''Meatballs Part II'' is a 1984 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

and the in-name only

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

to the 1979 film '' Meatballs''. The film stars

Richard Mulligan Richard Mulligan (November 13, 1932 – September 26, 2000) was an American character actor known for his roles in the sitcoms ''Soap'' (1977–1981) and ''Empty Nest'' (1988–1995),. Mulligan was the winner of two Emmy Awards (1980 ...

Hamilton Camp Hamilton Camp (Born Robin S. Camp, 30 October 1934 – 2 October 2005) was a London-born actor and singer, who relocated to the United States with his family when he was a young child. He became an American folk singer during he 1960s, and ev ...

, John Mengatti,

Kim Richards Kim Erica Richards (born September 19, 1964) is an American actress, socialite, and television personality. She began her career as a child actress, and rose to prominence from her roles in '' Nanny and the Professor'', '' Escape to Witch Mount ...

, Archie Hahn,

Misty Rowe Mistella Rowe (born Misty Rose Thornton; June 1, 1952) is an American actress. She is best known for portraying the perky, squeaky-voiced blonde on the American television series ''Hee Haw'' for 19 years, often appearing as Junior Samples's assis ...

, and

John Larroquette John Bernard Larroquette (; born November 25, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for his starring roles in the NBC military drama series '' Baa Baa Black Sheep'' (1976–1978), the NBC sitcom '' Night Court'' (1984–1992; for which he rec ...

, and was directed by

Ken Wiederhorn Ken Wiederhorn is a former news and documentary editor at CBS and a film and television director, known mainly for the horror films '' Shock Waves'' and ''Return of the Living Dead Part II''. Other features include '' Eyes of a Stranger'', '' M ...

. The screenplay for the film was written by Bruce Franklin Singer based on a story by Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson.

Plot

The owner of Camp Sasquatch, Giddy, tries to keep his camp open after Hershy, the owner of Camp Patton, located just across the lake, wants to buy the entire lake for Camp Patton. Giddy suggests settling the issue with the traditional end-of-the-summer boxing match over rights to the lake. A tough, inner city punk named Flash is at Camp Sasquatch for community service as a counselor-in-training. Flash is recruited to box in order to save Sasquatch. Cheryl, a naive teen on whom Flash has set his sights, has never seen a " pinky", so her fellow teenage girl campers arrange for her to see a man naked. Meanwhile, the campers try to hide an alien from another planet who has been dropped off by his parents to learn Earth culture. He is nicknamed "Meathead" by the kids after repeating one of them saying "Me, Ted".

Cast

as Coach Giddy *

as Colonel Jack 'Batjack' Hershy * John Mengatti as Armand 'Flash' Carducci *

as Cheryl * Archie Hahn as Jamie / Voice of Meathead *

as Fanny *

as Lieutenant Felix Foxglove *

Paul Reubens Paul Reubens (; born Rubenfeld; August 27, 1952) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and children's entertainer. He is known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s, an ...

as Albert * Joe Nipote as 'Boomer' *

Jason Hervey Jason Robert Hervey (born April 6, 1972) is an American actor and television producer. He is best known for his role as Wayne Arnold on ''The Wonder Years''. Early life and acting Hervey was born in Los Angeles, the son of Marsha, a talent agent, ...

as Tommy * Ralph Seymour as Eddie *

Elayne Boosler {{Orphan, date=July 2021 Elayne is a female given name of French origin, which means "light". The name can be a variant of Elaine or Elena. Elayne may refer to: People * Elayne Angel *Elayne Arrington * Elayne Boosler (born 1952), American comed ...

as Mother *

Nancy Glass Nancy Glass is CEO of Glass Entertainment Group and formerly an American television and radio host. Career Nancy Glass is currently the owner of Glass Entertainment Group. In 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, her company was named as part of the Globa ...

as Daughter *

Felix Silla Felix Anthony Silla (January 11, 1937 – April 16, 2021), also credited as Felix Cilla, was an Italian actor and stuntman, known for his career in Hollywood in TV and film. Silla starting his career in the circus, but is best known especial ...

as 'Meathead' * Joaquin Martinez as Chief Rawhide * Blackie Dammett as Sergeant Paladin *

Donald Gibb Donald Richard Gibb (born August 4, 1954) is an American actor, best known for his roles as the hulking, dimwitted fraternity brother Ogre in several installments of the ''Revenge of the Nerds'' film series, as Kumite fighter Ray Jackson in '' B ...

as 'Mad Dog' * Jason Luque as Jai Styxxx

Reception

''Meatballs Part II'' grossed $2,515,268 the first week-end. The film grossed $5,410,972 domestically overall.

Critical response

Critic

Lawrence Van Gelder Lawrence Ralph Van Gelder (February 17, 1933 – March 11, 2016) was an American journalist and instructor in journalism who worked at several different New York City-based newspapers in his long career. Until 2010, he was senior editor of the Ar ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote in his review: "Trailing bits of ''

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...

'' and ''

E.T. ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (or simply ''E.T.'') is a 1982 American science fiction film produced and directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Melissa Mathison. It tells the story of Elliott, a boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dub ...

'' and using a plot device from the 1983 film '' Screwballs,'' which itself aspired to be ''

Porky's ''Porky's'' is a 1981 sex comedy film written and directed by Bob Clark about the escapades of teenagers in 1954 at the fictional Angel Beach High School in Florida. The film influenced many writers in the teen film genre and spawned two sequels: ...

'', ''Meatballs Part II'' shares with 1979's '' Meatballs'' not much more than a summer camp setting. This time - amid the efforts of two senior counselors to find sexual privacy, amid prurience and budding romance involving an innocent blonde preppy and a young punk given a choice of a counselor's job or reform school, and amid the efforts of some of the little campers to harbor an extraterrestrial - the future of Camp Sasquatch is in peril. ''

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

'' lists only two critics' reviews, both of which are negative. Lawrence Van Gelder of the ''New York Times'' said, "Pallid writing, awkward acting, familiar situations and tired jokes make the morons, wimps and losers of ''Meatballs Part II'' easy to pass up." ''TV Guide'' reported, "The difference between this movie and the original is Bill Murray, whose charm gave the first film its best moments and raised the mediocre plot into something mindless but sweet." Meanwhile, 675 users have scored the movie with an average of 2.5 out of 5; only 23% of those users reported liking "Meatballs Part II."

Release

''Meatballs Part II'' was released in theaters on July 27, 1984. The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

on March 4, 2011, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

References

Sources

External links

MeatballsOnline
Meatballs Movie Website * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meatballs Part Ii 1984 films 1980s sex comedy films American sequel films American sex comedy films 1980s English-language films Films directed by Ken Wiederhorn Films about summer camps TriStar Pictures films Teen sex comedy films 1984 comedy films 1980s American films