The Fly II (1989)

Director: Chris Walas

Writers: Mick Garris, Jim Wheat, Ken Wheat, Frank Darabont

Composer: Christopher Young

Starring: Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson, John Getz, Frank C. Turner, Ann Marie Lee, Garry Chalk, Saffron Henderson, Harley Cross, Matthew Moore, Rob Roy, Andrew Rhodes

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Like father, like son.

Plot: The almost human son of "The Fly" searches for a cure to his mutated genes while being monitored by a nefarious corporation that wish to continue his father's experiments.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This a a really good follow-up to the THE FLY (1986)...until the end...sort of.  I mean, I really dug the stuff that was going on with Martin (Stoltz) until he started his transformation in the last third.  It's pretty darn good sci-fi.  When suddenly starts transforming into a grotesque fly-like creature that's when it goes south and becomes just another creature feature horror flick.  I don't mind those but they'd done such a great job that it felt like two movies.  You could almost hear the studio executives yelling in the background, "Yeah, this is fine and all but where the fuck is the fly man?  The kids want to see a giant fly guy spittin' acid on people and shit.  What the hell do we pay you people for, anyway?". And it gets really ridiculous when the fly gets back into the transportation box thingy and lets it do its magic.  The acting is good and Christopher Young's score is outstanding.  His film music in the 80s is just amazing.  I love that guy's work.  The 20th Century Fox Collector's Edition 2 disc DVD set is great.  Disc one gives you a commentary by the director Chris Walas and film historian & archivist Bob Burns (love that guy, too), a deleted scene (which is fucking hilarious) (anamorphic widescreen), an alternate ending (that adds nothing but it's nice to be included) (anamorphic widescreen) and (non-anamorphic widescreen except where noted) trailers for THE FLY (1986), THE FLY (1958) (fullscreen), RETURN OF THE FLY (1959), ALIEN (1979) and THE OMEN (1976) (anamorphic widescreen).  Disc 2 has two docs (Transformations: Looking Back at The Fly II (48 minutes) and "The Fly" Papers: The Buzz on Hollywood's Scariest Insect (57 minutes)), 3 featurettes (1989 Theatrical EPK (5  minutes), CWI Video Production Journal (18  minutes) and Composer's Master Class: Christopher Young (13  minutes)).  They all look like a lot of fun but the only one I watched all the way through was the Christopher Young featurette being how my main bag is film music. In it he talks about the themes and how they relate.  You also get snippets of scenes with just the music.  It'll probably bore the piss out of anyone who isn't into the music side but I'm thrilled this 13 minutes exists. Shit, there's more extras with storyboard-to-film comparisons for 3 scenes with optional commentary by Walas, the teaser (anamorphic widescreen) for the film and the trailer IN FUCKING FULLSCREEN!?!  Really?  WTF Fox? and still galleries of production photos, artwork and storyboards.  That's a lot of extras.  Even casual fans of the film will want to pick this one up.