F/X2 (also known as F/X2: The Deadly Art of Illusion) is a 1991 American action thriller film directed by Richard Franklin and starring Bryan Brown and Brian Dennehy. It is a sequel to the 1986 film F/X, and follows special effects expert Ronald "Rollie" Tyler and former NYPD detective Leo McCarthy as they investigate the suspicious death of one of Rollie's friends.
F/X2 was Franklin's final American film before he returned to his native Australia. It was released to mixed reviews and was a moderate box office success, earning $21.1 million on a budget of $18 million.
Plot
In New York City, respected special effects expert Ronald "Rollie" Tyler is contacted by his girlfriend Kim's ex-husband, NYPD detective Mike Brandon, to help apprehend a murderer targeting models who was arrested previously but served a reduced sentence and could strike again. The trap involves luring the murderer to the apartment of a model, where Mike will arrest him. Rollie sets up the trap and watches using hidden cameras, but Mike is suddenly killed by an unidentified assailant in the apartment, while Mike's superior Ray Silak shoots the model murderer. Silak is confident there were only two people in the apartment, but Rollie remains suspicious. He leaves a hidden camera in the apartment and contacts his friend, former detective Leo McCarthy, for help.
The next day, Rollie, Kim, and Kim's son Chris go to Mike's house to collect personal items. They find the house being searched by police, including Silak, who gives Rollie his hidden camera, suggests the killer was a cop, and asks if Mike mentioned any old cases he was working on. Suspicious of Silak's questions and suspecting Mike was set up, Rollie drives Kim and Chris to her sister's house for their safety and goes home to look through the camera footage. He sees Silak planting evidence to frame the model murderer for Mike's death, but is suddenly confronted by the killer, who demands the recording. Rollie uses Bluey, a robot clown controlled by a telemetry suit, to fight the killer before Leo can arrive to rescue Rollie, but the killer escapes.
At Leo's bar, Rollie explains the situation, and Leo deduces that Silak is interested in an unsolved case that Mike was working on in his spare time. Leo asks his old police contact Velez to go through Mike's cases, while Rollie wiretaps Silak's phone and intercepts a call to Neely, an inmate he has supplied a testimony to in exchange for information. Leo alerts his old friend Assistant District Attorney Liz Kennedy to the testimony's origins, and visits Neely in prison, where he is visiting the bedside of a dying old inmate named Carl Becker. Becker had famously stolen solid gold coins that were cast by Michelangelo depicting the bronze figures in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which were never found when he was arrested. Leo informs Rollie, who remembers a floppy disk of Chris's video games also had a file named "Becker".[4] Rollie calls Chris and learns that Kim went to work despite the unsafe circumstances. Rollie leaves to find Kim while Leo arranges for Chris to send the file to Velez by modem, the nearest one being at the mall. At the mall, Chris sends the file and is met by Kim, but also the killer, who threatens her. Leo and Velez examine the file and find a name, "Samson", while Rollie arrives at the mall and flees with them to the mall's supermarket, where he uses various items and a meat packaging machine to incapacitate the killer. Leo takes Velez for a celebratory dinner in Chinatown, but Velez is killed in a drive-by shooting; meanwhile, Neely coerces Becker to give up the location of the coins. Velez's shooter, a hired thug, is questioned and reveals Silak has booked a helicopter for the weekend. As Leo visits Liz to convince her to help them apprehend Silak, Rollie surveils Neely and Silak as they retrieve the coins at a cathedral.
That weekend, Neely and Silak meet at a mansion with a buyer and authenticator from the Mafia, who plan to return the coins to the Vatican. Meanwhile, Rollie uses special effects to dispatch the guards. Leo and Liz arrive and Leo gives her a gun, but he is disarmed by Liz, revealed to be an associate; he attempts to talk her down, but she panics and shoots him, and Neely takes her gun. Suddenly, explosions occur outside that set a guard ablaze. Neely and Silak grab the money and the coins from the guard and run to the helicopter, and Neely tries to double-cross and shoot Silak, but he finds Liz's gun is loaded with blanks, and is shot and killed by Silak. As Rollie (disguised as the burned guard, covered in firesafe gel) prepares to pursue Silak's helicopter in a boat, an unharmed Leo gets up and reveals he had discovered her involvement in the scheme when he saw her cat's name, Samson, and which was confirmed when the backup he told her to call never arrived. As police arrive at the scene, Leo and Rollie board the boat and pursue Silak.
In the helicopter, Silak notices the helicopter flying haphazardly and realizes the pilot is Bluey, who promptly lets go of the controls and leaps from the helicopter carrying the coins and the money. Rollie and Leo recover Bluey, the money, and the coins from the water, and as they discuss what to do with the money, Leo explains the Mafia's intentions with the coins to Rollie. The pair ultimately decide to return the coins themselves at a church in Rome.
Filming took place in Toronto. Vic Armstrong was called in to direct the last few weeks. He said Franklin "had some kind of personal problems going on, but I think there was a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes that I didn't know about."[5]
Reception
The film debuted at number #1 at the box office, but was not as successful as its predecessor.[6] On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film has a "rotten" score of 41% from 17 reviews.[7]
Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times commented that "'FX2' is more elaborate [than the original], especially in its gadgetry, and at times more improbable than the original, but it’s just as much fun, largely because Brian Dennehy’s veteran Irish cop now gets equal screen time with Brown."[8]Stephen Holden of The New York Times opined that "as long as it is fixated on gadgetry, 'FX2' is reasonably entertaining. But when the movie focuses on plot and character, it turns quite dotty in an amiable way. The story is as far-fetched as it is tortuous and deals with police corruption, the theft of some priceless gold coins, relations between the Mafia and the Vatican, and a boy's computer software. It also involves two double crosses, neither of which comes as much of a surprise. At the end of the movie, loose ends are dangling everywhere."[9]
Paul Willistein of The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania dismissed the film as "kiddie fare, lacking the intelligence and wit of the original with plot holes so big the real special effect here will be holding the audience's attention span."[10]Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four and said, "There should be a special category for movies that are neither good nor bad, but simply excessive. [...] F/X 2 is actually the kind of movie that rewards inattention. Sit quietly in the theater and watch it, and you will be driven to distraction by its inconsistencies and loopholes. But watch it on video, paying it half a mind, and you might actually find it entertaining."[11]
