My review was written in October 1987 after a screening in Parkchester, the Bronx.
"Big Bad Mama II" isw a very embarrassing followup to the 1974 Angie Dickinson drive-in hit. Currently in regional theatrical release, cheapie was advertised to open at three Manhattan sites but bumped to bookings in the other boroughs only.
As with producer Roger Corman's novel redoing of hsi "Jackson County Jail" as a "parallel world" sequel called "Outside Chance", "Mama II" is not a sequel to the original pi. Only Dickinson encores, as Wilma McClatchie, a gun-toting, tough-talking 1930s gangster in the mode of Ma Barker and Bonnie Parker. Her sexy daughters (Susan Sennett and Robbie Lee in the 1974 film; Danielle Brisebois and Julie McCullogh currently) are left fatherless in a prolog wherein villain Bruce Glover has their dad killed and the family evicted from their homestead.
Dickinson vows to get Glover, who is running for governor of Texas. She kidnaps his son (Jeff Yahger) and inducts him into her family band of bank robbers. Pic at this point becomes virtually plotless, with a hapless Robert Culp along for the ride as a Philadelphia reporter out to exploit the outlaws' story (and romance Dickinson). An action montage of footage from the first film is used to suggest scope and save money.l
When not straining for idiotic "socially redeeming value" in having Dickinson show solidarity with striking miners and Hoovertown denizens, pic is one long rehash with endless machine gun fire, exploding squibs and period car chases.
Ita main thrust is to provide some skin for those successors to the drive-in: home video and paycable. Big surprise is that former tv child star of "Archie Bunker's Place", Danielle Brisebois, goes topless in a requisite frolic in a pond with sis McCullogh and in the process handily proves to have a better body than the former Playboy centerfold model. Dickinson has a nude bed scene with Culp, but is obviously subbed for b a body double this time.
The Peter Principle has former Corman publicis and writer for "Castle of Frankenstein" magazine Jim Wynorski directing this mess, which falls into the "no retakes" school of cinema. Actors' readings suffer accordingly and sense of ripoff is underscored by Chuck Cirino's music which draws heavily (and without credit) upon the work of Ennio Morricone, particularly his "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" score. Idiotic ending features Dickinson in a white wig in 1987 with great-granddaughter Willie (played by Kelli Maroney) to carry on the family tradition.
