User reviews

This sounded pretty good... Nicholson is mostly fun to watch, and I enjoyed Chinatown immensely(Towne returning to write this sequel was a treat, as well). I enjoyed it for a while, but not too far past the half-way point, I realized that it had run out of steam... the film kept rolling, but it no longer kept the viewers' attention. Jack Nicholson is no director, and it shows... while he is a skilled actor, he should stay in front of the camera instead of trying his hand behind it. The cinematography is close, but doesn't quite make it to being good... we have shots that linger, and wasted opportunities aplenty. Polanski's loose, involving camera is sorely missed here. The pacing is also off... the film ends up seeming heavy as a result. The writing is quite good. The acting varies, but is mostly on the positive end. The tone isn't entirely sure what it wants to be, but does create some great "noir" moments. Jake's monologues are occasionally spot-on. The mystery varied some... parts of it, I had figured out before the lead, whereas others only became clear to me just as they were revealed. This is a hit and miss scenario... and unfortunately, it misses more than it hits. This is worth watching as a continuation of Chinatown for those that want more of the plot, and can compromise with the drop in style and finesse of the film-making values. I recommend this to big fans of Jack Nicholson and those interested in seeing what occurred after the events of Chinatown. 6/10

In the sequel to Chinatown, private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) works divorces in post-war L.A. Jake Berman (Harvey Keitel) hires him to catch his cheating wife Kitty (Meg Tilly). They are the two Jakes. It's a scripted set-up but they catch Kitty in bed with his business partner Bodine and shoots him dead. There is a question about Jake Berman's motive by the police. There is a wire recording. There is a tract of land. There is possibly oil. There are mobsters, oil tycoon, and the constant earthquakes.

I didn't understand it back in the day. I got bored with it. It has the 70's noir with a 90's sunshine glare. Nicholson is older and less energetic. Madeleine Stowe's performance threw me off. To me, she's faking a melodramatic damsel and I kept wondering if her character is faking it. After watching it recently, I actually understood the general premise of the movie but some of the whys still elude me. It's better but it's still too long. The tension is not quite the same as Chinatown. Jake Gittes needs to be in more danger. He seems to be outside of it. Also, it pales in comparison with its iconic original.

The sequel to "Chinatown" (1974) finds Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) investigating adultery and murder... and the money that comes from oil.

Made 16 years after its famous predecessor, the film had a very troubled production, and was supposed to be made around 1985. Originally, producer Robert Evans was to play the "second" Jake, but Towne, who was going to direct the film at that time, did not think he was the right choice and fired him. After this, Nicholson ended up directing (and it would be his last film to date).

Obviously, it was never going to be as good as the original. But it did not deserve to flop, either. Jack Nicholson is commanding in his performance (and direction), and I would suspect that the film would have a growing fan base as Harvey Keitel's star rose post-Tarantino. This is the same great underworld as before, and I wish a third film would have come to pass.

The Two Jakes and The Godfather 3 were released in the second half of 1990 and both films proved that sometimes it's best not to tamper with classics. This is not necessarily because sometimes a sequel can't compliment a classic, but because no matter what you do, there's no way to avoid comparing the new versions to the old. And the final chapter of the Godfather trilogy is vastly inferior to the first two. And Two Jakes is vastly inferior to Chinatown. But since Chinatown and the first two Godfathers are among the best films every made, that's a pretty pointless comparison. Just as The Godfather 3 stands on its own as a very sturdy and interesting piece of filmmaking, Two Jakes also works on its own merits. It's confusing, overlong (a full ten minutes more than the original), and never fully gels, but it's also passionate, intelligent filmmaking. Go figure.

