The Hidden II

The Hidden II is unimaginative and repetitive, not doing the original any justice. It literally starts replaying the end of the first film and then uses a dog again to repeat the process. The cast quality diminishing significantly, with odd romance. There's no suspense and it's void of fun, has the mood of "Alien3," the music however is suffice.

I am a huge fan of the original The Hidden (1987) it's a gem of a 80s film and it ended things nicely with a possibility of a sequel in a way. 5 Years later we have one and well there no denying its lazy, silly, dumb and changes the lore and rules of the original. So much it can make it questionable but I do think theirs. Fun to be have for the film There some querky humor you have a giggle at and its one those. So bad its good moments in film. But there is good things in the film one is Raphael Sbarge you can tell he tried his best to what he has to working with for the fans and honestly think his performance is actually good and very likeable and is the music is good also there few cool moments in the film. But overall good performance by Raphael Sbarge but definitely not a worthy sequel.

"Hidden II" gets off on the wrong foot by beginning with a 15-minute (!) recap of the ending of the first film, and never really finds it footing after that. This time the evil alien organism can survive and move around even without a host, and in human form it is outfitted with Freddy Krueger-type one-liners (not good ones, though). The film is so visually murky that it's often a struggle to see who is even in a scene, never mind what they are doing. Kate Hodge's beauty (she's underrated) and a few slimy special effects are its only assets. *1/2 out of 4.

HIDDEN 2 does have it fair share of problems. It takes straight on from what we left off, so we got 'pulls no punches action', but then we got two many levels of story, really trying to work the whole thing. Although it really does have a good and much more complex story, we get muddled in it's complexity. To simplify it, we have a really good looking guy, inside good alien, who was once in Nouri's body, but had aged Nouri, and drained him of former energy from Maclachlan's character. In this fresh trashy chapter, we have a few little alien slugs about. Good looking guy, a lead who has great presence, is the only one who can stop it, and teams up with Nouri's daughter, (Hodge) to kick some alien arse. Yes, there's a lot of noisy action, and some comic scenes, reminiscent of the original, this time involving an alien filled bum. Of course, not matching the exciting original, this is a darker film, with a lot of night scenes, and our alien human falls in love too. Worth a lot, despite many angry watches out there.

Without a doubt this is the absolutely worst movie I have ever sat thru. Why they had to make a sequel to The Hidden I will never know. the only thing I can say good about this movie, is that it gave the actors an income for a short time. The jacket calls it "a sci-fi thriller bursting with mind-blowing special effects", I'm pretty sure whoever wrote that, never saw the movie. If you have a hour and a half to use, watch the first movie again, you wont be as disappointed as you will be if you watch this one. The best part of The Hidden II, is the first 15 minutes of the film, which is the last 15 minutes of the first movie without the good soundtrack the first one had.

I'm often very forgiving of shortcomings in made for video movies, but the shortcomings in "The Hidden 2" are so numerous and bad that even I couldn't build any enthusiasm for it. It's a really cheap production, for one thing; it's shot with numerous close-ups, and with technical goofs like the reflections of boom mikes and cameramen clearly visible. The cheapness is really evident with the depiction of the evil alien (which looks nothing like how it did in the original movie for some reason.) There is very little alien mayhem both with the alien in human bodies and the alien outside of human bodies. This may explain why the tone of the movie is totally wrong. There's no feeling of tension; the tone is constantly flat and bored. It's no wonder why New Line paired this sequel on the same DVD as the original movie, since I don't think there's anyone who would buy this sequel as a standalone disc.

Sequel to the first film begins by repeating the climax from Part I(best footage in this movie!) before telling its own story about how, after the first aliens destruction, it left behind eggs in the unfortunate dog, which emerge 15 years later to wreck the same kind of havoc as the first. Cop Tom Beck from the first(who is really the good cop alien, after events in Part I), has a now grown daughter, also a cop, so she teams with the good alien cop to stop this new menace. Something like that, since none of the cast from the first return here, and who can blame them? Perfectly awful film is badly directed and written, not to mention dreary and pointless, and accomplishes nothing more than trashing the memory of the original. Only saw it because it was released on a double-feature DVD with the first.

The Hidden II, Science Fiction Horror The Hidden 2 picks up right where the first left off--and quickly disintegrates into a much worse movie. This film follows a "chunk" of the original bad-ass alien as it infests a dog, then spawns several other tiny evil alien, um, larva. Well, eventually, someone is infested again and the reign of violence almost starts again. I say almost because the alien spends most of his time screwing around accomplishing nothing. Much like the heroes--who are completely forgettable while they forge an awkward love affair and make repeatedly poor decisions hunting the "evil" aliens. Here's the breakdown: The Good: --Well, more shots of the alien and gore than the first film. --Slightly better atmosphere than Hidden 1. Didn't Hurt It, Didn't Help: --The acting is nothing special, but it doesn't hurt the film too badly. --Passable music and cinematography. --Extensive yammering which attempts to explain every little detail about the aliens. The Bad: --Very little chemistry between our heroes. --Main hero guy is pretty nerdy. --Sure, the alien is shown more, but for * sakes! The special effects should have improved in quality! They still feel like they're mid-80's puppets, here. We have a six-legged alien "thing" that we get to see moving around and what does it look like? A shaved, partially mutilated dead rat in rigor mortis. The legs barely move! --Insipid love story. --Clumsey, infantile hero. --The evil alien spends very little time doing anything. Mostly walking around talking like an idiot. The Ugly: --Several story problems--for one: There are several evil alien larva sitting unprotected which are just not killed--they're deliberately ignored or the search for them is just done immensely poorly. This alien good guy travelled all through space to do a half-assed job, did he? Well, that's what he's doing. It'll take literally a minute or two to kill the remaining sleeping larva after he kills just one. So what does he do? "I'm tired, let's go," basically. And he leaves! Three times he does this! This is the most procrastinating alien I've ever seen! --Most of the "we're lovers now" dialog. --At least 2 sex scenes with zero nudity. An R-rated horror film with sex and no nudity? What the hell? Memorable Scene: --Seeing the credits start. Acting: 5/10 , Story: 6/10 , Atmosphere: 7/10 , Cinematography: 5/10 , Character Development: 4/10 , Special Effects/Make-up: 6/10 , Nudity/Sexuality: 1/10 , Violence/Gore: 6/10 (less violence, more gore than the first film) , Sets/Backgrounds: 4/10 , Dialogue: 5/10 , Music: 6/10 , Writing: 3/10 , Direction: 3/10 Cheesiness: 6/10 , Crappiness: 5/10 Overall: 4/10 Well, there you have it. The first Hidden is a pretty good film, just light on the gore and a pretty weak overall atmosphere. This one, however, is weak in everything except atmosphere and gore--and those are only slightly better. If you can get the first movie alone, go for it. Classic 80's science fiction horror--with a touch of cop drama. The second is forgettable--best to just avoid this one. www.ResidentHazard.com