More American Graffiti (1979)

Perfect cast and a good story

Boring

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

If you liked American Graffiti, that's a reason not to see this lame sequel. For everything good about American Graffiti, that goodness does not carry over to "More American Graffiti." This is the rock bottom when it comes to filmmaking, no story, no narrative structure, bad acting and directing, overall bad concept, and at one point it LITERALLY turns into a lame slide show, a sequence of still images, I kid you not. And the carefully crafted quintessential 50's soundtrack of American Graffiti? That's gone too as More American Graffiti is set in the 60's with a totally forgettable pablum including Andy Williams "Moon River." Of all movies I've seen in the past several decades, I can't recall one that I regret having seen more than this one.

With the exception of Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) missing in this unneeded sequel to the classic Academy Award winning "American Graffiti", "More American Graffiti" has the rest of the gang back, not where we left them off, but three years later the previous film. If I'm not mistaken, Curt went off to become a teacher in Canada if memory serves me correctly from the last film. And while it is fun to find out what's happened to them after the credits rolled, the spark and the intensity has not came back. The sole purpose for this sequel like any other sequels before and after this one was that it was there follow in on the big-budget success of it predecessor and take advantage of a good thing coming. And while I was entertained by the sequel, I still couldn't find a legitimate reason why they needed a sequel to begin with. However, what's different from the other sequels, "More American Graffiti" makes the effort by not trying to follow the same pattern as what was offered before, but a new fresh new look at the gang and what they're doing now.It has a bit of a depiction of the events that emanated from 1964- 1967. John Milner (Paul Le Mat) continues to drag races and now reels in the big buck doing in drag races. Steve (Ron Howard) and Laurie Bolander (Cindy Williams) have tied the knot, but they're not really living happily ever after. Laurie wants to pursue a career, but Steve still has that archaic, misogynistic frame of mind that her place is to watch the offspring. Terry the Toad (Charles Martin Smith) has gone off to fight in Vietnam, but is finding ways to get a discharge home. And finally Debbie Dunham(Candy Clark) is now a hippie girl hanging with groupies and seems to be in a precarious relationship as well. Sure there's a bit of pros and cons as each sub-plot shifts back and forth and we don't fully get the gist of each of their mediocre individual stories or really care for that matter. The only one that has me enthralled was the Milner side-story and his jilted romance with an Icelandic lady, Eva (Anna Bjorn) who speaks no English, but their chemistry comes alive through motions that far exceeds words. It kind of brings back the reason why "American Graffiti" was a work of art. It was simple, pure, innocent coming-of-age drama that was both provocative and enlightening at the very same time. The other stories are just a nostalgic time machine travel through the 1960's when topics back then were the central focuses that were headlining the news at the time like the Vietnam War, and the hippie moments where young idealists decide to drift out of the context to come up with innovative ways to carry on in life. The thing that separates this sequel here was that in "American Graffiti" was that the creative control is not entirely handled by George Lucas who has taken a back-seat here and served as the executive producer. The main doing the heavy cargo here is Mr. Bill L. Norton who served as both writer and director. And while Norton does do an incredible effort in putting interesting refreshing elements into the sequel, even though I expected more than what I got, I still found this ambitious story a difficult task at hand coming from a television director. And each of the four stories have remarkable takes in their delivery, though the hippie sub-plot is much too technical and doesn't hold much interest. I can't really recommend "More American Graffiti", because for the fact that it's not up there with the genius that is "American Graffiti". And if you love "American Graffiti", you'll detest this movie all the more. But if you must watch it, do it for curiosity sake and you'll see it's nothing like the first story and lacks the intensity that predecessor possessed. If you come in with a low expectation rate, it might hold your interests. And if you found the story dull, there are some pre-famed stars that you might point out like Scott Glenn, Mark Kay Place, Delroy Lindo, and Harrison Ford returns the scene as Officer Falfa.

Only reason I saw or even heard of this film is that it was included as a double-feature on the DVD with the first. Perfectly awful film fails miserably at recreating the sense of nostalgia of the first, despite some of the same cast returning. The film is poorly directed in a heavy-handed way, using the "multi-screen" approach(different scenes being shown occurring at the same time) which is distracting and pretentious.Story tries to clarify plot points alluded to by the "fates" of those characters shown over the ending credits, but film feels utterly pointless, and new story elements(with Ron Howard and Cindy Williams) are really horrendous, so mundane and dispiriting.Even George Lucas admitted he didn't know why he allowed it to be made!

American Graffiti is one of the best movies ever made. I've seen it at least 30 times and am emotionally affected by it each time I see it. (I graduated from high school in 1962.) However, More American Graffiti is one of the worst movies ever made.It is hard to believe than anyone associated with the great original movie was involved with this terrible sequel. The part of the movie set in Vietnam was extremely inaccurate. (I served 18 months in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division.) The whole movie had nothing worthwhile in any part of it.If anyone ever wants to make a case against making sequels to great movies, More American Graffiti would be the prime example of what can go wrong.