Wow, that title just rolls off your tongue, doesn’t it? I’m not sure what kind of demand there was for this sequel. It probably came from people like myself. This was an immediate rental for me as soon as it became available. Alas, there’s a reason that a third Jack Frost film doesn’t exist, although it was supposed to be about a giant Jackzilla. That could have been interesting. The tagline for this one is “He’s Icin’ & Slicin’. For the potential third film, would the tagline be something like “When it’s snowin’, Jack’s growin'”?
There isn’t much of a fun backstory here. No real fond memories. I remember being disappointed. It has been several years since I last saw this one, so I will attempt to enjoy it with fresh eyes.
One thing to note is that Ryan’s character is nowhere to be found in this film. I don’t know if they mention him or not. I have a theory that the kid was so dumb with his cooking that he eventually ate one of his unsafe concoctions and died around 12. I am going into this viewing with that mindset. Also, this is free to watch on VUDU with a few tiny ads. The ads are almost always incredibly short after the first one.
Start Film
We start with Sam in a Psychiatrist’s office. The psychiatrist is played by the great Ian Abercrombie. I say great because I loved him in his one episode of Tales from The Crypt that Arnold directed. He was also in Garfield A Tale of Two Kitties as well as the voice of Palpatine in the animated Star Wars The Clone Wars. Sam does almost the same opening narration about Jack as in the first one. Then goes on to explain the events of the previous film. The best part is that the secretary is listening in on this conversation and giggling and invites all these random people in to listen. It’s pretty funny. The psychiatrist knows that they are listening, and this is actually quite funny. The Psych asks how he killed the mutant killer snowman. We discover that Jack’s grave is a close secret.
The beauty of horror is how easy it is to recap past horror films in sequels. There are so many ways to do it.
The government has dug up Jack’s grave after a tip from a local. Time to run some experiments. A janitor bumps a coffee mug into the mixture, and Jack is reborn in a scene that is 90’s as hell. Also, enjoyable music. Oh, Ryan is gonna be with his cousins, and Sam is gonna be Joe’s best man. Joe is marrying Marla. They are going on a vacation to a tropical island.
Hello, ladies in bikinis. We meet Rose, Ashley, and Paisley on their first vacation away from their parents. One of them has to get nude, right? We also meet The Colonel and Bobby. Okay, then the very over-the-top homosexual Asian photographer and the 2 female models. They are staying at the Tropicana.
There are 2 dudes (Dave and Charlie) adrift at sea who are going batshit crazy in a liferaft. All they have remaining for lunch is a carrot. But where is the candy bar? Charlie ate it, so Dave claims the carrot. Now they wrestle for the carrot. Charlie gets tossed overboard. Jack is in the ocean or sea. Jack impales Dave with the carrot.
Ohhhh man, we get to meet Captain Fun who tries to cheer up Sam. It’s karaoke time! I have never done karaoke. I’m okay with that life decision.
We listen to the 3 girls try to divide the 2 guys that they want to bone. Ashley just got got by Jack the Anvil. Paisley gets ice spiked. Jack now mocks Rose. Oh, Winter is coming. He kills her with tongs. Wow, they got lazy on the kills.
Colonel and Bobby hear some screaming by a couple staying at the hotel who found one of the MV’s. That is a call back to the original. Colonel isn’t scared. Time to get security. He’s back! Manners never died, he just lost an eye and has an eye patch. Neat. I am happy to have him back. Sam and Manners meet up and we find out that Manners had 15 operations to look this good. He went tropical because there is no snow here.
The satellite is out for the time being, so no phone. Greg the photographer with one of the girls and her piercing nips on a tropical island. Photography is fun. I think that she is Sarah and the other would be Cindy. Hahaha, even he talks about her nips needing to be more excited. Jack as the ice gets to get rubbed on the nips. Now she wants iced coffee. Jack’s dialogue is ridiculous and pretty spot-on for the late ’90s. Sarah just explode or something. Greg also got a picture taken of being murdered, I guess. They are doing a terrible job with the deaths.
Manners wants to meet Sam in 10 minutes. These guys have great chemistry and are saving this movie at the moment. Ohhh, Captain Fun is on their side for their little meeting. The plan to lure the killer out in the open is a costume party. Captain Fun’s solution to everything is a costume party, and to get women drunk. Joe and Marla are clowns, Sam and Anne are hippies, Manners is a dude in a trenchcoat. Sam hears Jack asking for a smoke, so he takes off running and grabs an oar. This is like Dead Island. A snowman sneaks up behind Sam and he hits him with the oar, but it was actually the Colonel, hahaha.
Cindy is going for a nude swim at night in the pool. Hello, redemption my old friend. It’s not gratuitous, just enough to tip the hat to the fans. Jack freezes the top layer of water. She sees Jack and she screams and she dead. Jack can just turn everything cold now. Even on a tropical island.
Sam wakes up, it is cold inside and out, but no air conditioning. Oh yeah, it’s also snowing. It’s time for a snowball fight. Sam asks the Colonel if he finds this odd at all. Nah, it happened back in 1800.
