I watched the first film purely to see the tear-jerking scene where Macaulay Culkin is stung to death by bees, it was only right I see the sequel to see what I thought as well, from director Howard Zieff (The Dream Team). Basically two years have passed since the death of Thomas J., and his best friend Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) is a little older and still living with with her funeral parlour owning father Harry (Dan Aykroyd) and new pregnant wife Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis). At school before spring break she is given an assignment to write about someone she admires and has never met, so naturally she chooses her biological mother, who died when she was a baby. Her father agrees to let her go to Los Angeles to do research on and learn more about her deceased mother who she knows hardly anything, staying with her uncle Phil Sultenfuss (Richard Masur). Once there she finds herself accompanied by and under the protection of Nick Zsigmond (Last Action Hero's Austin O'Brien),the son of Phil's girlfriend Rose (Christine Ebersole),who at first hates that he has to lose his holiday time escorting this "hick girl". But he becomes more involved with Vada's personal mission, and he is happy to help her find the people that knew her mother when she was alive. When one or two people talk about a relationship her mother had with another man before Harry, Vada wonders is he is her true biological father, and the man she ponders is her real father is Jeffrey Pommeroy (John David Souther). Jeffrey shows Vada a reel of film with mother in it, when she used to be in the theatre, and it includes her singing the song "Smile" acapella, and he confirms that he did not have sex with her mother. Vada says a heartfelt goodbye to Nick before leaving L.A. and returning home just in time to see Shelly give birth to a baby brother and happy to be back with father Harry. Also starring Angeline Ball as Maggie Muldovan and The Mask's Ben Stein as Stanley Rosenfeld. Chlumsky is still as likable as she was in the first film, O'Brien is a good new friend for her, and Aykroyd and Curtis don't exactly get much time on screen, the story is a little too soppy to really care about at times, and the first film is more bearable, so a cheesy drama. Adequate!

Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) is now 13. Her father Harry (Dan Aykroyd) and Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis) are expecting a new baby. She's given a school assignment to write about someone who achieved something and who she's never met. She decides to write about her mother Maggie (Angeline Ball). For spring vacation, she goes to her mother's home town L.A. to stay with uncle Phil. She is assisted by the son of Phil's girlfriend, Nick Zsigmond.

The lost of Macaulay Culkin in the first movie is tough enough. This one sends Vada to L.A. and abandons the rest of the cast. I'm willing to have Vada in her teenage years but I don't understand why she can't stay in her small town. She is essentially disconnected with the first movie. There is almost no point in doing a sequel in this way. The middle of this movie is terribly flat and meandering. The Maggie reveal is very touching but the rest of this is forgettable.

Loved the first one and this one shows Vada older and is touching without being sappy! It would have even been good if it wasn't a sequel!