'Caddyshack II' By Rita Kempley Washington Post Staff Writer July 22, 1988

Director: Allan Arkush Cast: Jackie Mason; Chevy Chase; Dan Aykroyd; Robert Stack; Dyan Cannon; Randy Quaid; Jonathan Silverman Parental guidance suggested Compare prices for this movie Find local video stores More movie shopping Save money with NextCard Visa

Mason, looking meek and miserable, replaces the irreplaceable Rodney Dangerfield as the ethnic hero in loud golf pants. Mason plays a self-made Armenian millionaire who tries to get into the Bushwood Country Club to please his social-climbing daughter. Naturally he is snubbed by the haughty members.

He avenges himself by purchasing Bushwood to turn it into a tacky golf theme park open to the public. "I want to make sure that everyone has a taste of the good life," says the tycoon. Led by their snooty president (Robert Stack), the club members are determined to destroy the tee-totaler. But fear not, working-class audience members, blue blood will be spilt yet -- in a winner-take-Bushwood golf match between the antagonists.

Peter Torokvei and "Caddyshack" writer Harold Ramis are just a couple of hackers with typewriters. They pillage the original right down to a gung-ho psycho (Dan Aykroyd instead of Bill Murray) who becomes obsessed with the Twinkie-loving gopher puppet. Aykroyd has never been so awful, his ineptitude eclipsed only by the director Allan Arkush's.

The adorable rodent, love interest Dyan Cannon's abdominal muscles and Randy Quaid's terrific work as a rabid attorney are the movie's only pluses. Mason does gets off an occasional punch line. When advised by a Zen golfer (Chevy Chase in a cameo) to "be the ball," he rejoins, "If I wanted to be a piece of sports equipment, I'd be a lady's bicycle seat."

And "Caddyshack II" viewers would as soon be golf clubs in an electrical storm.

Caddyshack II, at area theaters, is rated PG.

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