Popular reviews

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  Review by matt lynch ★★★ 4

  Just as massively stupid* but even more amusing than the original due to Richard Franklin, who brings some good fake-Hitchcock chops to a few setpieces (especially the sting to catch a murderer that touches off the plot, a fun little PSYCHO/DRESSED TO KILL takeoff), and, unlike in the first one, actually goes to great lengths to feature the ingenious deployment of movie special effects indicated by the premise.**

  *Seems like if you were trying to cover up the murder of a cop the last thing you would do is enlist the help of the same Hollywood effects guy that already busted up one criminal conspiracy, especially when you see he's videotaping the entire thing. But nobody bothers to look at…

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  Review by Josh Gillam ★★★★

  Former special effects designer Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) returns to help catch a psychopath, but gets involved in a web of corruption and murder, in this action thriller sequel to the 1986 film, co-starring Brian Dennehy and Phillip Bosco.

  It’s similar in structure to the first one, and hits familiar plot beats, although I actually enjoyed it a bit more. A lot of that is down to the rapport between Brown and Dennehy, who have much more screentime together and so can bounce off of each other in a way they couldn’t when mostly separate in the previous film, and because they’re working together this time their separate segments feel more connected.

  I also thought that the effects themselves were…

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  Review by Justin LaLiberty ★★★½ 3

  the type of maximalist sequel that I love, taking all the most ridiculous aspects of the first one and doubling down on them and then, for some reason, adding exploding cans of beans and an extended fight sequence with a remote control clown to the mix — also can’t state enough how much I love a cold open that turns out to be a movie within a movie, everything after that could be bad and I’d still recommend it so YMMV

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  Review by Geoff T ★★★ 6

  F/X wasn't exactly a film screaming for a sequel, but it happened anyway. Keep in mind that I wasn't even aware this existed until recently, in which I decided to double dip with a Blu-ray set featuring both films.

  Former makeup artist Rollie Tyler (Brian Brown) is back, now happily retired and living with his new girlfriend Zim (Rachel Ticotin from Total Recall), while making a living as a maker of high-tech toys. Meanwhile, Zim's ex-husband and NYPD officer Mike asks Rollie to help stakeout a serial killer using his FX skills, which Rollie (though initially hesitant) agrees. Lightning strikes twice however, as the stakeout goes wrong and Rollie again finds himself caught up in a conspiracy of murder and…

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  Review by Mark Costello ★★★★

  For the belated sequel five years later, Australian genre legend Richard Franklin took the reins and replaced the gritty, cine-literate noirish undertones with a sleeker, more fun and more blockbustery vibe that retains its predecessor’s charm as it turns up the spectacle. Brown and Dennehy both return, now retired and spending much more time in each other’s company, but find themselves caught up in the murder of a police detective that’s related to a dangerous conspiracy inexplicably involving the mob, the Vatican and Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel.

  More playful and leaning much more into the special effects trickery through some wonderfully inventive set pieces – a robotic clown fight is an absolute standout, as is the final home invasion by a…

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  Review by Deaner50 ★★★

  You guys remember F/X part one, right? The adventures of special effects expert Roland Tyler ( Bryan Brown) and PI Leo McCarthy ( Brian Dennehy) as they investigate the suspicious death of one of Tyler's friends. I think both movies were filmed in Toronto.
  The plot is convoluted a bit. It has police corruption, something about gold coins from the Vatican or Mafia I don't know. What's entertaining is some of the effects. Bryan Brown uses "Home Alone" type effects to fight off bad guys. There is a scene in a supermarket that is laughable when he fights off a hitman with household products. The two leads are good actors with a good buddy chemistry. The filmmaker's were going after that Lethal Weapon type money. It's a fine time wasting movie.

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  Review by anna nomaly ★★★

  There's probably no world in which F/X2 isn't an overblown retread of the original's hook, but with James Whale acolyte Bill Condon writing and genre journeyman Richard Franklin directing, the kitschy excess that results keeps its lackluster story afloat. These movies, somewhat overlooked even within the annals of cult cinema, are power fantasies of a most amiable sort, ones in which tech nerds and schlubby misanthropes get to be action heroes and ladies' men. If someone pitched that today, it would probably be toxic as hell, but there's a genteel purity to what Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy get to do over the course of the two films, and it's pretty irresistible.

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  Review by Joe ★★★½ 3

  In another era Rollie Tyler would have made a great pulp hero, a special effects wizard who the cops call in to solve impossible crimes through elaborate trickery. Instead we just have these two movies, the first of which I watched like ten years ago and remember little about, and this, a little flabby around the middle but basically a fun time, with Brian Dennehy (RIP) and Bryan Brown both cranking up the charm, and some imaginative set-pieces, many of which involve a telemetrically controlled clown toy that I'm gonna guess would flunk every child safety regulation in existence if it actually existed. Score by the great Lalo Schifrin is an absolute sax-n-synth banger, thank you Lalo!

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  Review by HKFanatic ★★★★ 2

  Screenwriting books like Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat!" received a bad rap after awhile, accused of reducing the art of movie-making to formulas and schematics, but formulas are something American movies used to do very well—"F/X2," by nature of being a sequel to a high-concept film, is very formulaic, but it also feels like a movie Movie and delights in giving the audience, as early and as often as possible, exactly what its high concept promises. (Meaning this charming Aussie special-FX whiz and a grizzled but likable New York cop are going to once again bust up a criminal conspiracy with a little movie magic!). This entry arrives from Hitchcock understudy Richard Franklin and, if it's not even better than the original, it's just as good, benefiting from more shared screentime for Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy.

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  Review by Peteypops 1000 Yard Stare ★★★★

  Look, I'm a man of simple pleasures. You give me more of what the last one threw down but with a bit more of a Hitchcock/De Palma vibe in the first half and I'm in like Flynn. Rollie with his movie magic horseshit coming in handy regardless of the environment and Leo (played once more with aplomb by My cinema dad Brian Dennehy) after seeing His love interest gunned down in front of him via mob drive by, having the emotional bounce back ability we should all strive for in life. Pouring one out for Velez, You were a real one.

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  Review by MushiMinion ★★★★

  Since I saw Effects yesterday, I figured I should watch F/X2 today. See what I did there?

  This film picks up a few years after the last F/X left off, with Bryan Brown's special effects artist-turned-action star continuing to show us how to really make geek chic. Dennehy is back as well and, given where the last film left off, the two Brian's have more opportunities to interact and play off each other this time. Though it isn't as fresh of a concept and they make the unfortunate choice to "fridge" one of the other returning characters, F/X2 remains a sterling example of lower-budget '90s filmmaking.

  There wasn't a third movie made, however there was a two-season F/X: The Series that aired in Canada from 1996 through 1998. No idea if it's any good, but it's 40-episodes worth of "effects against crime" if you were left wanting more.

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  Review by Keith G ★★★½

  "He's messy, but he's fun at parties!"

  Rollie Tyler (Bryan Brown) has a new career away from the movies, building high tech toys. He's also dating Kim (Rachel Ticotin) and gets on great with her son Chris (Dominic Zamprogna). Kim's ex, Mike (Tom Mason) is a cop who recruits Rollie to help him snare a serial killer preying on women. Mike is killed in the sting by someone else hiding out in the apartment it has been set up in. Gutted by Mike's death, Rollie realises that there’s more to it all than catching a killer, bad cops are at work here. Rollie reaches out to Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy), now a private eye, for help and to use some…