The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

source: The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The original Marigold Hotel was pretty predictable, mostly populated with clichéd elderly British caricatures. This sequel, the "Second Best" Marigold Hotel is a lot less predictable and has more substance to it. The ending is particularly poignant. And I'm always a sucker for a nice bit of Bollywood dancing. Watch out for Judy Dench joyfully dancing anti clockwise when everyone else is rotating clockwise in the big finale. I imagine the whole thing was a bit of a nightmare for the choreographer! Richard Gere is a nice addition to the mix, albeit playing exactly the same character he plays in every single movie, going right back to Pretty Woman. Strong performance from Dev Patel, though he will always be Neal from The Newsroom from now on. Thoroughly enjoyable movie. Plus the Bollywood dancing.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's been about 4 years since the delightful first film, based on Deborah Moggach's novel, was a box office hit. My review of that film was the first time I used the phrase "gray cinema" - describing a growing genre specifically targeting the aging population. Neither director John Madden nor writer Ol Parker have had much going on since, and they re-team for this sequel that should satisfy most of the sure-to-return core audience. Spirited and energetic hotelier Sonny (Dev Patel) is back and has his sights set on expansion to a nearby second property. Most of the original residents are also back: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, and Diana Hardcastle. Lilette Dubey returns as Sonny's mother, Tina Desai is now his fiancé, and Penelope Wilton resurfaces after dumping Bill Nighy in the first movie. New faces to the scene include Richard Gere, Tamsin Greig and David Strathairn, along with a few other lesser, but effective supporting roles. A similar extended pre-opening credit sequence is again utilized to catch us up on the status of the regulars. Maggie Smith is now co-managing the hotel. Judi Dench is a buyer of local fabrics. Bill Nighy is a willing, but inept tour guide. Celie Imrie is juggling two wealthy suitors. Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle are working – at jobs and at a relationship. Mr Patel and Ms Smith take a business meeting to the U.S. to meet with Mr. Strathairn with a design on financing the second property. Mostly the trip is an excuse for Dame Maggie to crack wise about us uncultured Americans, and few can deliver a one-liner like this lady. It's also on this trip, where Patel's character begins a change in tone. In the first movie, his character was eager, naïve, pleasant and charming. This time, his ambitious nature is over-the-top and actually quite annoying (by design yes, but still annoying). This single feature affects the pleasant nature and unnecessarily puts us on edge and prevents us from connecting with a key character. What's very clear is that this film misses the structure of Ms. Moggach's novel, and the numerous sub-stories come at us so quickly that every character is mostly surface level with no real depth allowed. The best exchanges are between Ms Dench and Ms Smith (one being 19 days older than the other), while poor Mr Nighy is treated like a wounded puppy for much of the story. Also lacking is the cultural clash so prevalent in the first, and instead we witness a group that has acclimated to the surroundings preventing any real interesting conflict – though the colorful sights of town are still amazing to see. The "high-speed" tuk-tuk chase adds an element of humor, and of course we get the Bollywood-style dance number at the end of Sonny's wedding to Sunaina (Tina Desai). Despite the flaws, there are still plenty of laughs and loads of charm, and it's certainly a pleasure to see a welcome response to the question "Is age a barrier to happiness?". The actors and the setting make this an enjoyable two hours, though some may question the attempt at a deeper philosophical approach at the end.

It's not often I go to print on this site, but this time I felt obliged to, having been drawn to the cinema to see the follow up to the wonderful Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which I saw a couple of times on its release. It's refreshing to see that some other reviewers have seen through the layers of sugar and syrup. While many have enjoyed this lighthearted, colourful film as a slice of escapism, I have to say I struggled to stay awake as it irritated rather than engaged me. I went with a friend who hadn't seen the first one and she loved it as it reminded her of a recent holiday to India. It will do well simply by drawing in the crowds who were beguiled when we were first introduced to the hotel and characters three years ago. My 4/10 score is possibly overgenerous. The script and story lines are contrived beyond belief, the hotel inspector 'farce' is ridiculous, the dance sequences a poor attempt to emulate Slumdog Millionaire. In short, the whole thing's been dumbed down to the lowest common denominators to make money and I rather regret contributing to its inevitable financial success.

