5/10
Porky's II: The Next Day (Bob Clark, 1983) **
18 April 2007
As often happens, this sequel to PORKY'S (1982) is inferior to the original - but, then, neither is it as bad as Leonard Maltin claims in his esteemed Film Guide!

It does cheat by forsaking the titular establishment entirely, though the formula is pretty much the same as before - except that here some of the characters from the original disappear and are replaced by new ones, while the girl who was involved with the protagonist in the first film gets a bigger part this time around. Again, the film pits a certain minority - in this case, American Indians - against a bigoted community.

While the film's major asset has to be the over-the-top characterization of the hypocritical Reverend, there are almost as many belly laughs here as in the original. Scenes that particularly stand out are the 'Shakespeare v. Bible' quoting duel (even if it's kind of silly and out-of-character to have the boys involved in putting on a show of the Bard's work in the first place) and the individual come-uppance of the gang's various antagonists - the KKK (in the school gymnasium), the duplicitous board member (humiliated in a restaurant prior to re-election) and the aforementioned evangelist and his flock (at their own rally).

P.S. Interestingly, co-writer Alan Ormsby had previously collaborated with Clark on his first two horror outings - CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (1972; which I've never watched) and DEATHDREAM (1972)!
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