By the time Jack Nicholson shows up for about five minutes of screen time as Garrett Breedlove, this turgid 1996 sequel to 1983's "Terms of Endearment" has already slogged through two deaths, a psychotherapist with an Oedipal complex, and a lot of scrapbooks. The problems with this shamelessly manipulative movie are many, and they all begin with the inevitable premise that tough Texas matron Aurora Greenway can carry on without being challenged by her feisty daughter Emma. However, without Debra Winger's earthy grit counterbalancing Shirley MacLaine's flamboyant disapproval, the story seems to work in a vacuum. Much of the appeal and resonance of the first film was how these characters dealt with life's unpredictable course and how James L. Brooks captured their idiosyncrasies with a refreshing level of honesty for a mainstream film.That point is completely missed as Robert Harling takes over for Brooks and takes the episodic approach that seemed to work for his screenplay for 1989's "Steel Magnolias". Based on Larry McMurtry's sequel novel, the story picks up Aurora's story fifteen years after Emma's death as we see true to her daughter's final wishes, that the grandiose older woman has raised Emma's three children. Now adults, oldest son Tommy is in prison for drug dealing, while youngest son Teddy has become standard white trash who wants only to own a tow truck. That leaves granddaughter Melanie who has inherited her mother's independent streak as she struggles in a bad relationship with an aspiring underwear model. Without Emma, Melanie picks up the slack and so do two minor characters from the first film - Emma's best friend Patsy, who has become a wealthy divorcée constantly competing with Aurora, and Aurora's salt-of-the-earth maid Rosie.The movie becomes a virtual traffic jam of personal problems orbiting around Aurora with the second half an endless series of dramatic climaxes. MacLaine does the best she can under the circumstances, but the rest of the cast is set adrift. Bill Paxton looks particularly lost as the psychotherapist in love with Aurora. Juliette Lewis uses her familiar off-kilter mannerisms as Melanie, while Miranda Richardson is forced to play Patsy on two notes - petulant jealousy and benign resignation. Nicholson's appearance is welcome, but he understandably looks like he wants to leave the minute he arrives to remind Aurora of her enduring appeal. Only Marion Ross and Ben Johnson acquit themselves respectably as Rosie and her husband-to-be Arthur. Except for MacLaine's work, this overlong slog is really unbearable to watch. The 2001 DVD offers no significant extras.

A sequel is an admirable intention. You loved characters from a certain film and wanted to see them again, or the original film left some open ends you'd like to see tied up. These marketing tools very rarely live up to a real film, never mind surpassing it, like in Christopher Reeve's version of "Superman". Most of the time, they're unnecessary at best, and vomitous at worst. Yes, dear readers, The Evening Star is Cinematic Ipecak. If queasy film-goers think they're made to vomit at horror films, just wait until they see this one. It's not a horror movie in the traditional sense, it's a horror OF a move in every sense.I did mention this contains spoilers, but viewers' appetites don't count here No, really, I remember so little of this except for three scenes which I thought were just hilarious: 1- Melanie, played by the never-to-be-Oscar-winning Juliette Lewis (who I understand was a much worse mental case than Debra Winger), spouts off at Aurora (during a fight the two have about her latest boyfriend) "I love him - I HATE YOU!" 2- The fact that Tommy's been in prison all this time and LIVED TO BE RELEASED! If he acted the way he acted in the first film, he'd have been Bruno's special friend in the pokey, not to mention deserving the death penalty for being such a....such a....AAAHH I can't even find the right adjective. Oh, he was just a pig.3- Aurora's stroke while sitting at the piano with some kid. I needn't add anything else to it. 'Nuff said! James L. Brooks was NOT associated with this. Larry Mc Murtry's actual follow-up novel was NOT the basis for this. Lisa Hart Carroll was NOT Patsy. Yes, the great Miranda Richardson was NOT so great in this.Bill Paxton (wherever HE is these days - Twister II, anyone?) was okay in this, and it's always nice to see Jack, but it wasn't long enough. Now that I think of it, Paxton resembles Jack a little. Maybe there was a missing subplot about him being Garrett's and Aurora's son who was put away in an institution because post menopausal ladies usually give birth to children with severe birth defects. Paxton's choice in acting in this piece of schlock was truly a defective one and he should be institutionalized. HEY WAIT A MINUTE - MAYBE HE WAS (heh-heh).This sits very prettily on the perch of the four very worst sequels ever made: EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC - Blatty didn't write - Friedkin didn't direct. Blair didn't act. Yeah, she's in it, but she still doesn't act.ARTHUR II ON THE ROCKS - Come on, guys! Romantic fantasies are supposed to have the couple living happily ever after. An amusing fairy tale was turned into a soap opera by an individual in his/her first week of literacy classes in hopes of obtaining a GED.STAYING ALIVE - As could be said in Johnny Dangerously, I saw this ONCE! Sequel to Saturday Night Fever - fevers usually make you feel sick and can sometimes kill you, even robbing you of your powers of either sight, hearing, or speech, as in the case of Helen Keller.YEP - this'll do it!

Ok, I knew it was going to be no "Terms Of Endearment". I remember this movie got panned when it came out, I read what reviewers here said about it, so I wasn't expecting much. But 6 years after "The Evening Star"'s release, my curiosity got the best of me, besides I got it for free from the library.This is a horrible movie, with horrible characters, and horrible acting.It is so bad, I don't know if I'll be able to watch "Terms Of Endearment" again, and that is one of my all time favorite movies. The only redeeming feature this movie had was the music from the original.I had very low expectations, but this movie still missed them by a mile. Do yourself a favor, if "Terms Of Endearment" meant anything to you, don't see this sequel.

The sequel to "Terms of Endearment" sports Shirley MacLaine reprising her role and doing an admirable job, but Jack Nicholson's token appearance and the absence of Debra Winger is just way too much to overcome in this uneven and overly long motion picture. MacLaine's three grandkids are grown now and nothing is the way she would like. Oldest grandson George Newbern is in prison, Mackenzie Astin is stuck in a dead-end job and has children of his own and grand-daughter Juliette Lewis seems just as lost as Winger was in the original. Marion Ross and Miranda Richardson take on roles that were originally played by different actresses and this just does not feel quite right. Bill Paxton is hilarious as MacLaine's much younger love interest. Neighbor Donald Moffatt and his servant Ben Johnson (in the great actor's swan song) are also along for the ride. "The Evening Star" is not a bad film, but it pales so much to its predecessor that it just cannot be a complete success. It is a film that really had no business being made. Fair at best. 2.5 out of 5 stars.