Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit Blu-ray Movie Review

A surprisingly charming headliner and a wholly mediocre follow-up act...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown June 28, 2012

I wasn't in any hurry to sit through Sister Act again after twenty years. When last I encountered the early '90s Whoopi Goldberg vehicle and runaway box office success, I was being dragged to the theater by my mother. Not exactly the kind of Friday Night Out an eighth grader hopes to find himself a part of. I remember very little about the movie itself -- just the glances over my shoulder on the way in and out of the lobby -- but, for obvious reasons, I walked away knowing I didn't like what Goldberg and company had to offer and, above all, knowing I wasn't going to mention that particular trip to the theater to anyone. Fast forward to 2012. When Disney announced the Blu-ray release of Sister Act and its 1993 sequel, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, I was... let's just say nonplussed. So imagine my surprise when I not only sat through the entirety of Sister Whoopi's original 1992 hit but actually found myself enjoying its high notes. Thoroughly. I can't say the same for Back in the Habit, a hurried cash-in if there ever was one, but let's be honest: only a handful of fans will be picking up this 2-movie collection for Sister Act's hip-hop-hapless sequel.

When Reno lounge singer Deloris van Cartier (Whoopi Goldberg) walks in on a cold-blooded murder ordered by her mobster boyfriend Vince LaRocca (Harvey Keitel), she realizes how precarious her position suddenly is and runs straight to the police. The State is building a larger case against LaRocca, though, and aren't ready to arrest him, dead chauffeur or no. While she waits, Deloris is reluctantly placed into temporary witness protection and stashed in the last place on God's green Earth anyone would look for her: an ailing inner city Roman Catholic Church in San Francisco. Posing as a nun, the newly dubbed Sister Mary Clarence does her best to keep a low profile but, after befriending several of the nuns in her convent, takes over as choir leader, cranks up the volume, and brings a new brand of soul to the neighborhood. Marrying gospel with R&B, early rock, and many a Motown classic, she creates quite a stir, filling the pews at St. Katherine's church for the first time in years, increasing the nuns' presence in the community, and inevitably drawing so much public attention that LaRocca learns of her whereabouts. But with Pope John Paul II set to visit St. Katherine's, Deloris has to decide whether to run and hide or stay and sing alongside her new Sisters.

And it's those Sisters -- Maggie Smith's cantankerous Mother Superior, Wendy Makkena's wilted wallflower Mary Robert, Kathy Najimy's boisterous Mary Patrick, and the rest -- that make the first Sister Act more than a one woman show. The plot is all a bit contrived, I'll admit. What semi-high-concept, feel-good flick in the '90s wasn't? But there's something to be said for the humor, chemistry and rivalries between Goldberg and her co-stars, be it her square-offs with Keitel's mafioso to her run-ins with his bumbling henchmen (Richard Portnow and Robert Miranda) to her battles with her superiors at St. Katherine's and shared moments with her newfound friends in the nunnery. The music certainly doesn't hurt and, unlike the sequel, falls neatly into place. Sister Act is more guilty pleasure than tried and true classic, but it's hard to resist the songs and their clever Sunday School rewrites. "I Will Follow Him," "Hail Holy Queen," "Shout" and a slew of essentials make St. Katherine's transformation that much more convincing (insofar as a 1992 genre pic can), not to mention entertaining (in an overly enthusiastic sort of way). "My Guy" and a few others fall flat, but that might have just been the ol' flushed faced, junior high embarrassment flaring up. Is it a perfect movie? Not by any stretch of the imagination. But it excels in all the right places, and doesn't leave much room for confusion as to how it made such a dent in the box office when it was first released. I'll even go so far as to say Sister Act still holds up, provided you're willing to... ahem, let go and let Whoopie.

But dear Sister Whoopie should have left well enough alone. Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit is a mess from top to bottom, start to finish, beginning to end. The original clipped along, contrivances and all, and did so without a hitch in its step. The sequel, though, loses its way from the outset, flinging Deloris all the way back to Nevada and just so her BFF-nuns can track her down, beg her to help them save a struggling school, and place her in charge of a fresh gang of misfits -- this time a harmlessly rough-n-tumble group of inner city school kids, including a young Lauryn Hill -- to inspire. The result is a sloppy blend of Dangerous Minds, The Bad News Bears and the first Sister Act that, despite the new digs, angelic voices and resistant-turned-eager students, is too much of a rehash to amount to much of anything. Comedy is shoehorned in with diminishing returns, don't-close-the-school drama is crammed in to fill the void left by Keitel and the mob, ludicrously neat and tidy subplots descend on the sequel like insatiable locusts, cartoonish priests and toothy would-be corporate villains lurk in every confession booth, and the biggest threat to Deloris' time at the school is being outed as a Las Vegas headliner... which, at this point, should be obvious to anyone and everyone in the Sister Act universe's Catholic Church.

