#5 - Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988)

I've give Return of the Living Dead (1985) and ROTLD 3 (1993) lots of love over the years, but It's rare I even mention part 2.  It's not that it's a bad movie, it actually has its own unique plot and has two of the same stars from the first movie, but it does kind of spoof itself, which I don't usually enjoy.  But hey, it's late and I'm half in the bag so let's do this!

Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988) starts out the same way all the Return of the Living Dead movies start out, with a barrel of 2-4-5-Trioxin (the chemical that reanimated the dead from the first movie) falling off the back of a truck and someone finding it.  Honestly, It makes me wonder how many barrels of this stuff are floating around out there causing havoc.  Kind of like with Superman, how there's more Kryptonite on Earth than there was on Krypton, ffs, but I digress.  So, a bunch of kids find the barrel this time, and let loose a zombie and the gas, and of course there's a graveyard nearby, so all hell breaks loose!

So let me tell you what I don't like about this flick first.  The same two actors from the first movie (James Karen who played Frank and Thom mathews who played Freddy) who got hit by the gas are back this time, playing grave robbers who get hit by the gas.  There are several instances where the same lines from the first movie are re-used, and in one instance where one of the characters say this all feels so familiar.  It's kind of jarringly reminding me of the first movie, which was actually better than this one, but still kind of annoying.  Also, this one is more child-focused, mainly dealing with some kid who is being bullied by another kid who turns into a zombie, and then he has to deal with zombie bullies.  It's not the only thing that goes on in the movie, but it's a lot of it, so it's kind of, i don't know, meh.  Other than that, hey, zombie movie, dead things running around screaming for brains.  Oh, and in this movie, the dead are back to staggering around like stiff corpses instead of running like they were in the first movie, although one zombie does hop a fence, so, there's that.  I may not watch this one as much as I watch 1 and 3, but hey!  I love the whole ROTLD series, so I figured I'd gve this one some love.

I do not recall where I watched this movie, but it was probably one of the premium channels, like HBO or Showtime or starz or something.  I havea  movie all set to watch tomorrow, so unless I get attacked by zombies, I should be able to actually get the review done before midnight.  That's all for tonight, folks!  Now I feel like bugs bunny, and not just because I'm wearing rabbit ears and a fuzzy puffball for a tail.