The Hidden II

I'm often very forgiving of shortcomings in made for video movies, but the shortcomings in "The Hidden 2" are so numerous and bad that even I couldn't build any enthusiasm for it. It's a really cheap production, for one thing; it's shot with numerous close-ups, and with technical goofs like the reflections of boom mikes and cameramen clearly visible. The cheapness is really evident with the depiction of the evil alien (which looks nothing like how it did in the original movie for some reason.) There is very little alien mayhem both with the alien in human bodies and the alien outside of human bodies. This may explain why the tone of the movie is totally wrong. There's no feeling of tension; the tone is constantly flat and bored. It's no wonder why New Line paired this sequel on the same DVD as the original movie, since I don't think there's anyone who would buy this sequel as a standalone disc.

I really don't know where to begin. I saw The Hidden in the movie theater when it was released in 1987 and loved it. I was in the public library and saw it on DVD with The Hidden II as a second feature so I went and borrowed it. I loved seeing The Hidden again and was pleasantly surprised it actually got better with age! The Hidden is really an amazing film.

Then it was time to watch The Hidden II. I sensed there was going to be a problem when fifteen minutes of the original was edited into the opening of this feature. I just knew it but held my breath anyway and hoped it would get better. It didn't. The Hidden II is a paint-by-the-numbers quickie probably made to create some quick cash revenue before anyone got word of how bad this film was. New Line Cinema should be ashamed of them selves. There is no one in the executive positions at New Line Cinema who saw this could not not know that this was an inferior product and yet they released this excrement on loyal fans of the original The Hidden anyway. Shame on New Line Cinema.

Do yourself a favor and forget this was made. Enjoy the original and pretend this turkey was never made. Trust me you are not missing anything!

The first ten minutes of this film are great ... but most people who are watching this sequel will quickly notice that it's just footage from the first film which starred Kyle MacLachlan.

Kyle's character, a good alien, kills off one of the bad aliens but not before it spawns. Time passes and another good alien teams up with the daughter of the star from the first flic.

What results is a film with little intrigue and no new concepts. They could have provided more insights into the alien races or maybe showcased some cooler alien powers or forms. The anticlamatic ending will leave many wondering why?

2/10 -- no Kyle, no story, no suspense

The stage curtains open ...

After watching the original movie (for like the 100th time), I decided to finally break down and watch its sequel - which I have never seen before. I saw that it starred Kate Hodge, who I liked in the Brandon Lee film, "Rapid Fire", so I was hopeful that this one would be good too ... at least on that level. Well, it wasn't as good as that movie, but it was better than I expected it would be.

The film starts out with a dog walking into the end scene of the previous film while a crew is busy cleaning up the mess. The dog snags a piece of the alien and trots out the door where it eats the alien flesh and then later dies for its efforts. The alien cultivates eggs so that it can spawn anew and begin another reign of terror. When Tom Beck dies, another good alien is sent to Earth and finds his daughter, Juliet, who helps him to adjust to life among humans and find the bad alien, who has begun jumping from body to body. Along the way, she falls in love with him leading to an inevitable conclusion.

Right off the bat, the acting was several notches below the mark set by the first movie, but, it was still done well enough to keep things entertaining. This was definitely a "B-Movie" and it has that feel all the way through. Despite a lousy beginning, it did start to pick up some when the chemistry between our two main characters begins to build, and we find out a little bit more about what life is like on the planet the aliens come from. The special effects weren't jaw dropping, but effective.

This wasn't a bad film. I've seen a lot worse, so I can't complain. It was "okay", and for a sequel, it does what it sets out to do. I am glad, however, that they ended it there. I just don't think there was anything else they could do in a third film to warrant making it. Though, the final scene made me wonder if they were planning on making one at one point. I wouldn't recommend "The Hidden 2", but I wouldn't dissuade anyone from watching it either. It does not measure up to the original, but I had a fun time overall with it.

Sequel to the first film begins by repeating the climax from Part I(best footage in this movie!) before telling its own story about how, after the first aliens destruction, it left behind eggs in the unfortunate dog, which emerge 15 years later to wreck the same kind of havoc as the first. Cop Tom Beck from the first(who is really the good cop alien, after events in Part I), has a now grown daughter, also a cop, so she teams with the good alien cop to stop this new menace.

Something like that, since none of the cast from the first return here, and who can blame them? Perfectly awful film is badly directed and written, not to mention dreary and pointless, and accomplishes nothing more than trashing the memory of the original.

Only saw it because it was released on a double-feature DVD with the first.