A Major Disappointment

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It's been a long time since I saw this film and a long time since I saw the first one too, but it's been on my mind to say something about it. Wishmaster is a 10/10 film for me. It's a fantastic story of good vs. evil executed brilliantly.The second film just doesn't work as well for a number of reasons. It goes wrong very near the beginning, the first wish is too much of a stretch. The Djinn is only really supposed to be able to take a person's wishes and interpret them in a different way. When a police officer tells the Djinn to "Freeze" that isn't a wish. It's a command, and in my opinion the Djinn shouldn't have been able to freeze him and claim his soul. In addition, in Wishmaster 2 most of the wishes feel like set pieces. In the first film the wishes worked so well because they were an integral part of the plot, and each one moved the story forward in some way.The other thing that bothers me throughout the film is Andrew Divoff's performance. In Wishmaster the Djinn is charismatic and intelligent. He is malevolence incarnate. In Wishmaster 2 I get the impression that Andrew has been told the Djinn is supposed to feel awkward in human form, and he is to play it like that. As a result, the Djinn comes across as more like a robot than the confident super-natural being he is supposed to be. It makes me wonder if the director insisted Andrew play it like that.There are a few redeeming features though. Holly Fields performance is good, and she manages to carry the plot of the film well enough. The tag line "Evil never dies" is simple, but clever, philosophy and I like that. And although most of the wishes don't work very well, one or two of them do.If you are willing to persist with the series I found that both Wishmaster 3 and Wishmaster 4 are not as bad. They're nothing like as good as the original, of course, but they're watchable, and unlike this one, they don't make you wonder what on Earth the director was thinking.

WISHMASTER was an affectionate horror B-movie of the late '90s with a nice genre cast and a fun line in gruesome effects. WISHMASTER 2: EVIL NEVER DIES is the straight to video sequel, made with half the budget and half the talent, and it's pretty middling as B-grade horror flicks go. The whole character of the Wishmaster who always grants the wishes of his victims, but in a surprising, negative way, is clearly modelled on late-era Freddy Krueger and nothing more than a cheap imitation. Despite this, I did like Andrew Divoff in the role. Divoff played the villain in the first two films but bailed for the latter two, and he's one of the best things in this one: in fact, given the less-than-stellar calibre of the rest of the cast, he is the one actor who gives a fun turn. Essentially he seems to be trying to wear the same expression throughout the movie – a fixed grin, no less – and he succeeds.The lack of a storyline is lamentable and the film itself a string of gory deaths, enlivened by a larger scale climax in which the patrons of a casino are subject to all kinds of devilish horrors. The special effects are physical rather than computer generated, and they benefit from that in a cheap, rubbery way. I seem to recall that they stick pretty close to those you saw in the first film, but there's no harm in that; after all, this is a film in which the entertainment value comes from seeing how the Wishmaster twists the wishes of his victims, turning them into something horrific. The cell door death is probably the most extreme, but I did enjoy the carnage of the climax and the cheesy effects that accompany it.The female lead is awful and the guy playing the priest wooden in the extreme. The cast boasts cameos from two regular cameo guys: the hulking Tommy 'Tiny' Lister as a prison guard, and Robert LaSardo as a tattooed convict. Genre director Jack Sholder cut his teeth on three notable horrors from the 1980s: ALONE IN THE DARK, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART 2, and THE HIDDEN, but his talent seems to have dwindled since those days because he's stuck making films like this.

I had a smattering of C++ in my school days and I remember all those painful loops that I had to execute. There are the while,if and for loops for the beginners, that I know and the Wishmaster series seems to follow this programme. Here, instead we have Wish... Kill... Wish... Kill... 1001 times, then go for the Achilles blow. The series is extremely one dimensional, made just to exploit the special effects and show gory deaths. In Wishmaster 2, there's this 1001 deaths for Apocalypse condition that gives the movie an excuse to be slightly different from the original.The evil and artful djinn is released once again, and put into prison from where he begins his soul collection, the weirdest hobby ever. The girl releasing the djinn is an 'impure' thief whose boyfriend gets shot and 'Benjamin buttoned' in the beginning. Girl gets nightmares, consults her taciturn and abstemious priest (ex-boyfriend, It's Complicated) who is supportive of her. Both try to stop the djinn, and meanwhile the djinn becomes enterprising in the jail. He then goes big with the help of another inmate, and owns a casino. You know what happens next, right.Jack Sholder's Nightmare on the Elm Street 2: Freddie's Revenge was derided as the weakest of the NOES series. However, my opinions on the film were slightly different. I did not find the movie to be spooky in any way but it was engaging and in parts hilarious. So I had given the film a 5 out of 10, way more than its average rating. Wishmaster 2, to me is in many ways better than the agonizing prequel which was quite dull and only good in the last fifteen minutes. This one is quite implausible, mainly because the djinn ceases to remain clandestine in his approach. Now when so many living people know that a man has magical powers, he is bound to attract more attention. There is a completely incredulous sequence where the Russian wants to become the boss, and tells the djinn to ask the present leader to make a wish, which the latter does. The current boss' wish of having his 'enemies head' comes true as he literally gets his enemies' face on him (face change for free) and his dumbstruck henchmen kick him out, while the Russian prances around and proclaims his supremacy. Now that's plain stupid to me. Also, the Russian's reaction when he sees the actual face of the djinn seems to calm; I would've got a heart-attack there and then. The movie succeeds in keeping the entire atmosphere slightly engaging. There are many deaths in the movie, and the one who's face gets squashed in between the grills is the best. The climax havoc is also shot well, and there's a lady crapping gold coins too! Andrew Divoff has more screen time and he seems to be like Kratos of God of War Series, with only one motive 'I need your soul to fulfill the prophesy'. One dimensional, but who cares as long as people die horribly!The film has better performances than those of the prequel. Holly Fields seems flustered and scared, typical of a horror movie girl but at least she's not mundane like Tammy. She has her own sins, and she needs to be pure in order to defeat the djinn. Frankly, it was mainly a boyfriend effect as she was a bad chick with her first guy and obviously Ms. Goody Two Shoes with her priest friend. Its a decent add-on to such a one-dimensional plot. Paul Johannson is a bit wooden, but decent for a low-budget horror flick. Though I was surprised at the rapidness and dexterity with which he took of Holly's top when they had sex. Naughty priest! The film can be put into the 'Guilty Pleasure' category. Watch it for cheap thrills or if you need a break from watching all those great award-winning films. My rating: 6/10

If anyone in the world knows writer/director Jack Sholder by name, it's probably because he directed "The Hidden" and more infamously, "Nightmare On Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge". Apparently he's somewhat of an authority on lackluster horror sequels, because as it turns out he's also the uhm, creative force behind "Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies". I have to say though, there's one truly good thing about it: Andrew Divoff is still on board in this installment, so it's not at all a complete waste of time. His performance is significantly less subtle this time around, but it's still consistently entertaining. The biggest problem with the movie is Sholder's weak script, which lacks inspiration and just feels very far-fetched and forced. I know the Wishmaster can bend pretty much everything people say to him into a wish, but here it just gets ridiculous. At one point a cop yells "freeze!", which somehow ables the Djinn to freeze him. How does that work? Little illogical things like those are all over this movie. It's not all bad though, because from time to time there are some cool scenes. I actually liked quite a few of the prison scenes, the deaths looked very good. This is not the worst of the bunch, but definitely not the best either.