Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		2.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		1.5

Problem Child 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Problem Blu-ray.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 23, 2018

It’s not as if the original Problem Child was some sort of Comedy legend (Robert De Niro would beg to differ) but it was (and remains) a perfectly serviceable laugher with spirited performances, quality character definition and interaction, good situational humor, and a few touching moments. Problem Child 2 attempts to recreate the same magic but ultimately yields much sloppier results. While the main cast returns, the main humor does not. New additions are thrown on top of old ideas, and even as the screenwriters have made a match for Junior, and even as the pair of third-grade troublemakers share good chemistry, the film lacks the spirit, timing, and fun factor the original offered, often in droves.

Toilet humor.

After the Universal logo open -- still the best in the business and the highlight high-point for this film -- the movie just sort of throws the viewer into the movie with Junior (Michael Oliver) and Ben Jr. (John Ritter) in the car and ditching town, their old lives, and all the people who have wronged them for a new beginning. The duo winds up in Mortville, which is the divorce capital of the world. There is a 50-1 female-to-male ratio, and Ben Jr. is a hot commodity with the ladies. Junior, meanwhile and as problematic as ever, is headed for third grade but it turns out his new principal is none other than his old friend Peabody (Gilbert Gottfried) who is mortified to see the demon-child again in his midst. In an effort to move him through the system as quickly as possible, he promotes Junior to the sixth grade where it turns out he’s smarter than some of his classmates. Meanwhile, he does all he can to fight off the ladies who are throwing themselves all over his adopted father. He also meets his match of the fairer sex, a classmate named Trixie (Ivyann Schwan), who is as much the troublemaker as her new “friend.” And as fate would have it, she has a sweet mother, Annie (Amy Yasbeck), the school nurse who also happens to be single.

The film plays predictably. Chaos ensues as a result of nearly every scene, with Junior scheming to keep his father from finding a new love and fending off a local troublemaker who is every bit the “problem child” herself. But situational comedy alone does not a movie make. The script is of grade school level. There’s no charm to it, the characters refuse to grow, the humor is stale, and there’s no feel for organic flow and development of each routine. Whereas the first film paced well and managed to balance scene prep and scene reward, Problem Child 2 feels as if the writers wrenched in either a lead-in to a gag or thought of a gag and crafted some random scenario to make it happen. The core story revolves around Ben Jr.’s quest for love in a new town, and Junior predictably goes out of his way to ruin the moment: calling a date’s ex to start a brawl in a public setting, wiring the doorbell to electrocute a potential mate, and so on and so forth. The wicked stepmother storyline becomes the second-half propellant as a local socialite (Laraine Newman) randomly decides to win over Ben Jr. at all costs, throwing money and sex appeal his way for no real good reason. Only Junior sees through it, of course, but the character is just a prop to create opportunity for humor and tension whereas his mother in the first film was a more fully realized character foil for the boy to destroy.

John Ritter does what he can to save the movie with an engaged, spirited performance, recapturing the same cadence as that which made his work in the original film so successful. Michael Oliver is hindered by the lesser script but gives the film an honest effort as the admittedly monotone Junior who knows only one gear and never really escapes the persona in the film’s stabs at more tender drama. The rest of the cast acquits itself admirably enough, hindered more by the script and less by any lack of performance art talent. Ultimately, the movie works well enough as a completely mindless time killer capable of eliciting some scattered laughs. It’s not worth sitting down for a concentrated watch, but as background noise, things could be worse.

Problem Child 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Problem Child 2's release marks another midlevel-at-best, poor-at-worst catalogue release from Universal. It's not the absolute worst the studio has produced, but it's still clearly just the DVD transfer slapped onto Blu-ray with the studio banking on the added resolution to "improve" the image. It's not quite as much a lost cause as other recent Universal releases, but it's close. Details are flat and pasty, with skin textures particularly egregious but everything lacking anything resembling textural accuracy. The image's artificiality isn't quite as atrocious as that seen on, say, The Wedding Date, but there's certainly a loss of detail due to digital processing that renders everything texturally inorganic. Colors are poorly saturated. Flesh tones are particularly pale, and bright shades of red, the blue accents in the new house, and other colors lack nuance. Look at the sky at the 34:30 mark. It's entirely blown out, blotchy and noisy (as is the entire movie, for that matter), but its overwhelming over saturation destroys the scene (though it's not like this is some major artistic endeavor anyway). Black levels teeter on crush. A few other random bugaboos occur, the most obvious coming at the 22:14 mark as the image shifts to a low-res video shot for a moment. This transfer doesn't quite reach the level of "abomination," but it's hardly good, either. The movie was never going to have some kind of major restoration work done, but one must wonder why even release it, and so many of these other upscaled DVDs, to Blu-ray in the first place.

Problem Child 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The included two-channel DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless soundtrack offers acceptable musical clarity and width. The opening Rock song plays with commendable, if not only essential, verve and finds a decent sense of weight even without the added benefit of a dedicated subwoofer channel. Sound effects push out to the sides, too, opening up when Junior plays a video game near the 25-minute mark, for example, with stock vintage gaming bloops and beeps engaging out to the further left and right reaches. A few discrete effects stretch on out there, too. Dialogue clarity is fine, but there are some minor sync issues scattered through. This track is hardly perfect, but hooray for something reaching the level of "serviceable" on this disc.

Problem Child 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Problem Child 2 contains no supplemental content. No top menu is included, and the pop-up menu only offers an option to turn subtitles on or off.

Problem Child 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"The sequel that should never have been," one Blu-ray.com reviewer said of Problem Child 2 when reaching out to share his condolences for receiving this review assignment. The movie is, indeed, a stinker, not the smelliest or most worthless sequel ever made but certainly a quickly conceived film with stale ideas and largely flat execution. The original is a fun escape, this is just background noise with a few fun zingers thrown in. It can be an enjoyable venture, in spurts, but it's certainly not worth a dedicated, full-attention watch. Universal's Blu-ray is basically the DVD slapped onto a Blu-ray with "upgraded" two-channel lossless audio. No extras are included (shocker). Skip it, particularly at the ~$20 price range. Half that? Maybe. A quarter of that? Sure.