In his autobiography, producer Robert Evans refers to Robert Towne's script for Two Jakes as basically only half-finished. It was half-finished when they started shooting, half-finished when they made it half-way through the shoot, and it pretty much feels half-finished in the final product. This is a movie where characters wander in and out and a full two-thirds of the storylines go essentially unresolved. The grand climax of the film (and trust me, I'm not spoiling anything) is an evidentiary hearing, for heavens sakes! And I couldn't really explain the plot if I wanted to, but here's the quick summary: It's fifteen years after Chinatown and Jake Gittes Jack Nicholson) has become older, fatter, and a good deal more bitter. He's now an Investigator respected throughout LA, but he's still haunted by his experiences with the Mulwrays, especially the late Evelyn. The film begins with a jealous husband, Jake Berman (Harvey Keitel), storming into a hotel room and killing his wife's lover, with Jake listening in the next room. Of course, you know the crime probably wasn't entirely about love or lust and that money probably had something to do with it. Money, history, and oil, actually. And it spins in circles from there.

It's easy to notice that the film slacks off at around the half-way point. It's then that you realize just how tight Robert Towne's Chinatown script was. Even at a shred over two hours, every word counts, every gesture, every twist. Two Jakes is flabby in comparison. The dialogue is pleasantly hardboiled and the actors enjoy delivering it, but the resolutions of the various mysteries mostly fall flat. You either see them coming, or don't understand when they arrive. It's to Towne and director Jack Nicholson's credit that the film ends on a number of satisfying grace notes.

Nicholson's direction is almost never the source of the film's flaws. And this is legitimately high praise in a film as twisting and convoluted as this. Of course, he again makes you appreciate the brilliant economy of Roman Polanski's direction of Chinatown, a film with an immeasurable amount of class. Nicholson produces several wonderful moments including a beautiful pull shot from the ocean to a teatime conversation with Kahn (who Chinatown fans will avidly remember). Nicholson and director of photography Vilmos Zsigmond capture a Los Angeles of burnt out dreams, on the brink of overdevelopment and overexpansion. The film has noir stylings but it respectfully looks different from Chinatown.

Nicholson's performance is more a study of what has happened to the actor since Chinatown, rather than what has happened to the character. Because Jack was less of an icon when Chinatown was made, the original Jake Gittes is one of his least iconic performances. By the time he won his Oscar the next year for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's nest Nicholson had already become JACK (in all caps) and he hasn't looked back. In Two Jakes, Jake Gittes has become JACK. There's no getting around it. However, there's also no getting around the fact that Nicholson is a great actor and even if his performances are frequently variations on a theme, it's a pretty super theme.

Two Jakes is peppered with supporting performances of varying degrees of depth. Harvey Keitel has never been better as the second of the two Jakes. His character is emotionally complicated and perhaps the only person in the film (besides Gittes) who gets to go through a character arc. He plays it wonderfully. The femmes fatale in the film, as played by Madeline Stowe and Meg Tilly are less and more complicated than they seem. Ruben Blade, Richard Farnsworth, and Eli Wallach provide capable support when they're given anything to do.

The fact is that like the Godfather 3, if you came upon Two Jakes with a completely open mind, you'd find it a complicated thriller, vastly more substantial than most films of the genre. The fact that it's got its flaws that it'll never compare to Chinatown are the basis for a 7/10 rating.

The Two Jakes has the misfortune of following an absolutely exceptional original in Chinatown. Few sequels live up the original and one can only wonder at how different, and presumably better it would have been if Polanski had directed again. This is not a bad movie.It was nice to see the character of Jake Gittes again. It does have its moments of private eye noir and intrigue. Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel are always fascinating to watch. Some of the action and word play is really enjoyable. Unfortunately it has no rhythm. The plot is long winded, confused and tentative. On too many occasion's I felt my interest waning. However I decided to see it through and felt the pace gather a bit towards the end. The acting is good and there's enough in it to keep it fairly interesting, but at times I felt like I was just hanging in there watching and hoping for it to become great, which it never does. If someone asked me to explain what happened in the film I think I would actually struggle to make sense of it. Nicholson and Keitel make it watchable, but not memorable. It's not not great because Chinatown was so good. It's just not great full stop. It was an average sequel. Not the first and certainly won't be the last...

