Caddyshack II - Reception

Reception

The film grossed USD$11,798,302 compared to the original’s $39 million gross at the box office.

Harold Ramis, who co-wrote the original Caddyshack with Brian Doyle-Murray and Douglas Kenney, described Caddyshack II, which he co-wrote with Peter Torokvei, as "terrible." In an interview with The A.V. Club in 1999, Ramis said that, "with Caddyshack II, the studio begged me. They said, "Hey, we've got a great idea: 'The Shack is Back!'" And I said "No, I don't think so." But they said that Rodney really wanted to do it, and we could build it around Rodney. Rodney said, "Come on, do it." Then the classic argument came up which says that if you don't do it, someone will, and it will be really bad. So I worked on a script with my partner Peter Torokvei, consulting with Rodney all the time. Then Rodney got into a fight with the studio and backed out. We had some success with Back to School, which I produced and wrote, and we were working with the same director, Alan Metter. When Rodney pulled out, I pulled out, and then they fired Alan and got someone else . I got a call from Jon Peters saying, "Come with us to New York; we're going to see Jackie Mason!" I said, "Ooh, don't do this. Why don't we let it die?" And he said, "No, it'll be great." But I didn't go, and they got other writers to finish it. I tried to take my name off that one, but they said if I took my name off, it would come out in the trades and I would hurt the film."

Dangerfield, after insisting on a number of script rewrites, said that he backed out of the film because he felt it would not be successful.

Chevy Chase was the only cast member from the original movie to reprise his role (and would publicly announce later that he regretted doing so). Although playing new characters in the sequel, Jackie Mason, Robert Stack, Dan Aykroyd and Jonathan Silverman play roles which are analogous to those played by Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Bill Murray, and Michael O'Keefe in the first movie. Cast reception was generally negative. At one point, Chase murmured to the film’s director Allan Arkush during post-production, "Call me when you’ve dubbed the laugh-track," before walking away in disgust. Warner Bros would go on to sue Dangerfield for refusing to appear in the film, although Dangerfield was little-affected by this.

The film received four Golden Raspberry Award nominations; it won two. It was nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Actor (Jackie Mason), and won for Worst Supporting Actor (Dan Aykroyd) and Worst Original Song ("Jack Fresh"). Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 8% based on 12 reviews.

The theme song for Caddyshack II is "Nobody’s Fool", performed by Kenny Loggins, whose hit song "I’m Alright" was featured in the first film. Another song off of the soundtrack, "Go For Yours", became an R&B hit for Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam.