SECONDS, is a worthwhile continuation of John Gulager's Horror saga, but it is just not quite up to par with the original film. It's still a fun watch, but the overkill of visual effects sort of takes away some of the "rawness" that won most fans over with the previous entry. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GORE METER 6/10 Dismembered body parts, bodies torn apart, blood splatter, gunshot wounds, a dog shot up, a baby devoured(which was kind of a bit too much), alien vomit and more -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MUSICAL SCORE 5/10 A good mix of rock tunes and suspenseful scoring. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THE FILM FEAST II : SLOPPY SECONDS is a great sequel, but it does feel a little more mainstream than the first effort, more resources were available this time, so naturally they were used. What suffers the most here is the film's overall story, that is not quite as detailed as it should be. FEAST II is essentially a bridge between the first film, and the series' third an final film that has already wrapped and is now in post production, and unfortunately, at times it feels like it as well. All in all, it's a good feel to follow up with, but in the end it kind of leaves you hoping that the next film to follow will be even better. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STILLS

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