Product: The Two Jakes [VHS] (1990)
Rating: 5.0
As Good As It Gets
Usually sequels are not as good as the original films they follow...one need only think of,say"Jaws"to get this point..But with "The Two Jakes"the sequel to"Chinatown"the sequel is every bit as good as the original...The film follows the main charecter from "Chinatown",detective Jake Gittes,who has a new and disturbing case that has threads reaching back into time and inter-connecting with the original plotline..Many of the stars from the original reprise thier roles,most notably Jack Nicholson,who also directed..At the time of its original theatrical release the critics were not kind to the film,or to the director/star...Perhaps this was to have been expected,inasmuchas "Chinatown"ranks high on the list of"Best ever"films..on the other hand most professional film critics are not only herd animals,who too often follow one another's lead like dogs sniffing each other's rear ends but have little regard for what the public thinks..if one or two"Famous"critics get a bug up thier backsides about a film it is a sure bet that the rest,afraid of being contrary,.will follow suit..also,having to sit through films of all sorts make these people jaded...they expect novelty,and are disappointed by stories,direction,acting,ect that the rest of us find quite entertaining...And most professional critics seem to find the most obscure,often foreign films to be spectacular,while most normal people do not,as if cutting edge films about,say,three men who have hernias and like bowling together on friday nights offers the very zenith of acting and film-making achievement...So forget what the professional critics might have thought about"The Two Jakes",it was a dandy film...You won't be disappointed...