Mannequin: On the Move. 1991. Dir. Stewart Raffill. With Kristy Swanson, William Ragsdale, Meschach Taylor, Terry Kiser, Stuart Pankin, Cynthia Harris, Andrew Hill Newman, Julie Foreman, John Edmondson, Phil Latella, Mark Gray. Screenplay by Edward Rugoff and David Isaacs & Ken Levine and Betsy Israel; based on characters created by Edward Rugoff & Michael Gottlieb.
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If there is one film that really did not need a sequel, it would be 1987’s Mannequin. People weren’t clamoring in the streets over that film, begging to see the further adventures of Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall’s characters. But, the movie made money, so they returned to the Mannequin well one more time. Oddly, the only actor who came back was Meschach Taylor, once again playing the entertaining but very offensively stereotypical gay character Hollywood Montrose.
The producers and writers on the project probably realized the wacky reincarnated mannequin babes who fall in love with losers concept was the selling point, so actors could be replaced. This film takes place once again in Philadelphia at the same department store, the now very successful Prince and Company. I was trying to think of how to best sum up the plot, but once again, I think the Internet Movie Database’s summary is very succinct and clear, so I’ll just use that: “A young department store intern falls in love with a female store mannequin who is really a peasant girl fallen under a thousand year spell. She comes to life whenever he removes the cursed necklace from her.” The plot also involves a descendant of the evil sorcerer who cast the curse, and various comic shenanigans.
It’s interesting in these movies how the hero always falls in love with the mannequin before he realizes it’s actually a beautiful woman under a mysterious curse. This film franchise really walks that line between romantic and perverted.
If the original was accused of being ridiculous and too stupid for a major motion picture, well, it looks like Tree of Life compared to the sequel. Mannequin: On the Move feels like a quickly rushed, soulless cash grab; it doesn’t feel like anybody gave anything in this movie a lot of thought. The only actors who seem to even trying are Meschach Taylor as Hollywood Montrose and Terry Kiser as the evil Count Spretzle. The leads, Kristy Swanson and William Ragsdale, are adorable but lifeless. They lack the charisma and chemistry that Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall had in the original. Even the usually reliable Stuart Pankin is wasted as the department store owner.
This movie was rough. It takes quite a bit in a bad film to make me restless, and this one did the trick. In the pantheon of unnecessary sequels, this one is a champion.
Lights! Camera! Hubris! 