It's just not Chinatown is all I can really say about, The Two Jakes. Again written by Robert Towne, the screenplay for the Two Jakes, like Chinatown is compelling enough, but Jack Nicholson's directorial debut lacks the creativity of Roman Polanski's. While Polanski strayed away from the typical film noir clichés this doesn't, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but again, it's just very different to Chinatown.

Nicholson's performance however, is again great and if anything this movie is a great character study of what has become of Jake Gittes over the years. This film is smart, and subtle. It's good too, not Chinatown good but good none the less and for some reason, it still left me wanting more. Cloverleaf - anyone?

Because Los Angeles (say it with a hard "g" and you'll get the exact way most "Anglos" said it before 1950) is where desert meets ocean, there lingers over the place a constant aura of the primordial. It can be by turns a tropical paradise or a dusty wasteland. Raymond Chandler captured the feeling as no other writer before or after.

It is his heritage at work in both "Chinatown" (1974) and "The Two Jakes" (1990). Not only the place as shown but the style of writing is a derivative composite. With that kind of material as an inchoate element in every scene and every nuance, the literate viewer is on familiar ground, always ready to settle comfortably into the plot and characters no matter how lacking they are in their own right.

Those of us old enough to remember when L.A. traffic lights had little "Stop" and "Go" flags on them and pedestrians were always given the right of way will recognize this movie as Chandler redux. Jack Nicholson is possibly the best actor around -- now that Robert Mitchum is no longer here -- to play the Philip Marlowe role. And the old plot is still good: hard-bitten detective with heart of gold overbalancing many flaws gets some rough treatment and goes through several femmes fatales on his way to solving the crime.

It is precisely the lack of novelty at this point, together with an odd filter on the lens and some vaguely wrong visual settings, that deter me from giving high marks on this one. That and the melodramatic conclusion which, as in "Chinatown," relies on an odd turn of events exposing the secret. True Chandler fans would look more for a purely logical and organic climax, with a whiff of Lucky Strikes rather than oil fumes in the air.

Long-delayed follow-up (of sorts) to 1974's "Chinatown", which was directed by Roman Polanski and featured Jack Nicholson as 1930s private detective J.J. Gittes. "The Two Jakes" was written by returning screenwriter Robert Towne and directed by Nicholson himself, who also stars, but--despite a certain patchy swagger and style--it's a let-down for admirers of the previous film, and a yawner to latter-day Nicholson fans who might be expecting some combative, belligerent fireworks. Jack's gumshoe delves into an infidelity scandal which quickly leads to dirty doings in the oil business (it was water the first time). Confusing and deadly slow, with the irritating, gravel-voiced narration by Nicholson failing to supply the proper mood. There are a few arty camera set-ups and good players in the cast (including Meg Tilly, Harvey Keitel, Eli Wallach, and a nice 'bit' by Faye Dunaway), but it fails to intrigue even on a nostalgic level. * from ****

Being a "sequel" to "Chinatown," I had high expectations of this film. I even gave it two looks - one on VHS and then one a few years later on DVD - because I wanted so much to like it....but it stunk each time. What a waste of money.

The only thing going for it is the beautiful film-work and the great 1940s atmosphere, as "Chinatown" had some 16 years earlier when that film came out. (Kind of long wait for a sequel, anyway, don't you think?)

If ever a movie could be called "convoluted," it's this one. It made Chinatown as simple as "Bambi." Even the mainline critics all agreed this was incoherent in its storytelling. It's less confusing, but not much, if you know the characters from Chinatown since there are references to "Kathryn Mulray." However, it's just too frustrating to watch and try to follow what's going on.

I know lots of people who loved "Chinatown" but not one who likes this film.

