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The Two Jakes (1990)
A trilogy might had been a bad idea from the start
The fact that 16 years has passed between the fantastic Chinatown and it's sequel means that you shouldn't expect any consistency in terms of quality, and you won't find it either.
Towne delivers another old-school mystery script with questionable ethics, hidden agendas, deceitful women, and everything else you would expect, but this time he fails. The main twist of the story is pretty obvious from about 30 minutes in, but the plot itself becomes so convoluted with unnecessary characters that it's quite difficult to keep track of everyone's motives. Nicholson is pretty creative as a director, but he falls into the trap of trying too hard. There are simply too many ideas, and interesting shots thrown together, so the movie doesn't have a distinct style of it's own. I hate this phrase, but yes, sometimes less is more. Nicholson as an actor, well, isn't Jake Gittes, but himself. I know that Jake is older, he has been through a lot, he had to change, but somehow I can't feel that this is still the same character. Though a while back I was practically in love with Madeleine Stowe, not just her character is really out of place here with her silliness, but she was awful too, especially compared to Dunaway in Chinatown.
The only positive here is the setting: after irrigation in the prequel, we get to learn a little about oil drilling in California, but this aspect is also weaker then it was in Chinatown, which is sad, because that pitch was supposed to be the core of planned trilogy.