Directed by Charles Band
Expectations: Moderate, I enjoyed the first.
On the general scale:
On the B-Movie scale:
Evil Bong 2 starts off with a short recap of the entire first film for those that didn’t see it or have pot-induced selective memory. In a low-budget film, this is usually a bad sign that the rest of the film’s runtime will be padded out as much as possible with stock footage and a general lack of imagination. It is a sequel after all. Evil Bong 2 goes the complete opposite direction after this opening though, delivering more laughs, more fun and more awesome Evil Bong action that you can shake a shitty tribal spear at!
Time has passed and the guys have moved into a new apartment, but not everything is coming up roses for our heroes. It seems the Evil Bong’s pot fantasies have had a lasting impact on their daily lives. They are afflicted with extreme versions of marijuana’s side effects: the munchies, loss of inhibition and narcolepsy. With nowhere left to turn, they call the delivery man who brought them the Evil Bong in the first film and then venture into the Amazon to find the birthplace of the Evil Bong itself! Only in a B-movie could a story take as many ridiculous twists and turns and still come out on top, but Evil Bong 2 does just that and succeeds remarkably at keeping the interest level high throughout.
I have to give Charles Band and Full Moon some credit for not taking the easy way out on this too. With a title like Evil Bong 2: King Bong, I expected a simple re-telling of King Kong with bongs in clever places. Instead the King Kong allusions are only minor, serving more to inform the general story direction (going to the Amazon) instead of every clichéd plot point. The DVD cover is probably a bigger reason why I thought it would be like this, but in fact the cover has more in common with King Kong than the actual movie does!
Evil Bong 2: King Bong completely blew away my expectations and delivered a thoroughly enjoyable tale of medicinal pot, evil bongs and lost tribes of Amazon women. I can’t ask for much more from a movie than that. Highly recommended to low-budget comedy fans or anyone who saw the first and approached a sequel with trepidation. It should be noted that while the first film was never much of a horror movie, this sequel is even less of one. They go completely into the realm of comedy here, which worked smashingly for me, but if you go in expecting horror you might be disappointed.
Next week, I’ll be jumping back into the hands of the puppeteer as I take on the seventh series entry, Retro Puppet Master!