Dean and Ben, the guys the 3 girls wanted are busy being idiots. There’s a frozen pole. So Bro 1 tells Bro 2 to put his tongue on the pole and then he will pour the warm beer down the pole. Bro 1 leaves while Bro 2 is stuck. Jack pulls Bro 2 away from the pole.
Massacre time. Jack takes out 10-20 people with snowballs and icicles. Sam is losing his shit as he approaches a Snowman and talks smack. Sam has been wearing a vile of concentrated anti-freeze around his neck this whole time, and he knocks the head off of the snowman. Then Jack appears. Marla thinks that Manners has gotten cuter. Sam, Anne, Joe, Marla, and Manners are now together in a room. Sam brought so many random things, like caulk, to help barricade themselves. Manners will go warn the others. Sam will help him. Manners has a super soaker. Fantastic. Sam has 2 and a container of anti-freeze.
Sam and Manners find Colonel, Bobby, and Capt. Fun. Sam explains Jack Frost and his powers. Colonel wants to sacrifice Sam since he’s the one that Jack wants. Sam lures Jack into the trap of anti-freeze. Time to celebrate because if it worked before, it has to work a second time. Oh, wait. Jack is back! Jack is new and improved.
Jack has indigestion and pukes up a snowball. Jack takes off, and Joe analyzes the snowball. The snowball hasn’t melted in 15 minutes. Sam is still dwelling on the anti-freeze not working. The snowball is moving and hatching into a mini snow monster. It calls Cpt. Fun “Dadda” and then attacks his face. Yeah, this is where the film may lose people. They capture it in a blender. The women mock him. But he reforms and says that was fun.
Manners is still out hunting. He enters this room or shed or whatever with 50-100 Jack Jr.’s. Anne then radios him to tell him to avoid the snowballs. Poor Manners. Manners is assaulted and we see a pool of blood pour out under the door.
Back to the group, they continue trying to torture the one that they have. This time in a waffle maker. Time for everyone to wear ridiculous outfits, and that also means splitting up because this is a horror movie. This really is a poor man’s version of Gremlins too, only funnier, and without Hulk Hogan. The colonel has a saber. Joe has a vacuum. Joe captures one.
Colonel is trying to psych himself up, but he is surrounded. Hell, there’s even a Jack Jr. with a mohawk, which is clearly an hommage to Gremlins. I can respect that.
Anne finds Amanda and 6-8 other tourists. She uses a drink on one of them and it kills them. It is a banana daiquiri. Sam is allergic to bananas. We know this. Holy shit. Anne has the horror movie moment where they decide not to waste time. One character just connects everything together. Sam’s DNA got mixed with Jack’s when they were rolling around in the antifreeze. This means that New Jack (R.I.P. ECW legend) has allergies to bananas, and so does his offspring (Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated). Marla laughs at Anne’s silly theory. Time to peel some bananas.
Here’s my big question, why do they have to make daiquiris? In theory, don’t you just need a liquid with bananas? Nope, not gonna try to rationalize things. The super soakers are ready. Time to explode some Jack Jr.s. This is clearly the saddest part of the movie. That or when we didn’t see more of Cindy’s body. 1A and 1B perhaps?
Jack cries when his little guy dies in his hands. Now it’s personal!! Colonel gets an icicle. Bobby gets his throat slit. Jack scares Marla and Joe, but he’s really after Anne because she figured out how to kill his family. He traps her. He forms a box around her and starts sending icicles in toward her. Sam shoots Jack with a banana arrow. Yup, I didn’t think that I’d be typing that sentence today. Jacks explodes. Sam finds Anne underneath all the white goo.
Sam carries her to the shore and she asks him where he wants to go for next year’s vacation. She suggests Greece. He doesn’t want to go to another island. Time to roll the credits. This is only slightly important. We see 2 Asian gentlemen on a ship being poorly dubbed, and then they see it, a giant carrot falls on the ship. There is the beginning of Jackzilla.
Wait, there’s a final scene of Joe and Marla still in the freezer hiding, but we only see the freezer door and hear the voiceover.
End Film
There’s a reason why we never got a third film. Probably multiple reasons. This wasn’t up to the standards of the first one. This actually had a bit more comedy, or at least the same amount. Captain Fun, Bobby, and the Colonel weren’t as good secondary characters, in my opinion, despite being enjoyable. I didn’t like the setting, but it made all the sense in the world given the premise, so I can’t fault that so much.
One of my biggest critiques is the music. The music was so good in the first film and here, it lacked heart. It was the biggest downgrade from original to sequel. I know that isn’t the most important thing, but it was very noticeable.
I loved that they brought back Manners. I wonder if they would have brought him back in the third film. Would they have gone for a straight Godzilla parody or another vacation? I like to think that manners somehow survived. I’m just not sure why Jack gained gigantism.
My goal isn’t to rip this film. I’ve seen it 4 or 5 times now. It’s a bad guilty pleasure, but there’s room in life for that. It isn’t as good as the original. I have to give this above a 5 due to watching it multiple times, but in reality, it’s probably around a 4.5.
Final Rating: 5.1 (The rule states that if I willingly watch a film more than once for entertainment purposes, it’s above a 5. Yes, I make up the rules and I adhere to them.)
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