The Man From Snowy River II (1988)

Pointless sequel. I don't hate <em>'The Man from Snowy River II'</em>, but there's nothing I truly liked about it either. It spends the first 45 minutes dragging out the love squabble between Jim and Jessica, for no reason as it's blatantly obvious where it's all going - yet they decide to do a will they/wont they for a huge chunk of the film. Once that gets sorted, it does get a tad better. Still, the premise isn't that great at all. Cast-wise it's OK, even with the sizeable absence of Kirk Douglas; who played a dual role in the original. Despite Douglas not reappearing, the character of Harrison does return - with Brian Dennehy. Should've killed him off instead to be honest, story would've felt more different and fresher in my opinion. Meanwhile, Tom Burlinson (Jim) and Sigrid Thornton (Jessica) are, again, decent. Quite interesting that Disney decided to pick up the sequel. In the opening scene or two there's a kid involved, which made me fear they were going to fully dumb it down to be family friendly with a bunch of children onscreen. Thankfully, they don't. That, unfortunately, doesn't stop it being an average film.