Kindergarten Cop 2

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Morning *** Friday Night ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

When a teacher is killed after stumbling upon sensitive information, FBI Agent Reed (Dolph Lundgren) is assigned to go undercover in a liberal, PC modern kindergarten, where his 'no pain no gain' philosophy makes him a far from ideal candidate for the role. Gradually, he forms a bond with the kids and pretty young teacher Olivia (Darla Taylor) and liaises with his partner Sanders (Bill Bellamy), but all the while, Zogu (Aleks Paunovic), the villainous Russian mobster behind the murder, lurks about.

It's never too late to make a sequel these days, even to a more modern audience who may not even have heard of the original. Or even if it happens to be some bizarrely low budget, straight to DVD Dolph Lundgren vehicle. This is a weird, unexplainable piece of work at best, but maybe most so for Dolph. Things were looking on the up for him recently, with the well received Skin Trade signalling a return to the sort of slam bang, unpretentious entertainment he was known for. You're left to wonder what his motives for making this were: trying to show a lighter, fuzzier side to his repertoire, even if it's all little heard of, straight to DVD fodder?

The original was one of two films Arnold Schwarzenegger made to try and show a lighter version of himself, and it's been confirmed he's appearing in a sequel himself to the other one of those films, so you're left to wonder if he thought the follow up to this had lesser box office potential. Even so, many will feel he brought something to the original role that couldn't be recreated by anyone else, and it's true Dolph doesn't feel at home as much here, lacking Arnie's madcap spirit in the first film. He's joined by Paunovic's typical Russian villain, Bellamy's stereotypical black partner and Taylor as a worryingly younger love interest.

This is just an all round beguiling project. How did it come up? Who thought it would be a good idea? What was anyone trying to achieve with it? Why did it get made? *

Kindergarten Cop 2 (2016)

** (out of 4)

Twenty-six years after the original film we're finally given a "sequel" and this time it's Dolph Lundgren playing FBI Agent Reed. He's trying to put an infamous crime boss in prison but a hacker has stolen a file that tells the location of everyone in the Witness Protection Program. It turns out that the information in located on a file at a Seattle school so the agent must go undercover to try and locate it.

KINDERGARTEN COP 2 is a film that no one really asked for. Well, they did ask for a sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie about twenty years ago but this thing here isn't that. In fact, I'm not really sure why they put a "2" at the end of the title because the original film is never mentioned and for the most part his is basically just a remake. While the film isn't horrid, the thing certainly isn't good and I'd argue that in the end it's quite pointless.

Whereas the first film was somewhat uneven in regards to its sometime dark tone and sometimes comic tone, there's no doubt about this film in regards to it being aimed for children. The violence is pretty much tamed down and the majority of the jokes are aimed at children. This is certainly a movie that parents could watch with their young kids as the filmmakers were going for that type of movie. There's nothing wrong with that but the problem is that this comedy contains very few laughs.

Another major problem is that none of the characters are all that likable. The kid's don't have any personalities and I thought all of them lacked any sort of chemistry with Lundgren. As for the action star, he gives an okay performance here but his comic timing just isn't where it's needed to be. He does have some funny stuff with Bill Bellamy but this too starts to get watered down as the picture moves along.

KINDERGARTEN COP 2 isn't horrible but there's really no point of the movie being made.

Alright, i saw the first movie as a kid, and it starred my (then) favourite "actor" in Arnold Swartzenagger. So of course as a kid i liked the first one. Nowhere near an iconic or classic as Commando, Terminator 2 or whatever, but still a good time. I picked it up years later and watch it again and my tough changed a bit. I tough it was a bit funny still but i guess its the kind of humour that work either on kids or old parents.

Anyway when i saw this was released i had to give it a look. I like Dolph Lundgren, i mean sure he is a more mobile Steven Seagal, starring in the same type of scripts and same type of roles as him, usually in the same type of budget movies. But i guess i just like those b action movies...

So i gave it a look and ... well... its not as bad as it may look. Despite having nothing storywise to do with the first movie it does follow a similar formula, and call it a sequel or a remake, it does not matter. Its similarly entertaining as the first one and its by no mean a "bad movie".

But my biggest problem with it is Mister Lundgren's age. He is acting and somewhat playing the role of a 35 years old (max) dude while he clearly look in his advanced 50s at least. And of course they decided to give the supporting role to a beautiful actress that look like a barely 26 years old hottie. IMDb list her as being 29 years old. The fact is, she is way too young for Lundgren and this make the whole movie awkward and unbelievable. They could had easily go with a 39 to 43 years old good looking mature lady instead, which would had made it a bit more believable.

Lets face it, Dolph does not have that much comedy background, and the movie never show how a "badass" he is supposed to be unlike Arny in the first movie. They could had give the role to Kevin Hart and it would had been much funnier and believable. Well if anything Lundgren's partner remind me of him and have the same french voice actor too, and he serve the comic relief role somewhat.

So in the end, this movie may make you ask why they made it in the first place, but then the real question should be why not? The first one was never "that good" to begin with, and it wasn't that terrible. This a family movie, one that you should watch with your kids and have a fun Saturday night.

I saw Dolph do better, i saw him do much worst, but in the end the movie is serving its purpose and as i said my most biggest gripe is the age factor when it comes to Dolph, who act like and is surrounded by people half his age and just do like he is 35.

What to expect from a sequel like this? I think it reached the highest goal it could. It's a paycheck for all involved. Dolph can have some fun (the kids too of course), if you lower your expectations to very very low, you may be able to enjoy this to a degree too. It is what it is and even if some had a lot of fun with the original (which was filmed/released a long time ago), I doubt many were yearning for a sequel.

But that's how things work and if a title sounds familiar, investors are there and some people will watch it (guilty as charged, but I do watch almost anything as you can tell by my list of reviews ;o) ). So while I've seen worse (obviously), this is by the numbers ... You do the math (yes pun intended)

A sequel to the 1990 comedy film Kindergarten Cop starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, 'Kindergarten Cop 2' is a surprising sequel by all means. I mean, its been over 26 years since the first one released. A sequel, that too without Arnie being there, is risk.

But this is a direct-to-DVD film & to its luck, Dolph Lundgren is a fine new hero. He shines in the Cute Sequel!

'Kindergarten Cop 2' Synopsis: Assigned to recover sensitive stolen data, a gruff FBI agent goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher, but the school's liberal, politically correct environment is more than he bargained for.

'Kindergarten Cop 2' is simple film, that doesn't aim for any form of greatness. And hence, the narrative works. No, some of the jokes are silly & even some of the sub-plots, aren't sharp. But its Dolph's performance that makes most of it work. He's game here & gleefully plays the big-guy with a soft heart. If not for him, maybe this sequel would've fallen flat on its face.

Final Word? 'Kindergarten Cop 2' is fair watch.