I actually loved it more than the original

Of course being a motor head, there's no wonder why.

I really enjoyed the John Milner character played by LeMat and thought his performance was the best part of Part 2. Mid-60's was the best era in Drag Racing with names like Prudhomme, Garlits, Muldowney, Ivo, etc. and the hobby racers, even in Top Fuel, like Milner, were very colorful characters that you couldn't "not" like. The drag racing scenes at Baylands (R.I.P.) were top notch and very well done, very realistic. I also very much enjoyed the tales of Terry "Toad" Fields and his fellow Helicopter gunner Joe "The Pharoh" from part 1. I thought it was kind of neat how on a three man helo unit that two of them were long time aquaintances back int he world, even if that was a very unlikely scenario, however, I was very dissapointed when Joe was killed by sniper fire all so that the new Lieutenant could show boat with his new unit like this was some kind of game. Fortunately for the plot, (and with Fields' help) he quickly realized that it wasn't.Not that I advocate going A.W.O.L. during war time, but I found it redeeming that the same Lieutenant helped Toad escape his unit near the end as a token of his appreciation for Toad saving his life. The Drag Racing Milner story was great, Fields' Vietnam story was great, Steve and Lori, while at times annoying, was a very good representation of the times while still having a connection to the first movie due to their characters, however, the 4th story, the Hippies had absolutely NO connection to the first save for the very short couple of appearances of Mackenzie Phillips ("Rainbow") and of course "Officer" John Falfa having a very brief cameo towards the beginning of the movie. All in all, I think the movie could have done without that story as it lent NOTHING to the story of the people of American Graffiti. All in all though, the movie is one of my favorites and I actually like it even more than part 1 thanks to the Drag Racing and Vietnam scenes. I was just grossly dissapointed that Milner and Fields had to die, though we knew that was coming going into the movie. That reminds me, why couldn't Milner have dies racing or something more noble of a man of his persona?