Why, God? Why?
Pure Country 2: The Gift (2010)
Directed By: Christopher Cain (The Next Karate Kid)
The Prologue
Being from the GREAT state of Tennessee, I know a thing or two about country music. I also know a thing or two about 1992′s Pure Country, starring the legendary singer, George Straight. So when I noticed, Pure Country 2: The Gift sitting on a shelf with George on the cover, for a moment I had a hope. I had even more hope when I saw it was directed by the same man who directed the original. Of course the fact that Mr.Lois and Clark himself Dean Cain is a co-writer did strike me as odd. So why not give it a chance, right? After all, I did kinda dig the original Pure Country. So I gave this a watch..and I shall never give this another watch again.
The Movie
Three angels (Cheech Marin, Michael McKean, and Bronson Pinchot) bestow the gift of song to a young girl, who must follow a series of rules in order hold on to it during her rise to fame and fortune. We do have George Straight from the original film here as well, but sadly he’s not playing the character from before, he’s just playing himself. So, if that makes you wonder why they bothered calling this Pure Country 2, then rest a sure you are not alone in that way of thinking. What we get doesn’t seem like a sequel to that surprisingly good movie. What we get seems like its best fit for the Lifetime channel.
I won’t lie, I think any hope for this film I had went out the window when the movie opened up with the three angels (One being Cheech Marin of all people). Not that I don’t dig that stuff, it’s nothing at all like that. It’s just that given the subject matter of the film this one fallows, it’s as out of left field as a pink elephant in a room. This would be one giant warning sign as to what was to come in the film as the movie switches to our leading lady, Bobbi (Played by Katrina Elam). She of course gets the gift to sing at a very young age. She’s not raised by her parents (I’m pretty sure her mom’s dead) and hasn’t gotten to ever met her father (Who is a drunk). If she only had a dog that had died as well, we’d have the blueprint for a country story now wouldn’t we?
Katrina Elam is a good actress, I won’t even try to pretend that she isn’t. But let’s call it how we see it here. This movie goes about as by the book for musical themed dramas as it could have gone. Just by reading the plot and the details to it, I bet you could already guess every little thing that is going to take place while this movie is going on. And I also bet you can guess just about how everything will turn out in the end. I guess the world needs films that are by the book like that. But why do such predictability and such a boring story with the sequel to something like Pure Country? That movie at least seemed different at the time.
Now with the music aspect of the film, the music plays a major part of the whole thing. The original had a great soundtrack and spawned a few classic country songs that you can still hear in bars and at weddings today. This one has music that is just OK. Just add that to the list of letdowns that this movie throws at you along the way. I guess older movie watchers and hardcore country music fans could take a liking to this one, but the casual fan will be bored and disappointed. So if you liked the first film you may want to just ignore this one. As the old song goes, “leave the memories alone”. No lasting memories will come from this besides just how boring and disappointing it is.
The Conclusion
While Pure Country was never the world’s best film, it deserved a lot better of a sequel than this. And while it wouldn’t have saved it, it would have been nice to have had George Straight play Dusty instead of just himself. But this is what you get with straight to video sequels, I guess. Just skip it, folks.
The Rating (4.5/10)
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