SISTER ACT 2: BACK IN THE HABIT
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Lauryn Hill, Barnard Hughes, Kathy Najimy, James Coburn, Maggie Smith. Screenplay: James Orr & Jim Cruickshank and Judi Ann Mason. Director: Bill Duke.
Let's play a little "Jeopardy." The answer is, "140 million dollars." If you said the question was, "Why make a sequel to SISTER ACT?" you'd be right. It certainly wasn't because anyone had an actual idea or, if onscreen evidence serves, because Whoopi Goldberg was brimming over with enthusiasm to don the robes again. SISTER ACT was a simple but extremely pleasant entertainment which worked thanks to a solid set-up and lively performances. SISTER ACT 2: BACK IN THE HABIT strips away the last shred of energy, originality and fun, leaving only a few good musical numbers and a stupefyingly uninteresting story.
Goldberg again plays Deloris Van Cartier, who is enjoying a successful career as a Las Vegas singer when our story begins. Attending one performance are three old friends: Sister Mary Patrick (Kathy Najimy), Sister Mary Robert (Wendy Makkena) and Sister Mary Lazarus (Mary Wickes). They bring a request from Mother Superior (Maggie Smith) to return to San Francisco, rejoin the fold as Sister Mary Clarence, and help straighten out the streetwise students of St. Francis School. She naturally agrees, and finds herself music teacher to a sassy-but-good-hearted bunch of homegirls and homeboys, including acid-tongued Rita (Lauryn Hill). Unconventional methods ensue, leading Deloris to bump heads with St. Francis' principal, Father Maurice (Barnard Hughes), and diocese administrator Mr. Crisp (James Coburn), along the way trying to save the inner city school from closing down.
If the preceding summary betrays my antipathy, well, it was going to come out sooner or later. The irony of SISTER ACT 2 is that where so many recent sequels have done nothing by Xerox the original, there was at least an attempt in this case to do something different. Unfortunately, the attempt was dreadfully misguided. The charm of SISTER ACT was based on Goldberg's fish out of water frustration and the interesting collection of characters in the convent. There was a plausible reason for her to be there, and a genuine conflict. In SISTER ACT 2 there's no conflict, no plausibility and nowhere for the humor to come from. Screenwriters James Orr, Jim Cruickshank and Judi Ann Mason throw Goldberg into one of the most overused situations in films, the underachieving bunch of kids who just need a tough-but-understanding teacher with a fresh perspective. Even so, they at least could have played it for laughs, but there is nothing funny going on anywhere. A couple of the kids are flat out annoying, and the resolution of this story is telegraphed from the moment they appear. This is nothing but STAND AND DELIVER with a wimple.
What's truly depressing is that none of the returning characters even needed to be here. Kathy Najimy, Wendy Makkena and Mary Wickes stay pretty much in the background, because their characters haven't been given anything to do. Maggie Smith, who was so delightful as Goldberg's foil in the first film, is reduced to a cameo role; in her place are Barnard Hughes as the befuddled principal and James Coburn, and neither are up to the task. Coburn is ostensibly the villain of the piece, but there is no effort to define his character or his motivations, so he just becomes a scowling oaf. As for Goldberg herself, there is similarly little for her to do, and she looks bored. Anyone could have wandered into that classroom and it would have been the same movie. Maybe BEVERLY HILLS COP 3: AXEL TEACHES TRAFFIC SCHOOL. There's some small attempt to portray a balanced picture of inner city life, but basically it's Disney 'N the Hood. Lauryn Hill gives a nice performance as Rita, and I did enjoy the music. But SISTER ACT 2 is supposed to be a comedy, and I did not laugh *once*.
One more round of "Jeopardy." The answer is, "Nun." The question is, "How many sequels to SISTER ACT should have been made?"
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 bad habits: 3.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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