Keitel and Tilly are miscast in this
THE TWO JAKES really needed a different actor than Keitel as it's "villain" (in quotations because, well, you'll know if you've seen it). Keitel's a decent actor, but he's too low key for this kind of a role. He doesn't radiate enough menace as Jake Berman, which I think was necessary to make the third act revelations about his character hit home a bit harder. I wonder if it's a case of simply using a taller, more imposing actor less prone to the mumbles than Keitel. I like the character's arc in this, but I just don't think Keitel has the right KIND of presence for such a potentially outsize character, something John Huston had in spades for CHINATOWN.
Meg Tilly, on the other hand, is WAY-HAY-HAYYYY out of her league as the pivotal sorta-kinda-femme-fatale in this. She'd been in movies for a few years by the time THE TWO JAKES hit screens, but you'd think this was her first movie, so distracted and unshaped is her performance. I'm willing to accept a certain amount of that with a genetically-compromised character like the one she plays, but more often than not we're not seeing planned affectations so much as simply acting limitations (perhaps Nicholson wore too many hats to notice?). And I tend to think that casting a mixed-race actress to play the grown-up spawn of incest is a bit tasteless, too. Granted, Jennifer Tilly has always been the better actress of the Tilly sisters, and while she would have been entirely inappropriate for the role of Kitty, I'm certain the casting of her sister--who's physically attractive in the role, but otherwise unmemorable--was a rather notable mistake.
Still, I'm not sure any sequel to it, no matter how perfect the cast, was ever going to top CHINATOWN.