TheLittleSongbird Considering how great the first film was, 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' had a lot to live up to. Despite the mixed reviews, the cast are such a talented one and it did look interesting. Did also question the point initially and, considering that sequels with a few exceptions rarely are as good or better than their predecessors, expectations were sort of mixed.Finally seeing 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel', it was moderately enjoyable but with a fair share of faults so was a disappointment compared to its predecessor. Not as bad as some reviewers have made out, but it could have been much better and the complaints/criticisms are understandable and legitimate from personal opinion.Starting with 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel's' faults, it does get off to a slow start with the first half an hour taking too long to get going. There are also too many subplots, some of them not developed enough, slow the film down and are a little too contrived-ly written.Not all the cast work this time either. Dev Patel and Tamsin Grieg are annoying, but worst of all is an out of place Richard Gere who is very wooden as a character that was better left out. A little too heavy on the clichés too, with not enough done to make them interesting.However, 'The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' looks absolutely splendid. It's gorgeously filmed and the scenery is to die for. As is the lovely and authentic in flavour music.Parts of the script do work well, though the first film achieved a better balance of funny comedy and heartfelt drama. There are some heart-warming life lessons, some funny witty moments, uplifting warmth and cosy charm. The story is problematic, being a bit slow going in places and bloated, but does boast enough heart and charm, the ending is very touching.Of the talented cast, the standouts are the always good Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. Bill Nighy is a lot of fun too as is Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup similarly charms. One does miss Tom Wilkinson however.In summary, second best but not second rate. 6/10 Bethany Cox

David The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is the sequel to the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Once more we meet the British pensioners, now permanently living at the hotel. Each one of them occupies themselves with different kinds of work and also helping out at the hotel. Everything seems to work out great, but problems lies just around the corner for everyone. Sonny the Indian, who runs the hotel, wants to expand and invest in another property but at the same time he is heading for the altar with his girlfriend Sunaina. The whole thing naturally goes very wrong and on top of it all, they are expecting an undercover hotel inspector for the eventual expand.The Second Best Exotic Marigod Hotel is like the first film, incredibly beautiful to watch. Many scenes are shot out on the streets of India, and we experience the crowd and the colors of the country. The film is actually a very good commercial film for India as a nation, and I myself would very much like to visit the country after watching these two films. Almost the entire cast from the first film returns. The list of actors is long with names like Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Bill Nighy, Dev Patel and Penelope Wilton. Also Richard Gere takes part in the cast as an American visiting the hotel.The film is very pleasant to watch and works well against the culture of India in the background. All the different characters have different relations to each other, some being romantically and others just on friendly terms. This is at the same time the weak spot of the film. It does become quite messy after a while to keep track on all the stories and at the same time follow Sonny with his hotel. I also think it's a pity that the British actors very rarely interact with each other. They all have their own stories on the side and they rarely cross paths. With such a heavy list of actors I did hope for more encounters and intrigues between the main characters. Now instead, they are having them with other people barely involved with the main story.Another problem is that it feels as if the director wanted to let all the characters take up more room in this film. This leads us to not really getting close to anyone. I thought they handled this better in the first film because they focused the story more on a few of the characters and let the others be sort of a supporting cast.The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is still watchable if you liked the first film and you shouldn't watch this if you haven't seen that one. To see all these fantastic British actors together are a delight, but as the title of the film also insinuates, this installment is only second best compared to the first one.David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se

The Couchpotatoes First of all drama's are not my favorite movies to watch. It's just not my kind of soup. But since I saw the first one and that I didn't really hated it I thought about giving this one a go. And honestly the first one was better. There is not much enjoyable to watch in the second one. Unless you like to watch old people with a quite boring life and that for two hours long. I don't get why old people also want to start working at their age instead of trying to enjoy their last days on earth. And being uncertain of dying alone or with a partner. What's the point of that? Two hours I had to endure this. Don't get me wrong, the actors are all good, the filming is good, but the story is just boring. Unless you like boring stuff like that. Then you will like it. I also don't get why it is categorized as comedy because I didn't laugh once. I couldn't, even if I would try hard.

Andrew Levy-Neal It's especially sad when such an incredibly talented group of actors are stuck in a movie with a terrible script and stereotypes that evoke an eye-roll at least every three minutes. For starters, the story line would have been greatly improved if the opening scene had been focused on the blazing funeral pyre of the Sonny Kapoor character. If he was irritating in the original, he has crossed into the realm of unbearable in this sequel. With a script that seems to be a direct lift from the Golden Girls, Jungle Fever and a bad country music video, this unnecessary sequel had nowhere to go but down and it did. Terribly written, clumsily directed and with subplots that are awkwardly interjected and fragmented, this was totally unnecessary. It speaks volumes when Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judy Dench cannot rescue a film from itself. On the other hand, it was a cure for my chronic insomnia.