Back in the Habit's saving grace is, of course, its songs and musical performances, however slapped together and disjointed the sequel's soundtrack may be. Isolated from the rest of the film, each one shines (some more than others). Sadly, the songs don't help that much, especially when director Bill Duke stumbles where Sister Act director Emile Ardolino made things look rather effortless and the sequel's trio of screenwriters fail where Joseph Howard succeeded. Even Goldberg and company look as if they know full well that Back in the Habit is slipping through their fingers and falling short of the original. While their performances in the first film were breezy and, one-note quirks aside, endearing, their return to the convent is decidedly desperate. Goldberg keeps her cool, grinning and belting out lip-synced tunes like a pro, but the sequel reeks of look at me, I'm a star! bravado (in character and out). The outward confidence doesn't match the inward qualities of the production, though, and it's clear that Back in the Habit was more a response to the unexpected success of the first film than a legitimate desire (or need) to tell a second story about Sister Mary Clarence's misadventures in Catholicism. The only good to come out of the critically drubbed sequel is that Touchstone (or rather Disney) didn't race to green-light a third Sister Act, which was no doubt in the works. Back in the Habit is really just a reminder as to what Sister Act could have been had the stars aligned differently. So embrace the original for what it gets right and put the sequel to pasture for what it gets so terribly, terribly wrong.

Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

First things first. Even with twenty years under its robe, Sister Act looks heavenly, which should assuage any fear that placing both films on a single BD-50 disc might somehow be a detriment to either movie's video quality. Aside from some at-times suspect shadow delineation and inherent veil-of-night noise, the film that started it all doesn't really have any sins to atone for. Colors are warm and pleasing, skintones are natural, Reno's nightlife and San Francisco's inner city graffiti is full of primary punch and vivid life, contrast is consistent throughout, and black levels, though a wee bit muted on occasion, are satisfying and resolute on the whole. Detail caught me pleasantly off guard as well. Fine textures are remarkably refined, edges are crisp and clean (without any ringing to speak of), and a faint, almost imperceptible veneer of grain is present at all times. Factor in the absence of artifacting, banding, aliasing or any other meddlesome anomaly or print blemish and you have a 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer worthy of whatever praise fans are willing to lay at Disney's high definition altar.

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and its 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer aren't as striking, but there's no evidence to suggests the sequel wasn't given its just due. Though softer than its predecessor, clarity and definition are still good (especially indoors), closeups are solid, textures are decently resolved, and little about the presentation could be labeled unreliable. Underwhelming perhaps, but unreliable, no. The film's palette is healthy (albeit a tad subdued), fleshtones are convincing, delineation is reasonably revealing, and black levels don't disappoint. Moreover, macroblocking, compression issues, print damage and other such issues are extremely limited, leaving very little to complain about other than some edge halos and uneven grain. If anything, differences in the films' sources are primarily to blame for the Sister Act presentation's superiority over its Back in the Habit counterpart. Both of Disney's encodes are sound, though; the first film just looks better than its sequel.

Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unfortunately, the 2-movie collection's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround tracks aren't nearly as effective as each mix's corresponding video presentation. Dialogue is clear and intelligible, sure, but a number of issues are present. Voices are occasionally full and healthy but often pinched and tinny, and sometimes even accompanied by a faint but noticeable noise floor. LFE output doesn't deliver either, with only a few instances of real power and presence (Lieutenant Souther's last-minute-save gunshot in Sister Act being the most memorable exception). The same could be said of the rear speakers, which are restrained to the point of sounding restricted. It doesn't help that interiors aren't all that different from one another. Auditorium acoustics are too cramped, classrooms too roomy, sanctuaries too small, convent quarters too spacious, and so on and so on. The films' songs and musical numbers fill the entire soundfield, particularly the St Katherine's choir's climactic performance for the Pope and the kids' hip-hopping rendition of "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" at the competition finals, but everything else is lucky to make it past the center channel, much less find its way to the rears. Directionality is imprecise, pans are somewhat stocky, and both films feature undeniably front-heavy soundscapes. Neither track is inadequate, and each one presumably represents its film's original sound design well. But both experiences are a far cry from what fans will be hoping for and an even farther cry from what audiophiles will be listening for.

Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disney's Sister Act double feature only includes two extras -- an "Inside Sister Act" featurette (SD, 13 minutes) and a Lady Soul music video (SD, 4 minutes) -- both of which are for the first film.

Sister Act / Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Forget Back in the Habit. Wipe it from your memory. Pretend it doesn't exist. Focus on the positive: the first Sister Act is worth revisiting or, if you've never had the (guilty) pleasure, worth a try. It isn't the be-all, end-all of '90s faux-musicals, but it does have its charms and it still manages to entertain all these years later. Just be warned: Disney's 2-movie collection Blu-ray release is a mixed bag, and not just because it includes Sister Act's maligned 1993 sequel. While both video transfers deliver (and then some in the case of the original film), both DTS-HD Master Audio tracks are a disappointment and both supplemental packages -- one clocking in at a whopping seventeen-minutes, the other clocking in at zero -- are a complete letdown. All things considered, Sister Act fans will find enough value in this 2-movie release to justify the cost of admission. Those on the fence, though, will be best served waiting for the price to drop.