Lace II (1985 TV Movie) User Reviews

Nobody seems to care...

[tsarskoyeselo · 5/10 · 9 June 2007]

Well,i agree with everything above, and asgardsrei summed up quite perfectly my own opinion. HOWEVER, if King Abdulah is in fact Lili's father, well, didn't she committed INCEST when she had an affair with him in Lace I??? I just couldn't believe in Lace II that nobody cared-mentioned-paid attention to this very fact!(:-). Still, i give this a 5 just because i TOTALLY ADORE Lace I and just was so desperate to see this glamurous party -partially- reunited...

And there are some scenes worth watching anyway, like the opening one, also when Maxim comes back home and find her husband with the secretary, pretty much in the line of Lace I...

There's so much trash these days on DVD that one wonders WHY on earth this jewell is not!

Much Inferior Sequel to Lace

[jkt1219 · 5/10 · 30 May 2005]

The original Lace was silly and cheesy, which is what made it so fabulous. The sequel, Lace II, is just boring.

As in Lace, where Lili finds out who her mother is, in Lace II, she finds out who her real father is. Judy is on assignment in Asia, there to interview the head of a revolutionary force. When she gets there she is told that she will be held for $1 million in ransom. Lili is unable to get the money together, even from Pagan and Maxine. Lili decides that the only other person that she can get the money from is her father (we learn in a flashback that her father could not have been Neil the banker from Lace I). She finds a three stories that were written by her mother. In all three, Judy is raped by a different man (two of the stories take place on the evening of the Valentine's dance from Lace I, and the other takes place during a school break). The people in the stories all have aliases, but Judy kept the same initials as the real person. Lili, along with Maxine and Pagan, each take one story and try to determine who her father is. Of course, as in the original, you don't really find out who it is until the very end.

I liked the premise of Lace II, I just disliked the execution. Several actors from the original (including Bess Armstrong who played Judy), do not show up for the sequel. Phoebe Cates thankfully drops the atrocious accent from the first film, but the actress playing Pagan still stumbles her way through a bad English accent. Some other things that really bugged me: 1. Pagan and Maxine are very reluctant to help Lili at all, not just with the search for her real father, but with the entire situation all together. They act very unconcerned with they find out Judy has been kidnapped and only agree to help after Lili bitches them out. 2. In the original, Judy has a long time boyfriend. In the sequel he appears very briefly, and when he does, he acts as if he and Judy are just friends. 3. When Lili decides to get the ransom money from her father, how does she know he has money? And even if he did, this was the early 80's. How many people, even wealthy ones, can drum up $1 million in just a couple of days? All in all, I was disappointed. But if I were to watch it again, I would only watch the three flashbacks that play out Judy's three stories of how she was raped, and the ending that tells you which man is her father.

This finally answers those nagging questions from #I

[MrsScott · 8 February 1999]

We can FINALLY understand why Lily has such a dark complexion while her mother is so fair. This movie was, in many ways, better than Lace #I. One can understand why Lily turned out the way that she did. It was nice to see the girls all work together instead of against each other. The ending was very masterfully done. Bravo!

Talk about cashing in...

[Falconeer · 4/10 · 10 July 2006]

