Crocodile Dundee II

Crocodile Dundee II is a disappointing sequel built around a performer who remains easy to like. John Cornell makes room for Paul Hogan’s relaxed manner, but lets the surrounding adventure proceed at much the same pace. The comedy needs sharper writing and the action needs more urgency. At 111 minutes, there is too much waiting for a film whose chief pleasure is supposed to be effortless company.

The central performance is the reason it remains watchable at all. Paul Hogan lets Dundee’s confidence seem ordinary, without treating every appearance as an invitation to applaud him. We smiled at his unhurried ease, because he never seems to think he is doing anything particularly remarkable. The problem is how often the film asks that manner to do the work of a joke, with too little comic business to reward our patience.

Paul Hogan and Brett Hogan’s screenplay falls back on the familiar naive-hero routine without finding enough new uses for it. A sequel need not abandon what people liked, but it does need to give its characters something worth coming back for. Here the jokes feel repeated rather than developed, and the adventure does not make up the difference. The writing leaves its leading man with an appealing way of behaving and too few situations that become funny because of it.

Linda Kozlowski plays Sue Charlton and has the more thankless task. The character is too often there to serve Dundee’s story, with too little opportunity to make the comedy or the adventure hers. That matters even on the film’s undemanding terms: a leading man this relaxed benefits from somebody who can challenge him. Giving Sue more to contribute would also have relieved the pressure on a central performance already being asked to supply most of the entertainment.

Adventure comedy does not need elaborate plotting, but it does need one scene to carry us towards the next. John Cornell’s direction too often settles for the leading man’s agreeable presence instead. David Stiven’s editing does not disguise how routine the action is, and the slow pace makes the shortage of laughs more noticeable. We became bored because neither the danger nor the comedy gave us enough reason to anticipate what came next.

Russell Boyd handles the cinematography, Lawrence Eastwood the production design and Peter Best the music. The complaint is not that this needs a more elaborate look or a more insistent score; it needs stronger situations for its characters. The craft cannot rescue comic material that feels second-hand, or make Sue more substantial than the writing allows. Spending longer with these people is only a pleasure when the film discovers something else for them to do.

The standards for a sequel of this kind need not be severe. Some fresh jokes, a useful part for Sue and a little momentum would have been enough. Paul Hogan still has the warmth to make that modest film work, and it is frustrating to see him left carrying so much. For a comedy night, choose something with less time between laughs.