No Expectations = Great Movie

The tagline, "More Laughs, More Music" has it wrong. I think expecting this movie to offer more of what American Grafitti did is what led to so many people being dissapointed. It's less of a sequel, and more of a follow-up to the characters and their lives after the first movie left off. Or, better yet, think of it as growing up. American Grafitti would be the teenager about to embark on the world, and More American Grafitti is the pre-middle aged adult: a little jaded, a lot of experience under the belt, but with still many adventures to embark on. There's pity, nostalgia, and hope. The characters are not perfect, and we see them reliving some of the same dynamics that they did as teens, only with more adult complications.

The other thing that probably threw a lot of people off was the cinematography, since different types of shots are used for the different time periods (1964, 1965,1967). But this helps the viewer keep track of past, recent past, and present, and also serves to help the "feel" of the different settings.

I would say, personally, that if you can let go of the first movie, you will be drawn into the drama of this one for a satisfying movie experience. I didn't say "entertaining", because there is a lot of sadness and concern...but a great movie nonetheless. In fact, I was worried about seeing More American Grafitti, because I was expecting it to fall prey to the common destiny of sequels: a more campy or melodramatic version of the original, with the filmakers saying to themselves "hey, the audience liked these parts of the first film, so let's just do more of it for the second". Then when I saw the different camera styles, I thought that they were trying to do the anti-American Grafitti thing. I was wrong on both counts, and pleasantly suprised by the results.

The thing that both movies have in common, though, aside from the characters, is that they managed to capture the feel of the eras they are set in. While this leaves us with movies that seem in stark contrast to each other despite being related, they both accomplished their goals admirably. They should both be classics in their own right.