Parents' Guide to Ferry 2

In Ferry 2, the lead character repeatedly observes how dumb Jezebel must be to have gotten herself in such a mess. It's hard to disagree. That Jez is neither bright, likable, nor interesting becomes one of the movie's primary burdens, especially when it's clear that it will be her problems moving the plot forward and that, in effect, we are stuck with her for the next hour or so.

The grand villain, Lex (the excellent Jonas Smulders), is a comically cliched bad guy who does everything we've seen villains in other movies do. Only the evil laugh is missing. Ferry starts doing some pretty dumb things himself, a development that proves to be an error on the part of the filmmakers. The director of the earlier movie had a talent for creating real characters, in contrast to the stock mannequins on display here. It was the quick-witted brain of Ferry that kept the earlier film on track and that quality also made the TV series that started it all. This Ferry, on the other hand, demonstrates no indication of an inner life. And it isn't long before the audience expectation that he can think his way out of trouble proves unfounded. Also, in the earlier film, Ferry falls in love and the depth of that relationship tempers his crass greed and cruelty. We can root for a bad guy as long as he loves someone. This time, that softening relationship is just a rueful memory. Finally, when Ferry's antagonism for his niece morphs into affection, the transformation is unbelievable and demonstrates that the filmmakers don't know much about human emotions.