Jack Nicholson is certainly one of the greatest actors of this or any generation. Chinatown is perhaps his greatest film and he certainly should have won an Oscar for it. Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe certainly have nothing on his Jake Gittes! The only problem with this sequel is that it came out many years too late. I read that Robert Evans originally wanted to make it in the 1980s but legal problems held it up. The Two Jakes was pretty much ignored at the box office and got some awfully bad reviews. I could not understand why because I thoroughly enjoyed it. So many films that come out are geared towards kids and make you feel like a kid again when you see them. Thats okay, but this film made me feel like an adult seeing it. The film is as good as Chinatown in so many ways. I love the props and the ambiance of the 1940s that they use. Jack did a great job directing this film and he deserves a lot more credit.

Sure it's not Chinatown, but the atmosphere, sets, costumes and iconic actors carried this film and left me longing for the third part of the trilogy. Quick while Nicholson is still breathing! Some had the opinion that it was too long, but the longer I could stay in that world, the better. Even Meg Tilly, sounding as if she had the worst sinus infection on record, brought an excellent performance to the table. It's too bad that it was a sequel and a sequel to what has become a late twentieth century classic film. I've found that it's the same with going to see any film - you have to keep your expectations under control. Many of the reviewers were expecting to see a second classic in this sequel, but I don't think they realize how rare it is, in spite of the effort and talent associated with the making of a film, for it to all come together into something like Chinatown. So, here's to the films that aren't so great, because they make the great films well..great.

Sequels to great movies are rarely as good as their originals, and "The Two Jakes" is no exception: For those who have seen "Chinatown," "The Two Jakes" could hardly be called essential, or even really necessary, as it mostly recapitulates themes and characters from that great movie. Instead of intrigue around the importation into L.A. of water, this one features the machinations of the oil industry. Besides this, Robert Towne's screenplay, while undeniably intelligent and punchy, is more than a little hard to follow, and might have benefited from some good editing or a judicious rewrite. In short, the story is too convoluted, with the relationships between characters almost impossible to decipher, and the movie is decidedly overlong.

Still, there is quite a bit that could be called great in "The Two Jakes": the set and costume design is absolutely exquisite, as is Vilmos Zsigmond's cinematography, and Jack Nicholson's direction is better than good, even very nearly inspired. Even in these areas, though, the movie has a rather controlled tone that borders on oppressive: the set design very nearly overwhelms the story in the same way that Nicholson's direction feels arguably a little too redolent of his own (very often successful) laconic, measured acting style. One wonders if this might have been intentional: one great scene has Nicholson's Jake Gittes interviewing Meg Tilly's Kitty Berman while she gets a facial, her face covered in green mud, only her eyes and lips visible as she smokes a cigarette and takes probing questions from Gittes. This scene, as with much of the movie, creates a quite intense sense of claustrophobia, of the interconnectedness of everything and everyone, present and past. In this respect, "The Two Jakes" could be said to work quite well: as the screenplay would have it, there is no escape from the past. But even more, there are few actual escapes in a culture that has been, to a significant degree, built on rapaciousness and escape. The filmmakers seem confident of this viewpoint, and it plays convincingly, if, however, in relation to "Chinatown," redundantly. (The Movie Czar 12/16/19)

The Cinematography evokes some of the original film, but the story is very weak.

It's a cool trivia that Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino returned to one of their most famous roles 16 years later, both films from the same studio and both co starred by Eli Wallach.

Private detective Jake Gittes has a new client. Jake Berman believes his wife is cheating on him and wants Gittes and his associates to catch her in the act. Everything appears to be going according to plan until Berman shoots the man dead. It should be an open-and-shut case but now Gittes is drawn into a complex web that involves far more than infidelity.

Directed by Jack Nicholson, The Two Jakes is a sequel to Chinatown, the great Roman Polanski mystery-thriller of 1974. Nicholson reprises his role of Jake Gittes and the screenplay is written by Robert Towne, who co-wrote Chinatown with Polanski, so there's a fair amount of continuity between the two films despite the 16-year gap.

Plot-wise, the links to Chinatown are slender and you don't have to watched Chinatown to understand The Two Jakes (though I recommend that you watch Chinatown for the simple reason that it is a great film).

