''The Gods Must Be Crazy II'' is a 1989

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

written and directed by

Jamie Uys Jacobus Johannes Uys (; 30 May 1921 – 29 January 1996), better known as Jamie Uys, was a South African film director, best known for directing the 1980 comedy film '' The Gods Must Be Crazy'' and its 1989 sequel '' The Gods Must Be Crazy II'' ...

, and a sequel to the 1980 film ''

The Gods Must Be Crazy ''The Gods Must Be Crazy'' is a 1980 comedy film written, produced, edited and directed by Jamie Uys. An international co-production of South Africa and Botswana, it is the first film in ''The Gods Must Be Crazy'' series. Set in Southern Africa ...

'', which Uys also wrote and directed. An international co-production between South Africa, Botswana and the United States, it was produced by the

Weintraub Entertainment Group Weintraub Entertainment Group (WEG) was a film production company considered to be a mini-major studio founded by Jerry Weintraub. History Weintraub Entertainment Group was formed on July 1, 1986 by Jerry Weintraub. In February 1987, WEG receiv ...

and released by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

on 13 October 1989. In the United States, it was released by

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

on 13 April 1990.

Plot

The film has four storylines, which run in parallel and interact: #Xixo trying to find his lost children #Two elephant poachers travelling in a truck on which Xixo's children are stuck #A zoologist and a lawyer stranded in a desert #Two soldiers fighting each other The story starts with two elephant poachers, the chronically mean "Big Ben" Brenner and his affable but not-very-bright assistant George, crossing the area in which Xixo's tribe lives. Curious about their vehicle, Xixo's son Xiri and daughter Xisa climb into the water tank trailer and are taken for an involuntary ride as the poachers continue. Xixo follows on foot, determined to retrieve his children. Dr. Ann Taylor, a young lawyer from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, arrives at a bush resort to give a lecture at a legal conference. Since she has spare time, she accepts the invitation of a young man to take a joyride in a two-seat, twin engine ultralight aircraft. They go to see scientist Dr. Stephen Marshall, who has just been radioed that he must report to the resort where Dr. Taylor just came from to tend to a wounded animal they have found. Leaving the other pilot to watch his truck and equipment, he heads for the resort in the ultralight with Ann aboard, but encounter severe weather and crash, stranding them in the

Kalahari desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...

. In addition, war is brewing, personified by a lost

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n soldier (Mateo) and his

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

n enemy (Timi), who repeatedly attempt to take each other prisoner. In the course of the movie, all these people cross paths with Xixo and/or his children. Finally, the plot culminates in the poachers capturing Xixo, Taylor, Marshall, and the two soldiers. Xixo manages to save them, and George, who is actually a nice guy kept under the heel of his boss, gives Xixo directions to his children. The poachers are captured, both soldiers come to somewhat reluctant terms and part without further violence, Taylor and Marshall return to civilization (though not without a last embarrassing accident), entering into a romantic relationship, and Xixo finds his children.

Cast

* N!xau as Xixo * Eiros as Xiri * Nadies as Xisa * Hans Strydom as Dr. Stephen Marshall * Lena Farugia as Dr. Ann Taylor * Erick Raymond Bowen Alfaro as Mateo * Treasure Tshabalala as Timi * Pierre van Pletzen as George * Lourens Swanepoel as "Big Ben" Brenner * Dawid Kruiper as Oom Dawid

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, 54% of 13 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8 out of 10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a weighted average, gave the film a score of 51 out of 100 based on 17 reviews, meaning "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gods Must Be Crazy II 1988 films American comedy films South African comedy films Botswana films 1988 comedy films English-language South African films Afrikaans-language films Films set in Botswana Films set in South Africa Films shot in Botswana Films about hunter-gatherers Films directed by Jamie Uys Films scored by Charles Fox Columbia Pictures films 20th Century Fox films Weintraub Entertainment Group films American sequel films South African sequel films 1989 comedy films 1989 films 1980s American films