Jim Wynorski's Big Bad Mama II is a sequel to the first movie by Steve Carver in the same way that Evil Dead II (1987) is a sequel to The Evil Dead (1981): it isn't so much a sequel as a glorified remake. Angie Dickinson is back as Wilma McClatchie, a 1930s outlaw on the run with her two nubile daughters. This time around, the plot is a little more developed than it was in the first movie. Instead of just going on a crime spree, the McClatchie's focus their criminal activities on the wicked land baron running for governor who was responsible for the death of Wilma's husband. Like in the first movie, they eventually meet up with two traveling companions. But instead of them being two small-time crooks (like in the first movie), they are, respectively, a newspaper reporter who transforms them into folk heroes in the media and the governor's son that they originally kidnapped for ransom but later chose to join them in their crime spree. I've read many reviews that claimed that Big Bad Mama II is worse than the first film. But I disagree. The film's characters are much more three-dimensional than they were in the first film. The daughters have actual personalities whereas in the first film they only really existed to get naked for the audience and to provide cheap narrative drama by getting pregnant. I will admit that the film does suffer from a distinct lack of William Shatner's suave gambler from the first movie. But otherwise, Big Bad Mama II is simply a better film. And, no, I don't care if the director would later go on to direct Syfy original movies. Even broken clocks are right twice a day.
7/10
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