I am quite convinced these days that sequels rarely deliver these days and the proof is in the pudding in this one so to speak. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel had a refreshing feel to it as seven British pensioners move to Jaipur, India to retire and enjoy the culture of their new home whereas this movie brought nothing new to the table. I had the feeling this movie had the hallmarks of a stinker within say, the first couple of minutes and I was sitting in the theater waiting for this two hour bore fest escape my mind, hopefully permanently. Normally, I'm not a fan of Richard Gere but I will give him enough credit to say he wasn't the reason why this film ended up as crappy as a cheap tasting vindaloo. I gave it two out of 10 and the 2 stands for Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, two fine British actresses who probably wish they hadn't appeared in this film as I thought the two of them well outperformed the rest of the cast by a country mile. Biggest weakness besides the acting of the ensemble cast was of course a poorly slapped together script, much like a dog's breakfast I might add, as too much was happening with too many characters and plots to follow and most didn't serve much of a purpose in the grand scheme of things. I found one thing funny though, one of the characters, can't remember who, orders a cup of tea and instead of boiling water being used, the water was lukewarm in the tea being served, much like this film was.

I didn't enjoy this movie, and I would not recommend it to a friend. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes in the middle. I'm not sure why it lacked the first movie's charm for me, but one thing is that it didn't seem to have much of a story. It lacked depth. It was too busy. I couldn't piece it together. Most of the romance was cliché and dreary and unbelievable. I didn't like the character of Sonny Kapoor, but I| couldn't tell whether it was Patel's acting or the character itself (he was supposed to be annoying). I was unable to coast only on scenes of the "elderly and beautiful" doing their thing and life in Jaipur, India. (Although getting to know that city through the movie makes up for it...) At the end, Maggie Smith was delivering a profound message -- but I didn't get it and I'm sorry I didn't get it. I didn't even know why she was leaving. Did I miss something?

This movie was so boring my friend literally fell asleep. The only thing that kept me from falling asleep was the fact that I know that I snore and if I fell asleep people would hear me snore. I think I laughed twice...literally I counted. It was twice. I guess I could have just left but I kept hoping it would get better. But it never did. I have watched children's movies with more intriguing plot lines. I think my main complaint was simply that the movie had no real purpose. Nothing really happened. I kept finding myself wishing the movie was over.

Hmmm...well, we all looked forward to this one didn't we? The first was a hit with the grey hairs (of which I am one) and I guess someone looked at the receipts and thought hey, we should do this again. But, of course, what happens is the studio tries too hard to replicate the formula but in so doing creates a parody of the original. Same characters, mostly the same actors with the addition of Richard Gere (for the US market?) and Tamsin Greig. Just mix in a little local colour and off we go. Unfortunately, this particular gravy train runs out of steam pretty early on with the characters all pining after each other with unrequited love. Dev Patel's character quickly becomes irritating and his mother's fling with Richard Gere is a nonsense. The plot weaves endlessly to a point where I really couldn't care less about any of the characters and wanted the whole thing to end. Eventually it did with a cynical reprise of the Slumdog Millionaire dance sequence. I guess the actors who gyrated ineffectually just gritted their teeth and thought of the moolah rolling into their accounts. One to avoid.

The first film was bright, pretty truthful about old age, and extremely watchable. This is a surprise sequel made because the first made so much money - and it shows. There is a lack of invention, very poor script, anodyne characterisation, and, worst of all, the plot line and meat of the film all belong to tele/film land rather than to real older people. You can see why middle aged, middle class film critics are praising it. There is little of the worries of old people (eg death, families left behind in UK, reflections on the past), India is a sanitised OK place (no hot climate, no crowds, no dirt) so they can go on expiating colonial guilt, no racism (such bad form and only for Mail readers), and the themes and tropes all belong to familiar cinematic conventions - eg infidelity, second marriage, unrequited love and no money worries! So the piece is really only held together by two of our greatest thespians - Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, while the subplots would disgrace 'Midsomer Murders!' What a wretched disappointment of a movie. This really does patronise the grey audience it is aimed at. Real life or any approximation of it is totally missing. While the Bollywood elements are just a tack on to meet the criticisms of the first film by those middle aged critics again - not enough representation of India, dahling! Oh really!

in this lacklustre sequel, the residents of the Best exotic marigold hotel, instead of enjoying a peaceful retirement, are all rushing round getting jobs and dithering over their various romantic entanglements. Proprietor Sonny is looking to expand, despite the fact that the first hotel doesn't appear to be full. he is so absorbed in his new project that he is neglecting his lovely fiancée. to try and pad the film out to two hours, everyone keeps getting involved in pointless misunderstandings, which could be sorted out quite easily if anyone talked to each other, but they never do. there is none of the charm and humour that made the first film delightful to watch. This film raises the occasional faint smile, but no laughs such as I got from the first one. if you enjoyed the original film, you may like this one, but i wouldn't count on it.