MovieChat Forums > Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit (1993) Discussion > Some issues with the film that I cannot ...

Some issues with the film that I cannot seem to get past

posted 18 years ago by a_scribe
44 replies | jump to latest

Ok so, we all accept that this film is pretty much a watered down version of the original. It's mindless fun but I still have a couple of issues that I can't get by.

The one that has always bothered me was the singing competition:

First of all, when Whoopie's chorus is singing, we see a piano player but hear a techno background. Last time I checked, chorus competitions didn't allow that kind of mixing because they wanted to focus on the talent of the singers.

Second, the awards are announced like the SECOND the last group finishes singing. Doesn't it take a little time before scores are tallied?

Finally, Whoopie's school wins first place...big surprise. Predictable, but not something I have issue with. What bothers me is that the second place school is announced and only the choral director comes out to accept the award. Considering how hard they worked, doesn't it seem logical that the actual students would get to come out and accept their award? Instead, we just get the conductor for like 2 seconds...what a rip off!

In terms of other issues...Mr. Crisp. Why does he hate Mary Clarence so much? I mean, how can she possibly keep him from retirement? Nobody can stop someone from retirement, especially if they put 30 years in at a post! The ending was absolutely nonsensical...he did well so they refuse to let him retire? PLEASE.

Anyway...wanted to get that off my chest. Thanks for indulging me.

[–] TitaniaTesseract 12 years ago

The most obvious, ridiculous holes for me:

1) Rita's mom, who is obviously concerned with her daughter studying hard to get good grades and make something of herself, forbids her to attend music class - even though it's a required class, and the failing grade would go into her GPA and prevent her from graduating.

2) The kids in this neighborhood don't have access to a public school (??) and it seems to be such a huge deal that they'd have to catch a schoolbus to another more distant school. Who would care?

3) A bunch of poor inner-city kids can somehow afford to attend a private Catholic school.

4) The kids are told at the last second to remove their robes, yet they somehow have a whole dance routine memorized that would require street clothes to begin with. For example, were they planning to do backflips in a choir robe?? Highly doubtful.

5) The one everyone's pointed out: the judges take no time to tally votes, they just immediately give the prize to St. Francis as soon as their song ends.

The movie didn't bother making any sense, but it's a guilty pleasure.

[–] LaurenceBranagh 8 years ago

#1 - That bothered me the most. The conflict seemed artificial and is the film's most glaring flaw (but, I like it anyway).

[–] Furienna (3377) 2 years ago

It seemed to not be a required class though since Rita temporarily dropped out of it with no consequences in the beginning.

What I think is that they were concerned about the survival of the neighborhood and not really about the school bus thing.

Obviously, it is not that expensive to go to Catholic School.

There must have been a time lapse between the last act and the announcement of the results of the voting.
It is true though that they should have made that clearer...

[–] JohnnyCastle 8 years ago

I'll never understand people getting all nitpicky over a 90s family comedy. Getting hung up over the 2nd place choir not coming out to accept the awar, seriously wtf is wrong with you people? Its unreal.

[–] mlaiuppa 8 years ago

First. Depends on the competition. Different competitions have different rules.

Second. The judges are scoring as they go so they only need to compile the score for the last group. Doesn't take that long. But yes, they certainly compressed it for film purposes.

Third. That would depend on the director. Most of the time the performers do not come out. It could be in this competition the winners come out to do an encore or something.

I think Crisp wanted the school to die with his career. He wanted to retire early and wanted the school to close. They really didn't go into depth on why. I thought it would be a great plot point if he had a deal with a developer to buy the land the school was on for cheap and and then develop it with Crisp getting a cut for delivering it. Would certainly explain he behavior.