Release Date: December 10, 1993
Watch Date: March 24 – March 25, 2024
“Everybody’s favorite nun is back in the habit. This time, Deloris Van Cartier goes undercover as Sister Mary Clarence at a troubled inner-city school. Equipped with a melody-marching lesson plan, she brings the gift of laughter, the power of music and a touch of heavenly inspiration to the classroom…before the streetwise students discover who she really is.”
Bob has never watched this movie – and that’s not for a lack of desire. He really enjoys Sister Act, and he’s always wanted to watch the sequel, but the nuns second time on the silver screen was banned from his home. You see, as I think we’ve discussed before, Bob’s mother isn’t the greatest – and if she doesn’t like something no one can like it, and therefore; no one would should interact with it at all. What if someone is watching it and she observes it by osmosis? What if they don’t agree with her opinion? Obviously, the smartest thing to do is ban the entire film.
Now was it ban worthy? That’s what Bob and I, who had only ever watched this movie once when really young, were preparing to decide for ourselves.
It’s not good. Let me just say that upfront. Any of the emotional impact, any of the magic from the songs, or there being any stakes at all, anything that made the first one special? That’s not in this movie.
It’s just another film about people coming in, mostly white people, and deciding that if they could just get poor urban kids to realize their potential they could really be somebody. Or one singular choir full of kids who will graduate at the end of the year will keep the school open. Or something.
How anyone is fooled by Sister Mary Clarence again, I have no idea. See, she doesn’t really have to be a nun in this one – other than only nuns could work at the school. At monks I suppose. But I’m sure if asked the church would have letter, she’s performed for the Pope! It’s not like she’s exactly an unknown in Catholic circles, her story was everywhere, and I’m sure close religious communities would have discussed her. It’s just an excuse to get Whoopi Goldberg back in a nun costume, and it feels contrived and pointless.
Mr. Crisp is a school…executive? He works for the church. He’s supposed to be the villain but how makes no sense. Bob was under the assumption that if the school closed, something Mr. Crisp seems to want, he could sell the property and make money. But the property doesn’t belong to him. He’s an employee of the Catholic Church. He’s worked at the school for 30 years and I guess he wants to retire early and the easiest way to do that is if the school closes? But my man, that sucks but that’s how life works. You have to work a certain number of years to collect your pension. If you don’t like it, get another job. But you don’t flood the public school system because you want to be able to chill on a beach. Or…whatever it is a church employee for three decades would do with all his free time? But what he wants, and how he plans to accomplish is never really fully explained.
I like the monk characters that we’re introduced to. They don’t add a ton to the movie, but they’re fun just for the sake of it. Bob thought there would be a romance arc between Mother Superior and the head monk until I reminded him that they’re a nun and a monk and so that kind of defeats the purpose.
We don’t really get to know what happens to the kids of the school afterwards, unlike the original with it’s many magazine covers, this one just has the characters doing a rendition of another song over the credits. And all they sing are Christian songs, or old pop songs that really have nothing to do with God. What I’m trying to say is that the song selection isn’t unique or interesting.
Is this movie ban worthy? Absolutely not. It’s not so offensive that I’d never allow it to play in my house. It’s not even particularly bad. It just came a year after the original, didn’t give the original any room to breathe and didn’t have enough time to create a proper plot or put any emotion into the sequel. Is it something I’d put on all that often though? Probably not.
In other news our toddler has been running around the house singing “We Are Family” for the past 24 hours. So that’s something we have to live with now.
Doc and Bob's Disney Adventure 
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