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Rollie is reunited with an old buddy, Leo McCarthy (Brian Dennehy), early in the story, though they had just gotten to know each other in the last minutes of the original. With reluctance Rollie agrees to the dangerous scheme, which results in further escapades involving dirty cops, long-lost art objects, the Mafia and the Catholic Church. The three maintain a cordial relationship with her ex-husband (Tom Mason), a police detective who asks Rollie to help set a trap for a killer.
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In the five years since "F/X," the special effects man has become a successful maker of high-tech toys, with which he delights his girlfriend (Rachel Ticotin) and her 11-year-old son (Dominic Zamprogna). Still, it's an enjoyable bit of smoke and mirrors, thanks to the decency and resourcefulness of its hero. In this second time around for Bryan Brown as special effects whiz Rollie Tyler, the story line is little more than a shiny hat for holding the high-tech rabbits.
#THE DEADLY ART OF ILLUSION MOVIE#
"FX2: The Deadly Art of Illusion" is gimcrack-packed, but as real movie magic goes, it's a little short on the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo. And Rollie and Leo make for an agreeable crime-fighting duo too.Children under 13 should be accompanied by a parent Yes, it’s by-the-numbers and ultimately predictable but its little moments of movie magic recall the inventive fun of the first film. Additionally, unlike the first film’s sense of homage to old-style prosthetics and movie special-effects (certainly when viewing it retrospectively), the sequel appears dated with its obvious hints towards early computer technology and robotics.į/X2’s admirable ambition to achieve pure escapism means it’s always going to remain lightweight and somewhat shy of substance.
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The ending is so convoluted it becomes unintentionally comical, and since fans of the first film will have already realised the similarities between the two, they’ll know exactly where it’s going leaving the finale struggling to genuinely surprise. Of course, F/X2 is a little too similar to its predecessor to really distinguish itself, and much like the first film, plot holes throw up too many questions. Likewise, when he and his family get trapped in a supermarket, he raids the shelves to utilise everyday household objects to evade the killer including turning baked beans into incendiary devices and weaponising cereal. When an intruder enters his house, Tyler dons the suit making for a unique duel. In one such sequence, Tyler, having given up the movie-making business to make children’s toys, creates a robot that can be controlled by a bodysuit. As a psychotic assassin attempts to destroy all evidence of the murder, including Rollie and his family, he and Leo must find the culprits before they too find themselves in a body bag.į/X2 taken on its own merits is a perfectly fine action-thriller – it has two likable leads, a handful of neat plot twists, some gratuitous nudity, several inventive action sequences, and plenty of wry humour – pretty much the staple diet of many a production line action film released in the late eighties and early nineties.įranklin knows exactly where the appeal of the F/X movies lie: Tyler’s special-effects getting him out of trouble. However, things go wrong and the cop is killed, leaving Rollie to pick up the pieces, only he begins to suspect corruption may be afoot.Ĭalling on the help of his friend Leo McCarthy (Dennehy), they discover that the murder took place because of an old case involving stolen gold coins that had been missing for decades. In the sequel, which is alternatively known as F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion, Rollie is again asked to help a cop catch a killer through his use of special prosthetic make-up and movie-effects trickery. But that does a significant disservice to the fun of this franchise with F/X2 rekindling most of the magic that made movie special-effects man Rollie Tyler’s first brush with villainy such a blast. If Robert Mandel’s original film was turned into a jigsaw after its theatrical exhibition, then Franklin has simply put it all back together again with the pieces in the correct places.
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You could dismiss F/X2 as an uninspired retread of the first film with director Richard Franklin essentially remaking the original 1986 film, bringing back its stars Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy in another re-run of police corruption, murder and special-effects.