Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Predictable romcom sequel has drinking, language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
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Where to Watch
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Love Tactics 2
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
LOVE TACTICS 2 is a sequel to the 2022 Love Tactics about two attractive, wealthy, opinionated people -- Asli (Demet Ozdemir) and Kerem (Sukru Ozyildiz) -- who like to lecture their friends on the treacheries of the opposite sex. The pair got together originally by way of demonstrating techniques in romantic manipulations. In the newer film, Asli and Kerem are in love but still seem to believe love is a game. He says "you should never trust every word a woman says." She's so adamantly anti-marriage that she warns her bride-to-be friend of the institution's dangers while the woman is being fitted for her wedding dress. Despite this vehemence, it suddenly occurs to Asli that she needs to trick Kerem into wanting to marry her. Kerem is playing some games of his own. Will the couple get past their passion for manipulation?
Is It Any Good?
There is something smug and hypocritical about Love Tactics 2. Throughout most of it, the two main characters disparage marriage and offer many good reasons why it's a terrible idea. Yet the triumphant happy ending is a predictable celebration by the same two people of how great marriage is. Downright insulting is the notion that the wealthy, privileged, successful people living in this dream world of luxury homes, cars, and vacations can make the claim with a straight face that "how our life turns out is all in our own hands." Asli came from wealth. It could be argued that how her life turned out was largely determined by the luck of who she was born to. She seems blissfully, arrogantly oblivious to her advantages.
Add obliviousness to the vanity, shallowness, and manipulative ways of the two main characters, and the movie comes across as tone-deaf, reliant on the earlier film's ugly platitudes, biases, and stereotypes about men and women. The movie leaves the fundamental question unanswered: If both of them don't want to get married, why do they have to get married?
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what this movie has to say about love and relationships.
Why do you think two people who claim to be in love are secretly plotting against each other?
How do you think this movie fits into the romance genre?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : July 14, 2023
- Cast : Demet Ozdemir , Sukru Ozyildiz , Atakan Celik
- Director : Recai Karagoz
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Romance
- Run time : 98 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : August 2, 2023
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