Phantasm II
“It’s only a dream!”
“NO! It’s NOT!”
In the end, I have to admit, I’m more disappointed by this installment than ever. The 80s “A-Team”/”MacGuyver” action stuff is even more abundant than I remembered and it’s clearly a movie too much at the mercy of commercial demands. It’s more an action movie than it is a horror movie, but I guess compared to the Hellraiser sequels one has to at least appreciate that the gore levels here remain high. But James LeGros as Mikey says it all – especially since Michael Baldwin would ultimately return to the role, it’s almost impossible to buy LeGros in the character … I don’t know, but at least it wasn’t Brad Pitt?*
What’s most amazing about it is how well it matches up with the original in look and tone etc despite being made almost a decade later (and, of course, despite LeGros). It’s amazing how footage clearly shot in ‘79 keeps showing up throughout this series and how well it’s always blended in, also how the little plotholes are smoothed over. If you look close enough, you realise that none of it has really been planned ahead of time; but on the surface, the crazy set-up in itself makes even nonsense make some sense.
I would normally say here, it’s also good that the mystique of The Tall Man is for the most part preserved here, while in later sequels they fleshed out his backstory etc. But you know what? While that is one of the good things about this otherwise lacking installment; this series is one giant exception to my usual aversion to horror exposition. I really like where they took it in the end.
Phantasm II has the most problems working against it of all the Phantasm movies. But it still looks really great – something I neglected to mention of the first movie is how beautiful these movies look considering the budgets not to mention the genre and time in which they were made – it still has Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm (who simply gets better and scarier as the years go by), and most importantly Coscarelli at the helm … and that last line kinda forgives everything 
November 14th, 2005:
Whoops … I thought I hadn’t seen this one before, but I have. It’s more of the same of the first movie, a little higher in production value but a little ruined by some annoying 80s clichés, MacGyver/Rambo-like weapon-y montages, etc. DVD features a commentary again (not listened to yet), a nice clip of Angus Scrimm at a fan convention, TV spots and trailer.
* who apparently did audition for the part.