My Girl 2

Plot synopsis:
Set nearly two years after the first film, in the spring of 1974, Vada Sultenfuss (Chlumsky) sets out on a quest to learn more about her deceased biological mother. She has matured over the past year and a half (since the first film), going from the spunky, eleven-year-old hypochondriac to a lively, yet more serious teenager seeking independence. Her father, Harry (Aykroyd), has since married Shelly DeVoto (Curtis), whom he dated in the first film; and they are expecting a baby. They still live in the Sultenfuss' funeral home in Madison, Pennsylvania, while her Uncle Phil (Masur) has moved to Los Angeles, where he now works as a mechanic. Gramoo, Vada's grandmother, has since died; and she still wears the mood ring that her late best friend Thomas J. died while retrieving it for her.
To accommodate the new baby, Vada moves out of her bedroom and into Gramoo's old room, which has been renovated, and it brings further problems with adjustment. Vada even thinks about getting her own apartment while spending a night out with her father.
Vada is given a school assignment to write an essay on someone she admires but has never met. She decides to write about her mother but has few sources to go on, which are all confined in a small box. Among its contents are programs of plays her mother was in (she was an aspiring actress), a passport, and a mystery paper bag with a date scribbled on it. Vada expresses her desire to travel someday, so Shelly concocts a plan for her to travel to Los Angeles during her spring break, where she can stay with her Uncle Phil and do research on her mother, who lived in L.A. growing up. Harry does not go along with the idea, believing Vada is too young to be traveling by herself, and fearing what might happen to her in Los Angeles. Eventually, he lets her take the five-day trip.
On arriving in L.A., Vada finds herself confronting a boy her age named Nick (O'Brien), who comes to pick her up at the airport instead of Uncle Phil. Nick is the son of Uncle Phil's girlfriend Rose (Ebersole), and he is asked to show Vada around the city. While annoyed at first about sacrificing his own spring break, he helps Vada with the difficult search of learning more about her mother. Their relationship, which starts out reluctantly, gradually grows stronger.
Vada and Nick meet several people who knew her mother. Some of the things she finds out don't sit well with her, such as her mother being suspended from school for smoking. Two of these acquaintances have a look at that paper bag from Vada's small box of memories about her mother, but neither can decipher it. When another blurts out the name Jeffrey Pommeroy, thinking that he is Vada's father but of course isn't; Vada is crushed, and wonders why her father never mentioned this person. Eventually, but with some hesitation, she goes to see Jeffrey (John David Souther), her mother's first husband. He provides Vada with valuable information to help with her assignment, including home movies and the answer behind the date written on the paper bag. An a cappella rendition of the Charlie Chaplin song "Smile" appears in the home movies, sung by her mother (Angeline Ball).
Meanwhile, Uncle Phil is trying to prove his love to Rose, after a man who owns a fancy car that supposedly needs many tune-ups tries to sweep her away. When Uncle Phil gets the courage to show what she means to him, he proposes.
As Vada is about to return home, she and Nick share a final moment at the airport, ending in a kiss. Also, she receives earrings from him as a gift (she gets her ears pierced while in L.A., even though Nick is against the "barbaric custom"). When she returns home, she realizes Shelly had just had a baby boy, who has a crying spell. As Vada holds him, she sings "Smile" to her new half-brother to calm him, the same song she heard her mother singing in the home movies. Her essay on her mother gets an A+.
A brief scene where Nick sees Vada wearing a mood ring, which has ties to her late friend, Thomas J., also appears in the movie for continuity.

Tags: home movie

Review:
In my eyes, the main storyline is not the search for the mother, but the discovery of those first loving feelings, the changing of the body, the transformation from childhood to adolescence, in short: it is a story about growing up.
Something we all have gone through....its such a "feeling good" film: all people are friendly, there are no sorrows...It gets a 7/10 (which is a lot coming from me, believe me).
Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis play her father and stepmother while Richard Masur and Christine Ebersole co-star as her uncle and potential aunt.
The beautiful Angeline Ball has a small role as her mother in flashbacks.This is just a solid drama, as good or better than the original.
The adventures of the two 13 year-olds as they go from person to person searching for information about Vada's mother compels the story along.
But the reason why I love this movie is because of the way we see Vada Sultenfuss has changed over the course of a few years.
