The worst child in the world makes an unthinkable discovery: there is another child even worse than he is--and it's a girl.The worst child in the world makes an unthinkable discovery: there is another child even worse than he is--and it's a girl.The worst child in the world makes an unthinkable discovery: there is another child even worse than he is--and it's a girl.
- Awards
- 3 nominations
Krystle Mataras
- Dolly
- (as Krystal Mataras)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDuring a 2014 interview on Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast, screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski revealed that the studio was reluctant to rehire them, only doing so because they wanted to shoot a sequel before Michael Oliver could noticeably grow and, as the writers of the first film, could produce a script quicker than writers new to the story and characters of the franchise. Frustrated with the criticisms of Problem Child (1990), they deliberately increased the poor taste in the sequel, intending to make a Pasolini or John Waters film for children, and went so far overboard that the first cut received an R rating from the MPAA, a secret kept until their 2014 appearance on the podcast. Dubbing over Junior's use of the term "pussy whipped" got the film a PG-13 rating on appeal but the studio was still so nervous that, at the last minute, they added the Woody Woodpecker cartoon Smoked Hams (1947) to the film's theatrical release to reassure parents that the film was suitable for children.
- GoofsAfter Junior turns up the speed for the Crazy Dance, it is obvious the ride is going way too fast. The operators could have easily stopped the ride, yet they do nothing and let it keep running for more than a minute before it breaks down.
- Alternate versionsWhen shown on network television additional deleted scenes were added in to pad out time and edit out questionable content. The following is a list of the scenes.
- 1. When Junior enters the school, he asks Trixie for directions to the principal's office, she secretly puts a "kick me" sign on Junior's back.
- 2. Ben and Junior are seen in their living room recovering from their concussions. When Ben goes into the kitchen to try to find more ice, he asks Junior what happened to his head and Junior says a girl did it and that women are crazy. Ben tells him not all women are crazy and notices Debbie Claukinski doing yoga exercises next to a street pole. Ben goes outside to assist, causing Junior to make a vow to save him from the single women in the neighborhood.
- 3. A dialog scene before Big Ben notices that Dolly and Madison are selling his own clothes has him walking out of the house talking to a client on his cell phone which shortly after, the client angrily hangs up on him.
- 4. Another dialog scene occurs after LaWanda leaves their house when Big Ben explains that LaWanda is nuts over Ben. Junior tries to explain to his dad that he doesn't trust her but Ben verbally warns him not to talk about it as they made an agreement that Ben would spend more time with Junior as long as he behaves.
- 5. Additional scenes occur during the school's open house which has Murph pigging out at the refreshment table as well as Ben trying to explain to Annie that he could help her out with any problems that she has but Annie objects and tells Ben he wouldn't be able to.
- 6. Junior is in Annie's office with a nasty scratch on his arm. After she treats it she gets a call that Trixie stole their neighbor's station wagon and drove it through their house. Annie agrees to talk to her about it over dinner at Pizzarific. When Junior comes home he finds a stunned Ben telling him that LaWanda is in the hospital for rabies, a continuation of a sequence earlier where he switches her blood test with a rabid dog.
- 7. When Ben finds Junior missing, he gets a call from Annie saying Trixie is missing too. As Ben goes downstairs he trips over a bound-and-gagged Big Ben who is tied-up on the floor.
- ConnectionsEdited into Out on a Limb (1992)
- SoundtracksOnly the Strong Survive
Written by Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance
Performed by Bryan Adams
Courtesy of A&M Records
Featured review
Junior, the child Terminator...
It's funny how for a series that take such ironic stabs on the American way of life, "Problem Child" can seem rather conservative in its advocation of family values. In the first film, it took the whole movie to set the relationship between Junior (Michael Oliver) and his father Ben (John Ritter) and in the sequel, all naturally, what is left is to find a good mother. You might think that a film like that wouldn't be busy praising family values but it surely does, though in a twisted way. But if you expect the same good-heartedness than the first, you've got another thing coming.
"Problem Child 2", directed this time by Bryan Levant, has all the characters clearly established, there's the bad kid, his good father Ben, and there's Big ben the big bad grandfather (Jack Warden). After his marriage fiasco, Ben decides to take a new start in his life and moves on to Mortville, known as the Mecca for divorced people and new celibates. Ben's goal is to find a good mother for Junior, one who'd have the perfect iron fist in a velvet glove, or with enough perspective to minimize Junior's level of nuisance. This is also where Junior finds his match in Trixie, a pint-sized girl as equally mischevious as he is and the one who doesn't want to be messed with.
Naturally, the film turns into a war of the titans between the two pranksters and the pranks escalate from the kind of Bart Simpson-like malicious tricks to the level of sadism that made me feel guilty from laughing at them. Interestingly, the film never sugarcoats its material and takes the most outrageous gags to their extreme, when Junior is asked to fill a lemonade jug from two annoying twins, it doesn't take a master's degree to figure what goes on behind that smile, but the outcome of the gag is actually funnier than the one from "Dumb and Dumber" (you know, with the cop), a same gag occurs with a cherry bomb put in Junior's hand and being flushed away to the near toilet, freshly occupied by Junior's teacher (the Strickland actor), a lesser movie would have made the explosion the punchline, but not that one, and we even get a bonus gag later where we see the teacher wearing diapers the size of pillows in the school convention.
