In this movie Haley Mills has passed the torch and her character's children are up to antics this go round! Fun movie! I love the location of the movie, set in Tampa. Lots of beautiful scenery! This was filmed in 1985 and the wardrobe reflects that! This can always be a great reference for mid-80's period clothing!

Released to TV in 1986, "The Parent Trap II" is a sequel to the popular 1961 film. It's 25 years later and so the twin sisters, Sharon and Susan (both played by Hayley Mills) are in their late 30s. Sharon is single with a daughter in Florida while Susan is married and lives in California. Sharon's daughter (Carrie Kei Heim) teams up with her best friend (Bridgette Andersen) to match-up her mother with her friend's father (Tom Skerritt). Susan secretly flies in from California to help the girls in their 'parent trap.' While this sequel is nowhere close to being as good as the original, it's a must-see for fans of the latter. After all, you get to see what Sharon and Susan look like 25 years later and what they're doing. The two girls are cute and amiable despite their well-intended, but deceptive antics. Because this is such a lesser movie than the original people tend to over-criticize it, but it's really not that bad. It's fun and continues the story, plus it doesn't overstay its welcome.The movie runs 81 minutes and was shot in Tampa Florida.GRADE: B-

There are several reason to make a sequel to a popular film. 1. The story is so big that 1 film can't contain it, like 'Lord of the Rings' 'Star Wars' and 'Rocky'.2. The popularity of the film warrant's another adventure of the protagonist like 'Indiana Jones' 'James Bond' and 'Godzilla'. 3. A very good reason I thought of before writing this review, but I have since forgotten what it was.4. The movie was a horror movie in which it is impossible not to make a sequel, like 'Friday the 13th', 'Scream', or 'Air Bud'.5. The film was so popular that it would be way cool to make a sequel with the same crew and cast like 'Ghostbusters', 'Pirates of the Caribbean', or 'The Parent Trap'.The 5th category usually suffers artistic merit due to the fact that the producers or director don't give a Cockily-doodily-doo about the script as long as they can make a film with the previous film' title in it. There may have been a time when Disney cared about the quality of their scripts and even made their TV movies as high quality as their feature length features. Pixar cares about this aspect of film making and so far has not released any schlock because of this.The idea of a sequel to 1961's 'The Parent Trap', seems like a good idea on paper. At the end of the first film I wondered what became of the twins and what happen to their lives after the film ended. Someone else thought of this and got Hayley Mills to sign on to reprise her role as twins Susan and Sharon. Parent Trap 3 and 4 were also green lighted.Was it worth the effort? Lets compare the two films.Parent Trap (Original) Parent Trap (sequel) Has a Compelling YES NOOOO Story to be told Good Moral Message YES Not Really Charm YES NO Original YES NO ,NO, NO Funny YES Forced Wit YES NO WAY Disney MAGIC HECK YEAH Tinker Bell was Shot Smiles BIG Frowns The only reason to own or rent this film is because it is on the same disc as the Original Movie. Perhaps it is better that Disney has not released PT 3 and 4 on Disc or VHS because it shows someone somewhere still cares about artistic merit or quality. That person is working on a killer script where Hayley reprises her role as Pollyanna.

The only thing that saves this gratuitous piece of made-for-TV garbage is the opening credits which remind you how great the first one was. When I was young I would re-watch the credits over and over again, and even eventually taped over the movie but kept the credits. The main characters were terribly acted by the two girls who manage to grate on the nerves pretty much the moment one meets them. The story was uninspired and the supporting cast was boring. No chemistry between Hayley and whats-his-face. Not even comparable to the first one and frankly should be stricken from all records. Except those wonderful opening credits. Hayley was such a doll.