I also love Austin O'Brien in this movie; to date, he has not been in anything memorable, but I think the role of Nick was suited for him.
It is, as another reviewer remarked, worth it to watch the movie countless times just to hear her sing "Smile." I love all of this movie, though, so I would advise seeing it..
No, MG2 isn't as good as the first movie, but how often are sequels better than the first?
(I will make a case for Toy Story 2.) Anyway, the acting is strong (especially Anna Chlumsky, who is wonderful again as Vada), the plot of Vada researching her mother's life is very interesting, but the subplots are a little pedestrian and cliched.
I read a review that claimed Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis were "sleepwalking" in their roles, but in all fairness, they didn't really have much to do in this movie.
I love My Girl, it is very charming and poignant, and as far as sequels go, My Girl 2 is good but not great.
The script does fall into cheese occasionally, the story is predictable, some of the direction lacks tightness and the pace is dull in the middle.However, My Girl 2 is beautiful to watch with lovely scenery and pleasant photography, and the soundtrack is pleasant on the ears.
Austin O'Brien shows an able chemistry with her, and Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd are also solid.
The film also has an atmosphere that keeps true to My Girl, making some scenes that strived to be heart-breaking genuinely so.Overall, it wasn't a great movie like the first My Girl but I liked it for the performances.
That was the reason the audience were left heartbroken at the sudden death of a major character.The story continues as Shelly is pregnant and Vada realizes that she barely knows her late mother.
Thus, she decides to leave for LA to get to know more of her mother.My Girl, focused more upon how Vada grew up in an funeral home with death all around and how she matured.
For me at least, I think this movie destroys the characters created in the previous film.
Vada is now mature, but it was her innocence which made me love the previous film.
My Girl should have been left alone.On the other hand if you look at it as a standalone film i.e. no connection with the previous film, it is actually a good film.
If someone sees this film before the previous one, they might like it.Direction: Weak.Script/Story: Average.Acting: Anna is mature, and has acted just fine.
Vada almost immediately decides to write about her mother, but realises she only knows a little bit about her.
Vada then manages to persuade her father to let her go to LA to stay with her Uncle Phil  and do some research on her mother.
When he finally agrees, he Vada go on a long and difficult, but interesting search for facts about her mother.Anna Chlumsky, Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd are all back here and of course the arrival of Austin O'Brien.
I'm not a big fan of any of the actors in this movie, particularly Austin O'Brien (Last Action Hero), and I didn't really like the original My Girl, but I have to say that this movie was better than expected.
Something just touched me about Vada (Anna Chlumsky) trying to find out about the mother she never knew; it was honest and poignant.
Anna Chlumsky reprises her role of preteen Vada Sultenfuss from 1991's "My Girl", an inquisitive Pennsylvania schoolgirl who, spurred on by an English class writing assignment, flies to Los Angeles by herself to hopefully learn more about her late mother--a budding actress who died in childbirth--from her uncle.
Sloppy, excruciatingly thin coming-of-age nonsense, unconvincingly set in the 1970s, hopes to pick up the slack (and wow sixth-grade girls) by introducing shaggy-haired Austin O'Brien as a potential love-interest for Chlumsky's Vada (her previous puppy love amour, Macaulay Culkin, having expired in the first installment).
This wasn't a bad film, although it was kinda pointless, it did play itself well, and had great acting.
She is assisted by the son of Phil's girlfriend, Nick Zsigmond.The lost of Macaulay Culkin in the first movie is tough enough.
As much as I loved the original, this film isn't as emotionally hard hitting for young children..
Nick is played by Austin O'Brien who becomes Vada's childhood romance.
If they put a really attractive guy to play Nick instead of an average guy like Austin, people would stray away from the story.
I love this movie and it makes me happy every time I watch it.
I wish that they had come out with a My Girl 3, but I guess leaving the story where it was tied up a lot of loose end anyways.
I watched this film for the simple reason that I (along with everyone else in this country) fell in love with My Girl.
The sequel was almost a complete disappoinment, except for the five minutes at the end where Angeline Ball as Veda's mother Maggie Muldovin plays the life loving, free-spirited, angel that makes the whole movie worthwhile.
I decided to see MY GIRL 2 just to know what happens next, The plot was okay a little cheesey, but it wasn't as touching as the original.
