This picks off after the last film, with Pa Kettle having won a competition that takes him to New York. They also get involved with escaped gangsters – stock characters who always turn up in these sort of movies (indeed, I’m surprised there were no gangsters in Ma and Pa Kettle). In a rather convoluted set up a gangster volunteers to look after the kids so Ma and Pa to go to New York and drop off a baggage (not really believable). In another contrivance, the bag goes missing. This results in a lot of irritatingly repetitive scenes with gangsters trying to get the bag off Pa – but there’s no point to it because it’s not the right bag (Pa buys a replacement).
Ma and Pa meet their son and daughter in law – the son Tom is trying to sell his incubator, mentioned in the previous film. They’re having marriage problems due to Tom’s jealousy over his wife Kim’s ex, resulting in a lot of un-interesting squabbling.
There is some fun stuff: Ma does battle with pancake, the radio station that plays ‘Music to Milk By’, Pa shows a gangster around the old homestead, 30 Rock fans will enjoy the scene where the Kettles visit 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Kettles go for a ride around Central Park (and it flashes through your mind that these two must have had a thriving sex life), Ma on an exercise bike, Charles McGraw and Jim Backus as gangsters.
But generally the action is mild – you’d think the Kettles in New York City would be automatic comedy gold, and so evidently did the writers, because they didn’t seem to put much effort into the script. Indeed, much of the comedy is surprisingly carried by the support players – comic gangsters, cops and shop assistants. (Dad and Dave Come to Town is far superior). There are plenty of good ideas floating around – gangsters think Pa is a gangster, a businessman thinks he is a tycoon – but these aren’t developed properly.
Some of the scenes are really badly structured – eg Pa being cross examined by cops for a crime is a funny concept… but they’re doing it here for a silly crime (poisoning monkeys). It would have been far better for everyone – cops and gangsters – thought Pa was a big time gangster or something (there are hints in this line, but they didn’t run with the concept).
Also, around an hour into the film, the rich guy who picks up the real bag thinks that Pa is an underwear millionaire – a fine idea, enough for a film… but introduced far too late (and you can’t have a contrivance that Kettle is the surname of an underwear manufacturer that late in the piece.) (NB though it is funny Pa admitting he’s the underwear king because he’s in underwear.)
And it’s funny that the gangster who looks after the kids is tortured by the kids… but the thing is, he doesn’t deserve to be tortured. The bank robbers in Home Alone deserved to get pummelled because they were robbing the house, but not this guy. It wouldn’t have been hard to establish, just have him be really mean to the kids. As it is, the Kettle kids are just mean.
Final contrivance – the Kettles turn up at a high society do (which isn’t even that high society) and they happen to run into the rival for Kim Kettle’s affections. Lazy. Oh, and the Kettles are never in jeopardy, despite gangsters being involved. Just because a film is a formula picture doesn’t mean you can phone it in.
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