The original F/X was a moderately successful movie. It certainly wasn't anything great but it did have unmistakable quirkiness in regards to how it approached the action genre. This sequel took five years to follow it, which does seem quite slow by the standards of the day. It teamed up the duo of Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy again, the former playing the lead character, special effects artist Rollie Tyler.
The film opens once again with another amusing opening that turns out to be a film-within-a-film, featuring a transvestite alien lunatic. The story kicks into gear when Rollie's police detective friend is killed on a sting he was roped into. He has evidence of foul play though, so he joins forces with his private investigator buddy to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. Truthfully, the story is not very good and ultimately is only there to serve as a means to connect various action and jovial banter scenes together. In fairness, like the first movie, there are some entertainingly different action scenes to enjoy. Especially good was the robot clown fight, which was a refreshingly different way to approach an action movie punch up; also amusing was the shop sequence where the bad guy is finally dispatched when he has his head mechanically cellophaned like a supermarket chicken! But all-in-all, irrespective of these occasional original moments, F/X 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion is nothing to get too excited about. It's a passably entertaining action flick and no more really.
