The Sting II (1983)

*Spoiler/plot- The Sting II, 1983. A group of con artists wish to revenge a friend's death by a mob boss and concoct a 'Sting' to teach the crime boss a lesson by taking his money and punishing him.*Special Stars- Jackie Gleason, Mac Davis, Terri Garr, Karl Malden, Oliver Reed.*Theme- Your friends are your best help.*Trivia/location/goofs- Sequel. Roller Coaster scenes filmed at Santa Cruz Beach Amusement park. Look out for: The famous band leader Harry James plays a band leader. Cassandra (Elivra mistress of the Dark) Peterson is the detective Sargent O'Malley's girlfriend.*Emotion- I love confidence tricksters films: 'Flim Flam Man', 'The Sting' and others. Unfortunately this film is more like a TV movie or B-movie 'Sting' version. The casting, acting writing, and staging is clearly second rate. Watching this plot, you can obviously see that the producers tried to duplicate everything good from the first film element by element. It's just too plodding, pedestrian, and boring. Another sad and bad film sequel that is uncelebrated or remembered.

sequels often disappoint and are often the poor relation of the first film. However, this is a very under-rated, well written and acted sequel. It had me guessing until the end and had me thinking about what happened several hours after it had ended, normally a good sign for me of a compelling, interesting movie. Completely different cast from the first film but there are no B-listers here. Sets were authentic for the 1940's too and in those days, low-level boxing bouts were ripe with tales of corruption and allegations of fighters taking dives on the whims of unscrupulous gamblers and the movie set the scene perfectly in my opinion. Ignore the low IMDb rating, its more significant for me that there are very few votes so in statistical terms, the sampling is too low. If you are after a cleverly done, fast moving tale about grifting and the art of the con that acts as a fine compliment to the original film, this ones for you!

...just kidding. This movie is the lamest sequel I've ever seen. By lame I don't mean stupid or worthless, but just, well, injured. This little guy was sick from script to screen, and the only redeeming piece this film has to offer is the music, which is actually very well done.If you're an avid fan of The Sting, I recommend seeing this *only* to reinforce how good of a pair Redford and Newman were together. Mac Davis is a freaking hick for crying out loud. The casting geniuses behind this mess must be kicking themselves. Redford had small-time charm as a grifter, but Davis is nothing more than a small-town bum. Jackie Gleason, in a surprise casting move, becomes Hooker's father's age. Really? They go from friends in the first film to a parent-child relationship in the second. Gleason is a grandpa and Davis has been reduced to a brainless child with a country accent. The editing is pretty miserable as well. If you happen to see this film, pay special attention to the scene where Hooker and Eddie go to the pen to see Gondorff--as the taxi pulls away, you can see the camera in the car's reflection! Amateurs. Teri Garr? Well, she's Teri Garr, and if you've seen her in most things you'll know that she's the same character. Whoever told her she could act was lying through his/her teeth. Check out a computer game she lends her "talents" to--The Black Dahlia--to see how limited her range is.Well, I give this film a 3/10--the set design was good and the music was quite good. Everything else adds up to a miserable experience that made me cringe every time I heard Mac Davis speak.

Good acting. Good story, but a little confusing at times. Very good photography. Too true of the dark side to be funny. No laughs, but none desired (I presume).