A Good family film, I'd give the first one 9/10 and MY GIRL 2 6/10..
it was good by itself, it didnt need a sequel especially one as bad as this, no offence to the actors but they should have left it alone, it was pointless in making and a waste of time and money.
Its like making a second Moulin Rouge or something, it was a cute idea for a movie, just not as a sequel to a good movie like my girl..
Dan Ackroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis and Anna Chlumsky return as Vada the hypercondriac flies to Los Angeles in hopes of finding out about the mother she never knew.This time, her boy friend (and then boyfriend) is played by Austin O'Brien (The Babysitters Club Movie) as Nick.Not in anyway as good as the original 1991 feature, 'My Girl', but okay as a family film.
As a child, you do not have such expectation that it should be as great or "deep" as the first movie, and that's maybe why I love it.
I liked the original My Girl, but I loved this sequel more.
The movie is very personal that you feel Vada is you or your best friend..
In conclusion, this movie really touched me and made me feel good, and I highly recommend it if you're a fan of Dan Aykroyd, Anna Chlumsky, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christine Ebersole, or Austin O'Brien..
It doesn't have any big stunts, or major stars(unless you count the parents).The story is about a girl Vada, who doesn't know much about her mother, who died before Vada was old enough to remember much about her.
Anna Chlumsky as Vada is simply too good.
Austin O'Brien as Nick is quite sarcastically funny, and is a good foil for Vada.I rate this movie 10/10.
Films like "My Girl" are good not because they do well at the box office.
Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis are left with token appearances as Anna Chlumsky (no longer cute at all) goes to California to find out about her late mother who died giving birth to her.
My Girl 2 i think was a good movie.
More movies should be this good, definitely better than the original..
My girl 2 Anna Chlumsky has made us regret that in her carrier till now  has only played in 6 movies.It was one of the best movie I have ever seen.
Anyway the movie which I absolutley reccomend you to see is about a girl, Vada Sultenfuss, who has to do a report on somebody she never met.
Without her father knowing she buys a ticket and has to go Los Angeles, to his uncle Phil where her mother was born to find out more.In the airport she is picked by a boy named Nick, who turns out to be the son of Phil's fiance.
When you see the ad/movie in video store of MY GIRL 2 you're like, how on earth could they have made a sequel to such a great first movie.
MY GIRL 2; of course like many other sequels don't live up to their originals but this sequel is touching and funny.
Dan Akyrod, Jamie Lee Curtis, Anna Chlumsky, and Austin O'Brien were good for a main cast.
I think that it was just pointless to produce a second part of a movie like "My Girl".
"My Girl" was a very good movie but it is ridiculous making a second part of a movie in which one of the main characters (Macaulay Culkin as Thomas J.) dies.
However, it is true that there is a lack of the kind of character evolution we saw in the first movie.And part of that has to do with the characterization of Maggie, Vada's mother, the key albeit absent persona in this story.
Since almost nothing was revealed of Vada's mother in the first movie, the writers seemed to think themselves free to do whatever they liked, but the character they created is so completely and obviously contrived and retrofitted that it destroys any credibility this film has and makes it difficult to reach the end.Let's start with the simple, obvious continuity errors.
Since, speaking on the order of a few decades, rounding to scores of years seems just a bit overkill, I'm going to have to call the writers' bluff on this one.Also, Maggie, as shown in pictures here, looks more like a wannabe Marilyn Monroe than the pretty but somewhat frumpily-dressed young lady we saw beside Harry Sultenfuss in the first film.And this little gaffe points to character problems that are not so much continuity-related as thematic.
Shelley (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been accepted into the family and is now just a loving stepmother -- and she plays a minor role in the film, anyway, as most of the film concerns Vada away from home -- and thus an entirely different cast of new characters were introduced.
Instead of looking at this film as a sequel, one could easily see it as a 13-year-old girl attempting to find out more about the mother she never knew.
Yes, it was enjoyable, but there weren't a lot of twists and turns to move the main story forward -- a lot of the major points of conflict were found in the subplots, actually -- the relationship between Vada's uncle (who makes a cameo in the first movie, and whose character is expanded here) and his fiancée; the relationship between Vada and Nick (which is slightly disturbing considering he's going to be her cousin); the news of Shelley's pregnancy, etc.