Unfortunately, however, The Two Jakes is no Chinatown. Nicholson and Towne try to recreate the atmosphere and intrigue of Chinatown and the plots are even fairly similar: mystery, murder, wheels within wheels of complexity, machinations over a valuable resource, a femme fatale (or two). However, for all its complexity Chinatown was always engaging and had a plot that always made sense and could be followed. The Two Jakes sometimes seems complex just for the sake of it and some elements seem more about style than substance.

It all comes together in the end and largely makes sense but it can be quite bewildering at times. Overall, okay but not in the league of Chinatown.

this movie is the sequel to 1974's Chinatown.Jack Nicholson directed this film and stars again as Jake Gittes.Robert Towne wrote the script and the movie is based on characters created by him.it is hard not to compare this movie to its predecessor and comparisons are inevitable.so here goes.First off this movie plods along at a snail's pace.there doesn't seem to be a clear direction.Also,Gittes seems less likable this time around.the surrounding characters seem to lack any real imagination,as do the situations.put simply,there is no spark.and the femme fatalle angle,which worked so well in the original,doesn't work here.but then who could fill the shoes of the mega star charismatic actress Faye Dunnaway?no-one.so,the femme in this case is less fatalle.the script is also lacking in imagination,giving the director(Nicholson)less to work with.you will be bored nearly to tears here.a disappointing followup to Chinatown.,as a stand alone film,however-also disappointing.this movie is not quite awful,but not quite good either.not recommended. 3/10

Most reviews pull The Two Jakes to pieces, except for a very well-considered one by Roger Ebert (find it at the Chicago Sun-Times).

Of course, it's not the classic Chinatown is, but it's a damned good movie. It's about the past, how it pervades our lives for the rest of our days, and how we assimilate it into our futures.

Many have complained that the film is convoluted, that when the key revelation comes (I ain't givin' that away) you miss the impact of it. I strongly disagree with this. I for one had actually figured out the revelation before it happened - this didn't bother me because I wanted so much for it to be what I had thought it was going to be. And when it comes, it's so subtle you could almost be forgiven for missing it. It's lovely, so comforting in a very ironic way.

All I'll say is, pay attention to the scene where Jake (Nicholson) goes to see Kahn (the unmistakable James Hong). Something about the flowers...

Anyway, I'm drifting. The Two Jakes is subtle, well-crafted, and when all is revealed, so very simple. The 'convoluted' events in the plot serve to illustrate what a single, simple desire can cause.

Just watch it. Bear in mind the events and characters from Chinatown, but only so that you have a back story for these characters and not a standard to which they should be compared.

It's always difficult for a sequel to live up to the original. Jack Nicholson did manage to recapture the feel and tone of "Chinatown", but not so much with the story unfortunately.

The look of the film is good. All the locations, lighting and camera-work are all nice. The music is very suiting with its somber and calm atmosphere. It feels like the whole thing was shot during magic hour, and every other scene seems to have a sunset in the background. This is a beautiful movie to look at. Everything in the design and look department is done right, but the rest doesn't live up.

Jack Nicholson really tried and I feel a bit bad for him. I can tell that he really wanted to show how J.J. Gittes' memories were haunting him years later. If that would have been the focus, then maybe it would have worked. But, the story that we are treated with is not interesting or intriguing and not much actually happens. I kept checking what time it was every 5 minutes or so. I was really disappointed because the movie never really finds itself. Towards the end they started hinting at something that could be good. But, it's only hinted at.

I liked the one scene where he is at a nightclub, but the only reason was because of the nice lighting and cinematography. It's very melodramatic and there's the classic noir voice over. There's never any big twist or something to really surprise you. It's mostly just Jack Nicholson walking around in a fedora trying to find something interesting to do. It was underwhelming and it lacked some intensity and mystery.

I don't recommend it that much. If you are a fan of Nicholson and "Chinatown", then maybe check it out because of curiosity. But, don't expect much at all.