Also see Schlockcast: The Fly & The Fly II
One of the twists of the first flick, was that Geena Davis, er, “Ronnie” got knocked up with Seth’s mutant baby. So the sequel cranks up in the delivery room. It’s a gruesome scene that lets you know EXACTLY where the flick’s heading — and that’s completely thanks to first-time director Chris Walas, who won an Oscar for his gross-outs in Numero Uno. The company Seth Brundle worked for talked Ronnie into having the baby, but she flat lines after SEEING it.
Boy-genius Martin Brundle is raised within the labs of Bartok Industries, where he grows at an accelerated rate into a grinning Eric Stoltz who’s celebrating his 5th birthday. Bartok, the guy (Lee Richardson), has aligned himself as a sort of father figure for Martin, but his intentions are, of course, less than admirable. In the last five years, Bartok’s eggheads have tried unsuccessfully to make the infamous telepods work. But all they manage to do is scramble up the genetic code of a golden retriever. So, now that Martin’s all grow’d up, and probably more of a genius than his daddy ever was, Bartok sets him to work tinkering with the pods. All work and no play makes Martin a dull boy, so naturally, there’s a love interest in the form of Daphne Zuniga as Beth. And like his dad, when Martin gives in to the temptations of the flesh, weird stuff starts happening, and not just in his pants. Son of Brundlefly begins his metamorphosis and escapes from the labs and goes looking for Beth. Together they look up the only other cast member from the first flick who’d agree to be in the sequel — John Getz as Stathis. He got his foot and hand dissolved in the last movie, and now he collects antiques.
Despite wearing a phony beard, Getz is just as smarmy in the sequel, but can’t do much to help Martin whose transformation becomes more and more evident. Beth freaks out and calls the Bartok goons when Martin falls asleep in his cocoon. And just wait til you see what pops out of that sucker. YEEEEACK!!! Numero Two-o ups the body count, and more graphically, ups the slime-o-rama factor. Embrace that fact, and you’ve got yourself a fantastic time. Great ending. Where’s Numero Three-o?
Notables: No breasts. Six corpses. Three beasts. 42 gallons goo. Fingers tumble. One mutated cactus. Gratuitous fly casting. Multiple hypodermic closeups. Defibrillation footage. Gratuitous budding-romance montage with dancing to K.D. Lang‘s “Lock Stock And Teardrops.” One dead mutant dog. Ransacking. One foot chase. Gratuitous bug zapper. Forceable showering. Tazer attack. Spine snapping. Cranium squishing (extra messy).
Quotables: Bartok explains the telepod project to young Martin, “Five years and millions of dollars later, and what we have is the world’s most expensive juicer. The greatest invention in the history of mankind, and we can’t get the damn thing to work. We’re like a bunch of chimpanzees trying to figure out how to operate a car.” Martin throws a fit and breaks up with Beth, “Stay out of my sector! You no longer have clearance.” And later, after they’ve made up and he starts to fall apart, he snaps at her, “I’m getting BETTER!” Stathis tells Martin what he thought of dear departed daddy, “He bugged me.”
Time codes: Return of the telepods (15:40). Martin watches an interview of his dad, which is likely an outtake from the first movie (23:45). A love interest enters the picture (27:19). Martin loses his virginity at 5-years-old (45:50). His metamorphosis begins (48:10). Enormous stream of digestive goo to the face (1:27:55). Bartok meets a fitting fate (1:39:50).