RELEASE DATE: 1989
RATED: R
REVIEWED BY: The DarkSider
As David Bowie sang about, get ready for some changes. The flick begins with Veronica, not looking quite like Gina Davis anymore, going into labor at a place called Bartok Industries. She dies when she sees the mutated baby pop out of her. However, underneath all that goop is a beautiful human baby boy.
Fast forward 11 months later where the kid, now named Martin, is growing and learning at a huge rate. Bartok introduces himself to Martin and tells him to consider him a father figure. Fast forward another few months where Martin is not much older but much wiser. Matter of fact, he grants himself access to a forbidden zone in Bartok Industries. It is there he meets a lab golden retriever that he befriends. He tells the dog about his condition which is called "Brundle's Accelerated Growth Syndrome"...or something. Gee I wonder if anything bad is going to happen to that dog to piss Martin off.
Well luckily we don't have to wait too long to find out. Turns out Bartok got themselves the Brundle Pods. Martin sneaks in to see the test go down quite unsuccessfully and the dog gets mutated. Fast forward a few years where Martin has transformed into...I'll be damned its Eric Stoltz in an early role. Martin, now five, is fully grown and I'm assuming has pubes...impressive.
Bartok is nice enough to move him out of the lab and give him a place of his own with privacy. Bartok also offers him a job with the company studying the Brundle Pods and making them work effectively. Martin is still afraid of the machines because of what they did to his doggy. However, Bartok assures him that the dog was put out of it's misery. He also gives him a video log of Seth Brundle (in a deleted scene from the original Fly movie) talking about how great he feels which inspires Martin to take up the job.
Being a rapidly growing boy, Martin quickly charms...wouldn't you know it...Daphne Zuniga in a "who would have known role" as Beth. Knowing that Brundle Pods impress the ladies, Martin demonstrates it for her. Turns out it is only effective on non-living matter. The two become very close acquaintances and Beth starts to help him on his Pod work.
Martin gets invited to an office party one day and overhears about some specimen that has been alive for over two years. Oh sh*t, that spells trouble...turns out the specimen is his golden retriever pal suffering in mutated form. Martin throws a temper tantrum and takes out his anger on Beth (give him a break, he's five remember). He later visits the dog and puts his old friend out of it's misery. Martin is quick to make up with Beth and demonstrates an effective test run with the Brundle Pods involving a cute little orange kitty. This gets Beth all wet so she gives it up to Martin. What a stud, not even six and he is getting laid.
Oh but life quickly starts to suck for young Martin. He starts to develop sores on his body and they quarantine him. Martin is able to contact Beth and finds out Bartok video taped them doing the nasty. Not proud to be an amateur porn star, Martin ravages his house to find cameras all over. He continues his romp to Bartok's video room to find a video of his father (in the first Fly movie) talking about his DNA splicing with a fly. Bartok arrives to inform Martin that he is part of an ongoing experiment.
This gets Martin a little pissed off and he escapes Bartok Industries. He hooks up with Beth who quickly notes he is in rough shape. They decide only one man can help them and that would be Stathis Borans from the first film. Martin previously saw him in one of his father's videos. Turns out he is still a little bitter about having his leg and hand melted off by a Brundle. However, he does inform Martin and Beth that the cure for Martin's condition may be within the Pods. He also offers up his jeep so the two won't be spotted in their original car.
The two love birds...er...flies head off to a sleazy hotel for the night. In the middle of the evening, Martin starts going off the deep end and claims he is becoming powerful. Matter of fact, he goes into pupa stage which prompts Beth to call Bartok. They transport the Martin pupa to the lab and agree he is about to reborn as something a bit different. Beth is also taken to the lab and pressured by Bartok to giving an unknown password to the Brundle Pod's computer. Turns out Martin locked everyone out of the system.
Reaching the age of fly puberty, Martin hatches out of the pupa thus emerging as a 7 foot fly with an attitude. Martin runs...um...buzzes around making a mess of Bartok's employees. The whole place gets the lock down treatment but Martin easily gets through to Bartok. Bartok puts a few bullets into Martin which basically does nothing. Martin hauls Bartok into the Brundle Pods and enters with him in tow. Beth transports the two into the other pod curing Martin of his ailments and leaving Bartok a human bowel movement.
There is really no comparison between this sequel and the Jeff Goldblum classic. The Fly really pushed the envelope of disgust to a point hardly ever seen in horror. The plot was intriguing and it really took the Vincent Price classic to a whole new level. This sequel comes off a bit on the "blah" side due to a weak story. Simply thrown in an evil company into any plot (no matter how bad) and something can be built around it. It was also sad to see few so few cast returns. The actor who played Borans was the only one back for more.
The movie is not without it's high points which is mainly made up in the gore category. The special effects, although not nearly as repulsive as The Fly, assist in distracting the viewers attention from the shot acting and redundant plot. Somehow Stoltz and Zungia got past this and went on to achieve great success. Funny how horror is the starting point of many great acting careers.
The Fly 2 may come off to some as a useless sequel but I say even if this movie came off as a big pile of sh*t to some people, at least there was a 7 foot fly around to clean it up.
1.) Finger Food - Martin's doggy pal gets transformed into a mutant and bites the fingers off a lab worker. I wonder if Purina is working on a lab worker flavored pet food for f*cked up looking golden retrievers.
2.) Face Off - Martin melts a guard worker's face off in one of the most awesome gory scenes ever. The guy screams as he pulls his face off to bone. Seth Brundle is smiling somewhere in the mutated fly-human afterlife.
3.) No Love In This Elevator - A guard's head gets popped when an elevator shaft crushes it. Better than the headache you get from elevator music I say.
4.) Ben Dover - Martin gives an extreme chiropractic lesson to the head of the guards when he bends him in half.
1.) Anton Bartok - A diabolical business owner who gets mutated at the end and thrown into a cage. I think him and the Human Chicken from Freaks would make great porn together...actually...maybe not.
2.) Bartok Industries - Want to work in an exciting work environment with great potential to excel...don't we all! That why for a limited time only, Bartok Industries are offering up many exciting career options such as;
Guard Killing Fodder
Mutated Lab Animal
Generic Evil Scientist
Over-Developed Fly-Kid
And much, much more!
Apply in person or over the phone, operators will be standing by!
(Note; Operators may not be readily available if they are running from a 7 foot Brundle Fly. Bartok Industries will not assume responsibility if anything in "Its The Innards that Count" section happens to you...jerk off.)
