Wednesday, August 08, 2018

Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2

Reviewed by C.J. Darlington
 
"...if you enjoyed the first installment you’ll probably enjoy Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2."


If you saw the first Beverly Hills Chihuahua movie, you’ll have a good idea what to expect in this straight to DVD sequel. Cute dogs, silly antics, an outrageous plot, and did we mention cute dogs? Lead pooches Papi and Chloe have just gotten married and soon have a brood of five little pups to keep them on their toenails. Dad Papi (voiced perfectly once again by George Lopez) takes it all in stride and every night, with the best of intentions, tells his little ones stories of the Chihuahua warriors of long ago. The only problem is the puppies take the stories literally and get into all sorts of mischief. Poor Papi ends up in the dog house more than once for filling the puppies’ heads with grand ideas.

But it’s not the dogs that need saving this time around. The parents of Papi’s owner Sam are about to be evicted from their beloved home. After several attempts to make things right with the bank, it's not looking good. But when a pack of determined Chihuahuas is on your side, how can you lose?
With the original grossing almost 95 million in 2008, it was at first surprising to see the sequel going straight to DVD. But with little of the same star power attached, it makes sense. At least Papi kept his original voice. Chloe and Delgado did not, though it’s not too distracting as their new voices are similar enough. However, it was disappointing to see no human actors reprise their roles from the first film. Susan Blakely takes over for Jamie Lee Curtis as Aunt Viv, but she only appears briefly in one or two scenes. Most of the human acting was actually rather wooden, but there were a few supporting characters who made things interesting, namely Elaine Hendrix as the owner of a snotty French Poodle and the cat loving bank clerk. Also, Morgan Fairchild does justice to a dog show commentator alongside French Stewart.
The best part of the movie was seeing cool German Shepherd Delgado again. The subplot involving his two estranged police dog sons was a nod to every melodramatic father/son movie ever made, but it actually worked here and was a touching addition.
All in all, if you enjoyed the first installment you’ll probably enjoy Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, especially if you’re a dog lover or a kid. It’s clean entertainment with a good message about love and family. Just don’t expect too much, and you’ll have an enjoyable family movie night.

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