I guess the original made too much money that 20th Century Fox felt it was too irresistible to not return to the well. William Goldman never talks about this film but he was heavily involved as a producer as well as working on the script. It was directed by Richard Lester, who was going to do Goldman's The Princess Bride (and maybe The Sea Beast too).
It's quite well made, looks handsome and all that. But there doesn't seem to be a lot of point to it. Who cares how they met? The tone is similar to the first, a sort of jokey seriousness... but without them dying it doesn't have the same emotional weight. There's no Etta Place either. William Katt and Tom Berenger are fine but they're not Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
Why didn't they have a decent female role? Jill Eikenberry appears as Butch's wife, and other to his two kids... but it's not a very long sequence and the fact he just takes off and leave her makes him seem like a drongo, and old. Why not use the Bassett sisters?
Why not give them fiercer villains? There's Jake Lefors (Peter Weller) who pops up at the beginning and end but he's just doing his job.They have a scene where they note the railroad uses child labor but that's just in passing.
It's so hard to care. There's sequences which don't build, like in the snow when they try to transport medicine to help... and fail. The final train robbery you don't care. I mean, what's the point?
Maybe this would've worked with them as really young kids, like teenagers - Butch being tutored by Mike Cassidy. They could have made up a meeting with Sundance.
It's one of the most 'whatever' movies I can remember having seen.
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