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An unexpected hit, the first movie also did and said just about everything there was to with the subject, so any sequel would naturally feel redundant. But unexpected hits don’t stay lonesome for long in Hollywood, and but so only 18 months later, there was a follow up, that many viewers of the first opted to stay away from. The “racy innuendos” — thanks as always MPAA for finding just the right turn of phrase — of the first give way here to more overt drug and sex content (Alice unwittingly serves up psychedelic mushrooms at the dinner table, Marcia and Greg struggle with the fact they want to get too groovily close for comfort) but still on the affectionate side of good taste. The star cameos are fairly weak (Zsa Zsa Gabor and Rosie O’Donnell) but the silly plot borrowed from The Addams Family movie (is that really Carol’s long-lost first husband/the long-lost Uncle Fester who has mysteriously shown up, or just an impostor) is more engaging than the “raising money to pay property taxes” conceit of the first.

In the biggest surprise, Tim Matheson, who plays the enigmatic Roy Martin, brings the lightest of comedy touches to the proceedings, and whether tripping out at the dinner table, being forced to endure a Brady makeover at a vintage clothing store, or listening to Mike Brady’s tortured philosophical maxims without cracking up, he makes more of his role than Michael McKean was able to do as the villainous neighbor in the first film (though to be fair, McKean had to endure infinitely more pratfalls).

There are an equal number of spot-on musical productions (at the mall, on a plane) as the first, just the right amount of self-awareness and self-reflexivity (the final guest cameo is the best) and a dash of cringe-inducing ridiculousness. Perhaps the biggest compliment that can be paid to A Very Brady Sequel is that, even with a different director, and screenwriting team, it sets out to do what The Brady Bunch Movie did exactly and as well as its predecessor, and comes close, missing out only on the novelty of the first that is the sometimes burden of being a Chapter Two.

Next time: With summer movie going just around the corner, I weigh in on two of the biggest franchises of the last decade to see which superhero sequel reigns supreme. It’s Spider Man 2 vs. X2: X-Men United, bub.

(Oh, and it was Vanilla Sky).

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