That this sequel to a very silly but huge hit took a swift nosedive in the States proves even those who loved the High Concept of Whoopi going to the convent have a very limited capacity for cute pop-singing nuns. Slapdash and evidently written in haste, its appeal has also narrowed from a real family spectrum to a scenario for undiscriminating early teens.
This one's preposterous from the off with Vegas chanteuse Deloris (Goldberg), now a headliner performing a massively overproduced medley of Motown hits-turned-hymns reprised from the first film. Former nemesis Mother Superior (Smith) urgently sends for Deloris and persuades her to don the guise of Sister Mary Clarence to do her infectious thang one more time. Her mission: to revitalise a poor inner city Catholic high school threatened with closure and raise the sights of the hopeless students, armed only with a ray of sunshine, sass and a Supremes' Greatest Hits songbook.
That Whoopi will turn a class of loafers and rappers with attitude into a piping hot choir and kick some butt is never in doubt. The old convent girls are trotted out for an embarrassing rendition of Ball Of Confusion, with some innocent, dithery priests and a tragic James Coburn as the archdiocesan heavy thrown in for threadbare clergical and bureaucratic "chuckles".