First I want to say that the original, "Lace 1" remains my favorite mini-series to date. It is a sprawling, romantic and decadent production that looks as though the people who created it really cared about what they were doing. At the age of 12, I remember being hypnotized by this beautiful, angry porn queen/goddess named Lily. And like many American TV viewers, both male and female, I waited breathlessly to find out which one of those impossibly glamorous women would turn out to be her mother. I recently purchased a DVD set from ebay, from a label called the "Ansgar Collection". Obviously a bootleg, burned onto disk from original videotapes, but who cares as this will most likely never have it's much-deserved DVD release. Watching Lace 1 was as thrilling as ever. In fact as an adult, i could understand it better and view it more critically as i could at age 12. Yes i know it is trashy, but it is escapism. and as escapism, it is a masterpiece. When I got to Lace 2, which was included in this set, i was pretty disgusted. The story is contrived and ridiculous. The production values seemed much lower. The whole story with Judy being held prisoner was so lame. I wanted to fast forward over those numerous and lengthy scenes of her in captivity. I think Bess Armstrong must have read the script and decided to have nothing to do with this embarrassing disaster. It really cheapens the first film, which is actually a good movie. And Lily... where to begin? Gone is the euro-trash accent, which although was badly done by Cates, was the thing that most identified who Lily was. I couldn't even connect this "new, sweet American girl next door" Lily to the evil and mysterious bitch that made the first production so great. Lily's whole appeal was that she was a bitch! I loved watching her storm through those impossibly gorgeous mansions and hotel suites, cursing "the bitch that abandoned her as a baby, leaving her to experience a life of pain and degradation." Lily was a vixen, and that made her fascinating! The big hair and the furs... and (again).. that accent!! When i saw this tame and toned-down Lily of the sequel i was so disappointed. I couldn't accept a Lily who wore jeans and was sweet to everyone. And finally, with the revealing of the identity of Lily's true father; ***SPOILER coming!*** the sweet romantic storyline between King Abdullah and Pagan is ruined. No longer does this romance between the English girl and the King of Sydon seem sweet. Not after you see Pagan's first and only true love rape her best friend, and keep it a secret all those years! Dreadful! Lastly, while the first film is so well-executed that it does not seem so dated (Expensive and classy clothing dates well. Some of the outfits worn by the women could be worn today. But the look of Lace 2 is so cheap. It really looks like 80's cheesiness. I will treasure my bootleg DVD of Lace 1. However i think I will sell Lace 2 on ebay! Watching it once was torture enough for me.

Uhm, yuck

[mls4182 · 1/10 · 7 January 2024]

I loved the first movie. This is just putrid. The plot is based on three rapes. One is more than enough. They really tried to kill off the success of the first film. That makes it all worse.

The plot is convoluted and implausible. Worst it isn't even entertaining.

One can't blame Bess Armstrong for opting out. She had good taste.

I loved the first movie. This is just putrid. The plot is based on three rapes. One is more than enough. They really tried to kill off the success of the first film. That makes it all worse.

The plot is convoluted and implausible. Worst it isn't even entertaining.

One can't blame Bess Armstrong for opting out. She had good taste.

Kidnapping, finding father.

[mollidew · 8/10 · 22 February 2014]

This miniseries is an adaptation and although it doesn't follow the second book completely it is not a major motion picture so the writers have to go the direction that fits best with the first book in this form. Essentially the second segment is about finding out who Lili's (Elizabeth)father is and getting Judy back when she is kidnapped after she goes to see a rebel leader. I didn't get the feeling that no one cared about Judy at all. They didn't want to openly state she had been kidnapped for fear it would jeopardize her life and none of the women had enough money to pay the ransom.

Lili, Pagan and Maxine go to each of the men they suspect to have raped Judy to extort money from them for the ransom. The rebel leader falls in love with Judy. Ultimately she gets released and after Lili reads all three versions of a chapter within a book Judy had written about Lucinda Lace, that was never published, it is revealed who the father actually is. In the end, Lili does not say who her real father is and says it is one of the men who had died. It would have been devastating for the actual father considering his position in life.

I liked this adaptation of the second book as well as the adaptation of the first book. It fit well as far as continuity to the first miniseries. I preferred the new actress in the part of Judy as well. She seemed to fit the character much better. Too bad they didn't use her the first time. This was a very good miniseries and I recommend it to anyone who likes romance stories with twists.

The best!

[Sara-20 · 10/10 · 4 April 1999]

Hi!

I just wanted to say that I love this mini-series!

The best line is: "Which one of you bitches is my mother?"

Don't you agree?

///Sara