On the other hand, the following scene, where Vada gets to "see" her mother for the first time (on film), really arouses the sentimental pathos so characteristic of the first movie.
However, I wonder what is implied by the final scene -- where Vada flies home to be with her father and Shelley and the new baby and sings the song her mother sang in the film -- is it saying that although Vada grew up without a mother, she can play "mother" to this child?
It follows a different sort of formula than the first movie, so I don't even feel like seeing if it measures up to the original is a fair point of comparison.
Nice small movie about a young girl learning about the mother she never met..
I was recently watching a movie with Anna Chlumsky as a young adult, and recalled that I have never seen "My Girl" or this one, "My Girl 2", which my local library had on DVD.
In this movie she is Vada Sultenfuss, whose dad, Dan Aykroyd is undertaker Harry Sultenfuss.
Vada is a good student, especially in the language arts and when the class gets the assignment to write about someone (1) they never met and (2) who has great accomplishments, she decided to write about her mother who died when Vada was a baby.Not knowing much about her mom, she used money she saved, over a school break, to fly to Los Angeles, where her mom grew up and went to school, and stay with her uncle.
She learns a lot that no one knew, and decided that her mom's greatest accomplishment was having her.Jamie Lee Curtis is her step-mom, Shelly Sultenfuss, about to give birth to a son.
Austin O'Brien is the boy she meets in L.A., Nick Zsigmond, and he becomes her first love.
Irish actress Angeline Ball plays her dead mom, Maggie Muldovan, and we only see her in home movies.It was interesting to see J.D. Souther who played Jeffrey Pommeroy, married to Maggie for a very brief time before Maggie married Vada's father.
I think that this was a good movie...
Vada ventures out to California to find out all about her Mother..She stayed with her uncle and his girlfriend who have a young son named Nick...
Personally I thought Nick was kind of a jerk.I think that this is such a great story.
Vada can now grow up knowing that her mom was special to a lot of people.
He told Vada that he was glad that her Mom found someone that would love her and that he was glad when she was born...Sure the story may not sit well with some people, but I thought that it was great.
I know if I never met my Mom, I sure would like to know all about her...I would give this film a chance....
Basically two years have passed since the death of Thomas J., and his best friend Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) is a little older and still living with with her funeral parlour owning father Harry (Dan Aykroyd) and new pregnant wife Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis).
Her father agrees to let her go to Los Angeles to do research on and learn more about her deceased mother who she knows hardly anything, staying with her uncle Phil Sultenfuss (Richard Masur).
Once there she finds herself accompanied by and under the protection of Nick Zsigmond (Last Action Hero's Austin O'Brien), the son of Phil's girlfriend Rose (Christine Ebersole), who at first hates that he has to lose his holiday time escorting this "hick girl".
Vada says a heartfelt goodbye to Nick before leaving L.A. and returning home just in time to see Shelly give birth to a baby brother and happy to be back with father Harry.
Chlumsky is still as likable as she was in the first film, O'Brien is a good new friend for her, and Aykroyd and Curtis don't exactly get much time on screen, the story is a little too soppy to really care about at times, and the first film is more bearable, so a cheesy drama.
It involves the annoying girl from the annoying original going to live with another annoying family for the summer, or some annoying plot like that.
Okay I have seen the sequel to my Girl quite easily one of my favourite coming of age films.
She decides to write about her mother who died giving birth to her and through circumstances she stays with her uncle Phil in Los Angeles over her summer vacation to find all of this out.The acting from Anna Chlumsky as usual is very much worth it as is from most of the main players in this movie.
if there was any complaint with it I think it might be this Nick character who they put in a little bit of a contrived love relationship with Vada.I guess people might want to know is it better than the first one?
My Girl 2 is set 2 years after the first movie.
A much older Vada is growing up and wants to know about her mother that she never met.
Many stars return from the first film including Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Richard Masur and Anna Chlumsky.
There is also some new comers such as Christine Ebersole and Austin O'Brien who plays Vada's love interest.
It tells you the whole story about Vada's life and her mother.Remember its not perfect but overall its not a bad film!.
but gave this one only one point higher than the first one because i felt that anna really gave a better performance and added some romance to the movie, which is really what i wanted for her, since she has a lot of drama at home and should have gotten away and relaxed.
Good sequel of the first movie.
What I found a little bit annoying, was that Vada falls in love with her cousin-to-be.