It's always difficult reviewing the sequel to a low-budget cult film that has become an underground hit. Will they do better with a budget 1000X bigger than the original (as "Desperado" did as a followup to "El Mariachi"), or will the big stars and special effects just mess up a good thing?
Sadly, this critic feels that "FFL Catfight II" may be a victim of the latter phenomenon. Certainly casting Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan as Ravi (instead of the delivery boy from the New Delhi Deli) was a mistake. Dancing and ranting go together like ghee and water; just sayin'. Also, using special effects to make it seem as though Nabby's Space Brothers were real and not just a figment of his imagination was a mistake, as was casting Sacha Baron Cohen in the role of Maitreya. Some things are better left to the imagination. Kathy Bates may be nominated for an Oscar for her role as Judy; having all her teeth pulled so that she could do the "safe posting" blowjob scene was method acting to the max, way up there with De Niro gaining 40 pounds for "Raging Bull." I enjoyed Brad Pitt in the role of Curtis as well; we all knew he could chew gum after his recent baseball movie, but who knew he could do it while singing the blues? No "Catfight" film is complete without its...duh...catfights, and this sequel has a few of them. The "I'm more enlightened than you are" duel between Jim (played by Val Kilmer) and Ravi was a classic, right up there with the glow-in-the-dark condom duel in "Skin Deep" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky5u6vm44ak <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky5u6vm44ak> ). And of course having MaskedZebra (played by fellow Canadian Dan Ackroyd) take on all comers in a "I'm more first person ontologically sincere than you are" hockey match was inspired, even if he did end up pucking himself by refusing to quit swinging every time the director yelled "Cut." Splicing in occasional single frames of Yifu's fantastic art postings every so often was interesting, but IMO did not work as well as David Fincher doing the same with a split-second subliminal penis shot at the end of "Fight Club." I enjoyed the Plaster Casters Forever song & dance number starring Emily, Obbajeeba and Judy, even though it pushed the envelope of good taste, and I quite enjoyed SeventhRay wandering through almost every scene trying to make sense of it all like Diogenes looking for an honest man. But on the whole I thought the original low-budget "FFL Catfight" might have been the better film. There was more lean-and-hungry creativity to it, and fewer decisions that seemed to pander to a larger, less discriminating audience. The scene in which the mob tries to lynch the Vaj character while carrying torches and chanting "Liar! Liar! Liar!", only to be foiled at the last minute by the Compassion Police, was completely unbelievable. Every viewer of the first film knows there is no compassion on FFL, much less a police squad to enforce it. In summation, I think your weekend movie allowance might be better spent on a re-viewing of the original film. The *only* decision made in the sequel that seemed better was casting George Clooney as Turq, and letting Michael Fassbender act as his stunt double for the full frontal nudity shots. Now *that* was inspired.
