The Newton family consisting of George, Alice, Ryce, Ted, Emily(played once again by Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt, Nicholle Tom, Christopher Castille, and Sarah Rose Karr respectively), and Beethoven are all still living together with their St. Bernard dog Beethoven. Beethoven still routinely escapes his enclosure and has a chance encounter with female St. Bernard, Missy and her kindhearted owner Brillo (Kevin Dunn, uncredited). The three are interrupted by the arrival of Brillo's cruel ex-wife Regina (Debi Mazar) and her loutish boyfriend Floyd (Chris Penn) who take possession of the dog until Brillo gives her $50,000 in alimony payments. Beethoven and Missy continue their relationship unknown to Regina, which results in a litter of 4 puppies and when Regina leaves town with Missy, Beethoven is helped by the Newton children in caring for the puppies until solution can be found, with hijinks aplenty in tow.
The first Beethoven from producer Ivan Reitman and screen writers Amy Holden Jones and John Hughes (under his pseudonym Edmond Dantes) was an unexpected hit grossing just shy of $150 million worldwide against a modest $20 million budget. With a rate of return that impressive a sequel was fast tracked for the following year with most of the key cast returning. While I thought the first Beethoven was familiar, I gave it credit for being well made, cute, and having a well trained canine actor who helped give the titular dog a personality that was a lovable engine of chaos. Pretty much everything (save some exceptions) audiences liked from the first film is on full display here....and really not much beyond that.
I will give credit to Beethoven's 2nd that unlike a lot of comedy sequels, the movie doesn't reset to square one with George hating Beethoven once again so we can have a repeat of the schtick from the first film. George is on good terms with Beethoven (to the point that George doesn't even really interact with him) and he's integrated into the family. Unfortunately the fact that George no longer has animosity towards Beethoven robs the movie of comic friction so there's no conflicts instigating humorous set ups and pay offs like in the first film. Debi Mazar and Chris Penn seem like they're poised to be the comic foils in the film (and also the villains following complaints received about Dean Jones' creepy performance in the first film) and not one are Mazar and Penn not threatening as antagonists, they're also not all that funny as they're basically a lower rent version of the wealthy unscrupulous snobs David Duchovny and Patricia Heaton played in the first movie.
Along with the puppies the movie adds five new dog characters to the cast with no idea what to do with them. Missy is basically just a objective for Beethoven to find while the puppies (who all have names but none I can remember) are basically chaos engines who create conflict. Once George finds out about the puppies we basically get a rehash of the George getting annoyed by Beethoven shenanigans only this time with puppies (even doing a variation on the dogs covered in the mud that's not as funny as the original). While Beethoven isn't the best written film, it worked because it gave the dog a larger than life personality that played off well against Charles Grodin's delivery and we just don't have that same level of setup and pay off here The movie is also lousy with coincidences with Ryce's would be boyfriend, Regina and Floyd, and the Newton family all on vacation in proximity around the same lake for 4th of July weekend with all of them just basically pratting around until we get an artificial climax that feels like a toothless version of Benji: The Hunted. While Dean Jones did go to ridiculous extremes for the sake of obtaining that particular dog for the sake of testing ammunition on, it at least gave us proper setup, build up, and pay off that made the plot point easy to swallow. Regina and Floyd feel like placeholders and just aren't all that engaging.
Beethoven's 2nd is what it is: a cynical attempt capitalize on an okay movie by giving audience more of what was in the first with no added twist or new elements. While the actors are fine, and the dogs are reasonably well trained, the novelty from the first film is missing as it just putters aimlessly from setpiece to setpiece in what's essentially the first film without the effort.
The first Beethoven from producer Ivan Reitman and screen writers Amy Holden Jones and John Hughes (under his pseudonym Edmond Dantes) was an unexpected hit grossing just shy of $150 million worldwide against a modest $20 million budget. With a rate of return that impressive a sequel was fast tracked for the following year with most of the key cast returning. While I thought the first Beethoven was familiar, I gave it credit for being well made, cute, and having a well trained canine actor who helped give the titular dog a personality that was a lovable engine of chaos. Pretty much everything (save some exceptions) audiences liked from the first film is on full display here....and really not much beyond that.
I will give credit to Beethoven's 2nd that unlike a lot of comedy sequels, the movie doesn't reset to square one with George hating Beethoven once again so we can have a repeat of the schtick from the first film. George is on good terms with Beethoven (to the point that George doesn't even really interact with him) and he's integrated into the family. Unfortunately the fact that George no longer has animosity towards Beethoven robs the movie of comic friction so there's no conflicts instigating humorous set ups and pay offs like in the first film. Debi Mazar and Chris Penn seem like they're poised to be the comic foils in the film (and also the villains following complaints received about Dean Jones' creepy performance in the first film) and not one are Mazar and Penn not threatening as antagonists, they're also not all that funny as they're basically a lower rent version of the wealthy unscrupulous snobs David Duchovny and Patricia Heaton played in the first movie.
Along with the puppies the movie adds five new dog characters to the cast with no idea what to do with them. Missy is basically just a objective for Beethoven to find while the puppies (who all have names but none I can remember) are basically chaos engines who create conflict. Once George finds out about the puppies we basically get a rehash of the George getting annoyed by Beethoven shenanigans only this time with puppies (even doing a variation on the dogs covered in the mud that's not as funny as the original). While Beethoven isn't the best written film, it worked because it gave the dog a larger than life personality that played off well against Charles Grodin's delivery and we just don't have that same level of setup and pay off here The movie is also lousy with coincidences with Ryce's would be boyfriend, Regina and Floyd, and the Newton family all on vacation in proximity around the same lake for 4th of July weekend with all of them just basically pratting around until we get an artificial climax that feels like a toothless version of Benji: The Hunted. While Dean Jones did go to ridiculous extremes for the sake of obtaining that particular dog for the sake of testing ammunition on, it at least gave us proper setup, build up, and pay off that made the plot point easy to swallow. Regina and Floyd feel like placeholders and just aren't all that engaging.
Beethoven's 2nd is what it is: a cynical attempt capitalize on an okay movie by giving audience more of what was in the first with no added twist or new elements. While the actors are fine, and the dogs are reasonably well trained, the novelty from the first film is missing as it just putters aimlessly from setpiece to setpiece in what's essentially the first film without the effort.