The film finds the right angle by overplaying the gag to the extreme and giving them a cartoonish à la Simpson way, (the main bully looks like a live-action Nelson Muntz), as if it existed in a parallel universe where explosions can make a man skyrocket and land on water, when electrocution can transform you into a crossover of Morticia Addams and Alice Cooper, where a dog can be turned into a statue and leave defecations twice his size and when the rabies virus looks like something borrowed from a cheap cartoon... and last, but not least when Trixie's mother is played by Amy Yasbeck, Ritter's wife, who played the wife in the first film.
It's ridiculous but that's why it ironically works, it asks us not to take the film seriously in case some twisted mind actually thought a kid could do one tenth what Junior and Trixie die and get away with it. The cartoonish way the pranks play leave more latitude to the viewers and we start enjoying the film for no other reason than its bizarre silliness, and the enduring chemistry between Ben and Junior and perhaps Laraine Newman's rendition as a Cruella-like figure named Lawanda Dumore, the woman who can see through Junior and for some reason, decided to make Ben her husband.
It's all played for laughs, the film isn't as efficient as the first, but I guess for kids who aren't too grossed out by vulgar humor, it'll go. Far before the Sandlot and after "Stand By me", we have the vomit scene that made us crack a lot as kids and even know it kinds of take a few chuckles from me, but I reckon I had to turn my eyes when the cockroaches salad started. I just hate cockroaches.
Now, is the film as good as the original? It doesn't matter, it's notable that this is one of John Ritter's most known roles and that if it wasn't for his gentleness and the way it irradiates on his child's behavior, the film wouldn't have aged as well.
And I still enjoying it with my a great deal of nostalgic indulence... see, in 1991, we had two film using of the "Bad to the Bone" riff, "Terminator 2" and "Problem Child 2". If you were a child in the early 90s, that was one tune you couldn't miss.
"Problem Child 2", directed this time by Bryan Levant, has all the characters clearly established, there's the bad kid, his good father Ben, and there's Big ben the big bad grandfather (Jack Warden). After his marriage fiasco, Ben decides to take a new start in his life and moves on to Mortville, known as the Mecca for divorced people and new celibates. Ben's goal is to find a good mother for Junior, one who'd have the perfect iron fist in a velvet glove, or with enough perspective to minimize Junior's level of nuisance. This is also where Junior finds his match in Trixie, a pint-sized girl as equally mischevious as he is and the one who doesn't want to be messed with.
Naturally, the film turns into a war of the titans between the two pranksters and the pranks escalate from the kind of Bart Simpson-like malicious tricks to the level of sadism that made me feel guilty from laughing at them. Interestingly, the film never sugarcoats its material and takes the most outrageous gags to their extreme, when Junior is asked to fill a lemonade jug from two annoying twins, it doesn't take a master's degree to figure what goes on behind that smile, but the outcome of the gag is actually funnier than the one from "Dumb and Dumber" (you know, with the cop), a same gag occurs with a cherry bomb put in Junior's hand and being flushed away to the near toilet, freshly occupied by Junior's teacher (the Strickland actor), a lesser movie would have made the explosion the punchline, but not that one, and we even get a bonus gag later where we see the teacher wearing diapers the size of pillows in the school convention.
The film finds the right angle by overplaying the gag to the extreme and giving them a cartoonish à la Simpson way, (the main bully looks like a live-action Nelson Muntz), as if it existed in a parallel universe where explosions can make a man skyrocket and land on water, when electrocution can transform you into a crossover of Morticia Addams and Alice Cooper, where a dog can be turned into a statue and leave defecations twice his size and when the rabies virus looks like something borrowed from a cheap cartoon... and last, but not least when Trixie's mother is played by Amy Yasbeck, Ritter's wife, who played the wife in the first film.
It's ridiculous but that's why it ironically works, it asks us not to take the film seriously in case some twisted mind actually thought a kid could do one tenth what Junior and Trixie die and get away with it. The cartoonish way the pranks play leave more latitude to the viewers and we start enjoying the film for no other reason than its bizarre silliness, and the enduring chemistry between Ben and Junior and perhaps Laraine Newman's rendition as a Cruella-like figure named Lawanda Dumore, the woman who can see through Junior and for some reason, decided to make Ben her husband.
It's all played for laughs, the film isn't as efficient as the first, but I guess for kids who aren't too grossed out by vulgar humor, it'll go. Far before the Sandlot and after "Stand By me", we have the vomit scene that made us crack a lot as kids and even know it kinds of take a few chuckles from me, but I reckon I had to turn my eyes when the cockroaches salad started. I just hate cockroaches.
Now, is the film as good as the original? It doesn't matter, it's notable that this is one of John Ritter's most known roles and that if it wasn't for his gentleness and the way it irradiates on his child's behavior, the film wouldn't have aged as well.
And I still enjoying it with my a great deal of nostalgic indulence... see, in 1991, we had two film using of the "Bad to the Bone" riff, "Terminator 2" and "Problem Child 2". If you were a child in the early 90s, that was one tune you couldn't miss.
helpful•41
- ElMaruecan82
- Aug 14, 2020
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $15,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $25,104,700
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $5,372,880
- Jul 7, 1991
- Gross worldwide
- $32,704,700
- Runtime1 hour 30 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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