SUMMER OF 87 #5: Teen Wolf Too

 The cover of my VHS copy of Teen Wolf Too

 

7pm, Day 1:

Teen Wolf Too
Director: Christopher Leitch
Starring: Jason Bateman, Kim Darby, John Astin
Format: VHS (Filmpac)

Plot: Todd Howard (Bateman), the cousin of Scott Howard (played by Michael J Fox in the first film) has recently been accepted into Hamilton University on a full athletic scholarship on the recommendation of Coach Bobby Finstock (Paul Sand), who was Scott's basketball coach at Beacontown High. Finstock's hope is that Todd has the family genes to become a werewolf and turn Finstock's new struggling boxing team into championship contenders. Todd is horrified by his "family affliction", but eventually gives in to it and finds fame after winning his first boxing fight. With it comes girls, top grades etc, but he starts losing his friends. Can Todd relearn to be humble while also winning the big championship fight coming up?

- After a break for dinner, we're back into it with the third of four "part two" sequels I'll be watching during this marathon. I guess 1987 was a big year for sequels.
- Disclosure: Of course I've seen the original Teen Wolf (1985), which from what I remember was pretty good for an 80s teen comedy. I'm also aware MTV made a Teen Wolf TV series a couple of years ago, which I haven't seen, and because it's MTV I have no desire to see it.
- So apparently Michael J Fox didn't sign on for this sequel partly because he didn't want to go through all the makeup again.
- Bateman and Fox are of course connected by Jason's sister Justine, who played Fox's sister on TV's Family Ties.
- The support cast in this is pretty good and includes two actors whose most famous roles were in the 60s (John Astin, Gomez in the Addams Family, and Kim Darby, who was so brilliant in the original True Grit).
- Tim Kring, who wrote this screenplay, went on to have more success writing about people with hidden powers. He wrote and produced the TV series Heroes.
- So far this movie isn't offering anything very original, but the song and dance number to Do You Love Me was fun.
- You can't get much more 80s-centric than a soundtrack containing songs by both Oingo Boingo and Real Life. "Send Me an Angel" is a weird choice for a "studying hard for exam tomorrow" montage though. Unless it morphs into a "getting it on with the girlfriend" montage. Touche.
- Semi-interesting trivia: Estee Chandler, who plays love interest Nicki, only made one more movie after this, but was visual effects producer on Team America: World Police.
- Well, I saw that "twist" involving Kim Darby's character coming a mile away.

Overall thoughts: That was pretty bad. I mean, there's nothing overly offensive about Teen Wolf Too. It's just unnecessary. If you've seen the first movie, there's absolutely no need for you to see the sequel. All they did was change basketball to boxing and substitute Michael J Fox for the less-charismatic Jason Bateman. The end result is a poor imitation of the original and a movie that I'd recommend bypassing.