User Reviews

Complete with Ealing Comedy characters who last saw the light in 1950. And all so's we can make a few more bucks from our 3 "Creatives" ,this time as fishes out of water in the bucolic English countyside. We have Boarding Schools with Joyce Grenfell - like mistresses,bristling with hockeysticks and blackboard dusters,senile butlers like just about every film featuring a Country House,and a villainous would - be husband,beautifully spoken but rotten to the core. - like all aristos are of course. The "Boys" fly to England to prevent the mother of the now rather older "Baby" from marrying her Theatre - Director fiancée who is a thoroughly nasty piece of work. Tom Selleck(moustache as doleful as ever)decides he is in love with her. Ted Danson - in one of the most excruciatingly embarrassing scenes I have ever sat through - (only watchable through clenched fingers) does a turn(well,he is supposed to be an actor - don't call us Ted - we'll call you) where he pretends to be a senile vicar.You need to know no more. If things turn out real bad for the studio we may - 27 years on see "Three Pensioners and the feminist Vlogger". Never say never.

This expected sequel is a change in comic direction from the first film, although its not enough to bring "Little Lady" up to the standard of '87's big hit.

Baby 'Mary' has grown up now, and at five years old she's about to start school. However the story revolves this time around her mom, who is looking for the ideal husband and father to marry. 'Peter' (Tom Selleck) hopes it will be him, but he can't bring himself to tell her so.

The new format, romantic comedy, brings fewer laughs and fast becomes quite predictable. None of the lead players do much, and if not for Fiona Shaw, who delivers some hilarious scenes as headmistress Elspeth Lomax, "Three Men and a Little Lady" would not have been much at all.

Sunday, February 21, 1993 - T.V.

I wasn't paying the fullest attention to the entirety of this sequel to the great original, from director Emile Ardolino (Dirty Dancing, Sister Act), but I certainly noticed it enough to realise it deserves the two star rating (out of five) from the critics. Basically Peter 'Pete' Mitchell (Tom Selleck), Michael 'Mike' Kellam (Steve Guttenberg) and Jack Holden (Ted Danson) are still living with Sylvia Bennington (Nancy Travis, with a little more believable English accent) and the daughter she and Jack had, now grown-up Mary (Robin Weisman). This story sees Sylvia's work making her move back to England, while Pete and Mike follow Jack is filming. The boys, especially Pete who eventually realises he loves Sylvia, are trying to make sure not only Mary has a good school, not boarding, and towards the end stop Sylvia's wedding to some bozo. Also starring Christopher Cazenove as Edward Hargreave, Sheila Hancock as Vera Bennington, Harry Potter's Fiona Shaw as Miss Elspeth Lomax, John Boswall as Barrow, Edward's Butler and Jonathan Lynn as Vicar Hewitt. To be honest, only the opening montage and music, and the only funny moment of the film when Jack is disguised with great make-up as a vicar, these are the only worthwhile parts. If you liked the first film, I would insist you don't bother with this nonsense, a terrible comedy sequel. Pretty poor!

If there is anything we know its that perfect 80's comedies deserve at least one sequel. 3 Men and a Little Lady is the perfect epilogue to the original film. We get to see where everyone from the first film is and how their life ends up and it was well written and worthy. It didn't feel just like a cash in which it probably was. The first film was more of a comedy than this sequel. Certainly there are still some funny moments but this one has much more drama and romance than the first and that's okay. It works very well and we needed more character development from the three Dad's and from Sylvia who gets a full character in this one. I felt like with the first movie it was just full of 80's clichés and popular culture and I couldn't help but notice that this movie didn't have that vibe. Granted the movie was made in 1990 which is outside of the 80's window but somehow I didn't feel like it had quite the style the first one had. I suppose, they made the movie under the pretense that everyone already knew the characters and they didn't need to rehash who they were and what they did for a living and that is probably a wise choice on their part.

Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg, and Ted Danson are back and in full swing in their old roles. The three of them still have great chemistry and are a little older, a little wiser and a little more mature this time around. Their personalities aren't quite as vibrant as the first film but they are who they were the first time around and that is a compliment. They don't outdo each other and they are great together. Nancy Travis returns as Sylvia but as a main character. I can't figure out why they chose to make her "English." Travis' accent is okay at best and its distracting. There is really no reason to make her British other than her return to England which they could have done easily in another way. Still she is good and has good chemistry with everyone. Robin Weisman, who never did much of anything else, is downright terrific as Mary. She's appropriately adorable and does a great job. Christopher Cazenove is our pseudo-villain looking to break up the beloved foursome. Cazenove is the perfect 80's comedy villain and he carries out his role very well.

Taking over from Leonard Nimoy at the directing duties is the amazing Emile Ardolino. I say amazing in particular because of his duties directing the classic (one of my favourites) Dirty Dancing but also classic comedy Sister Act. He tells a great story and you can tell he wanted this to be much more than just a run of the mill sequel. It is fun and worthy and lives up the popularity of the first one. The two movies together make up a classic little series that must be seen. I for one would be thrilled to see them do a third part even more than twenty years later as long as they put as much work into it as they did the first two films. 7.5/10

After the massive worldwide success of Three Men and a Baby in 1984, a sequel was launched 7 years later with Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg all reprising their roles as Jack, Peter and Michael and a slightly grown up Mary tagging along for the ride.

In this sequel, Mary's biological English mother, Sylvia- played by American actress Nancy Travis decide to move to 'merry old England' and start a new life. Her London/English accent sounded a bit bizarre ; when I first saw this film, I'd thought she was English. However, I think it would have made much more sense if the casting directors had opted to hire an 'English' born actress for the role of Silvia instead.

On the way, Sylvia's charm and beauty attracts the attention of fellow Englishman, Christopher Casonove (Note: I use the term English as opposed to British here, in an attempt to dispel any confusion and to say that 'Britain' is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Later on, Peter suddenly develops feelings for Sylvia and when he finds out she is going to marry her English boyfriend, he, alongside Jack and Michael fly to England to stop Sylvia from proposing to him.

The film is set within the English countryside backdrop (according to this site, it says it was filmed in Oxfordshire), and so rather you only get a glimpse of one part of English culture and not the rest, which is unfortunate. Many American and overseas films and TV shows in their portrayal of British/English culture and the people, have a habit in depicting British people as either upper- class snobs speaking with posh accents or the Queen's English for instance, or with Dick-Van Dyke, 'Oliver' Cockney London accents.

I think this is partly because people outside the UK view the nation as being nothing more than London itself- which is a problem and many of them are unaware of the different accents and regions that exist in and around the UK, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Cardiff etc. Also people confuse England with Britain, which coincidently, is not the same thing. The lack of Media representation of these cities and its people to the wider world in both TV and film needs to addressed, if we are to get beyond the 'geezer' and 'maa'm' stereotypes.

Apart from the much stereotypical portrayal of us Brits, Three Men and a Little Lady, is in itself, a lacklustre sequel to what was, in my view, a very good movie, first time round. It is very sickly sweet in most places, some of the jokes are quite flat as well and it is a bit too 'hammy' for my liking. For a so-called light- hearted movie, there are less laughs to be found and the plot and narrative is all-too predictable that you'd be able to figure out what is going to happen in the end.

The soundtrack is great though; Boy Meets Girl's worldwide smash- hit of 89','Waiting for a Star to fall' is still one of the most infectious-yet equally memorable movie songs of all-time.

Overall, Three Men and a Little Lady is a disappointment; well I didn't really like it that much, but if you liked the first movie so much, then give this one a spin. Otherwise, there are better family films on the market, which whilst a lot of them aren't as similar to 'Three Men and a Little Lady'- plot-wise, they offer a lot more for your money, in contrast.