father of the bride ii follows the 1991 father of the bride , itself a remake of the 1950 movie by the same title . the original was a nice , high-bourgeoisie , mainstream film . the father was spencer tracy--who could do no wrong in his roles . the daughter was elizabeth taylor . that film was followed by father's little dividend ( 1951 ) , also with tracy and taylor . it is that last movie that has been now remade as father of the bride ii . i have not seen the 1991 picture and my memory of father's little dividend is hazy , so no comparisons will be made . but i have seen father of the bride ii and i can tell you that if you want to see steve martin in fine fettle in a good picture , find something else to watch . there's ample choice , including four fine films that for mysterious reasons averaged poor-to-mediocre reviews : pennies from heaven , three amigos , my blue heaven , and housesitter . the script of father of the bride ii is based on that of father's little dividend , but this time there are two pregnancies . george banks ( martin ) is a wealthy man approaching 50 contented with his life , kids , wife and house . he say so at the start of the movie , addressing the audience . there is more of this later too . the uncreative way the monologue is handled shows that it is used as a crutch . when his married daughter announces that she is pregnant , george goes into a blue funk at the idea of aging and becoming a grandfather . this too is handled lamely , opting for sentiment instead of having steve martin do a manic-depressive turn . george tries rejuvenating his appearance by dyeing his white hair and other steps . in a moment of abandon he makes love to his wife nina ( keaton ) on the kitchen floor . let's cut to the chase . some time later the senior couple find out that nina is pregnant , to her delight and to his shock . but he comes around and everything goes swimmingly as mother and daughter both produce babies next door to each other in the same hospital and at the exact same time . if you can swallow that much coincidence you should see the infinitely funnier ( but naughty ) " micki + maude , " a 1984 farce by blake edwards in which bigamist tv reporter dudley moore has two wives giving birth at the same time and place . skip , however the 1995 pregnancy movie " nine months " ( with hugh grant ) , which is pretty poor , except for robin wiliams's turn . father of the bride ii is phony throughout and disconnected from real life , or at least the life of the huge majority of viewers . the banks live in a mansion that would make cary grant and myrna loy ( in mr . blandings builds his dream house ( 1948 ) green with envy . george's profession and source of income are a mystery . the only time we see him in his work-place is when he crosses a large office while getting from his secretary a list of famous people who are his seniors . father of the brdie ii is a rich people's film . when for reasons i will not go into , george has sold his house then wants to buy it back from mr . habib ( eugene levy ) the entrepreneur , he thinks nothing of returning habib's check plus a bonus of $100 , 000 . with the help of another entrepreneur , the family friend played by martin short , george then gets going on building an addition , a " baby suite " that could easily house a small family . then comes a luxurious two-babies-shower , also orchestrated by martin short . wnna bet that george and nina do not clip grocery coupons ? very , very little is funny about this film , in spite of martin's unquestioned abilities . instead we get a lot of delighted squealing ( as when the daughter makes her announcement ) and dumb , silly scenes ( as in the dog sequence ) . we get oceans of glop and an overall atmosphere that is like an updated or transplanted eisenhower-era mentality , when much of america was optimistic and thriving . the picture also wallows in corny sentiment , like a flashback of george teaching basketball to his then-little girl to the sounds of awful swelling music . ( normally composer alan silvestri does a lot better than in this picture ) . what's even worse is that the film is so lethargic that a sleeping-pills incident stands as a symbol of the whole . at the same time the movie manages to offend people right and left : arabs ( the grasping , cold mr . habib ) , hospital staff ( they make an initial mistake ) and doctors ( there is mistrust of obstetrician dr . eisenberg who is young and a woman ) . canines too . more irritating yet is the role of martin short as frank eggelhoffer . he is an unexplained friend ( unless perhaps you know father of the bride ) who is now an interior decorator , now a contractor , now a caterer . introduced as a flaming gay , in gestures and speech he minces , flounces , overdoes everything so much that he is an insult to both gays and straights . with vague european origins , he speaks with an accent that's neither german or anything else . it starts out highly exaggerated then ebbs , flows and changes as the movie unreels . his nom-de-film is taken , i bet , from the screwball classic nothing sacred ( 1937 ) where the great supporting actor sig ruman played dr . eggelhoffer . the only four things i liked in father of the bride ii were jane adams in her small part as the charming and most professional dr . eisenberg ; the two dobermans ; and george's beautiful two-seater convertible . neither the end credits nor the body of the movie identify the car . for once , product placement would have been welcome . 
