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More American Graffiti

Play trailer Poster for More American Graffiti PG 1979 1h 51m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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27% Tomatometer 11 Reviews 33% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
This sequel to the nostalgic film by George Lucas revisits characters from the earlier movie, most notably nice guy Steve Bolander (Ron Howard), who has gone on to marry his sweetheart, Laurie (Cindy Williams). Also featured is car enthusiast John Milner (Paul Le Mat), who has moved into a career on the drag-racing circuit. As the characters deal with personal matters, major social issues such as the Vietnam War and the peace movement also factor into their lives.
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More American Graffiti

Critics Reviews

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Dale Pollock Variety 03/26/2009
While dazzling to the eye, the flirtation with split-screen, anamorphic, 16mm and 1:85 screen sizes does not justify itself in terms of the film's content. Go to Full Review
Brian Orndorf Blu-ray.com Jun 2
B+
"More American Graffiti" has harder edges and awareness of the new world, making it an intriguing, painfully realistic continuation, finding a fresh way to explore established distress. Go to Full Review
Jeffrey Westhoff Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL) 04/04/2006
2/5
Christopher Null Filmcritic.com 08/23/2005
2/5
Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com 06/26/2005
2/5
Scott Weinberg eFilmCritic.com 04/03/2005
2/5
Hate to make the obvious snark, but sometimes "More" is less. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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thiago s @Thiagostone 03/24/2025 Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são mais ou menos, o elenco é mais ou menos, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, a história é fraca, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores. See more Garr V @RT47383239 09/19/2024 I liked this movie! I thought it was fun! See more Rami A @Bunt101 11/19/2023 An underwhelming sequel. I can only conclude that George Lucas had little to no participation in this, which is why the film did not go well. See more Steve D @RT35616104 03/13/2023 Fails to do justice to any of its characters. See more 07/05/2020 Fails to gain any special momentum after its well-baked predecessor (not terrible either). See more Ola G @Ollie1972 06/26/2020 "More American Graffitti", is set over the course of four consecutive New Year's Eves from 1964 to 1967, and depicts scenes from each of these years, intertwined with one another as though events happen simultaneously. Most of the main cast members from the first film returned for the sequel, including Candy Clark, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Cindy Williams, Mackenzie Phillips, Charles Martin Smith, Bo Hopkins, and Harrison Ford. Richard Dreyfuss was the only principal cast member from the original film not to appear in the sequel. The film received negative reviews from critics, in contrast to the critical acclaim received by its predecessor. Janet Maslin of The New York Times called it "grotesquely misconceived, so much so that it nearly eradicates fond memories of the original ... The times — the story is scattered like buckshot from 1964 to 1967 — have grown dangerous, but these people haven't awakened at all. They're still the same fun-loving rock-and-rollers, and there's nothing they can't trivialize. So here is a comic look at campus rioting. Here are the beach party aspects of the Vietnam War." Dale Pollock of Variety stated in his review that "More American Graffiti may be one of the most innovative and ambitious films of the last five years, but by no means is it one of the most successful ... without a dramatic glue to hold the disparate story elements together, Graffiti is too disorganized for its own good, and the cross-cutting between different film styles only accentuates the problem." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and called it "one long confusing movie" that is "really too ambitious for its own good." On Sneak Previews, Roger Ebert said he thought it was a "much better film" than Siskel did, that he "had no trouble following it" and that "it's a film worth seeing." Veronica Geng of The New Yorker called the film "a mess of time shifts and pointless, confusing split-screen techniques that make the images look dinky instead of multiplying their impact. For as busy a movie I have seen, it is visually one of the most boring. Norton trades in the grammar of moving pictures for a formula that says the sixties equals fragmentation equals split screen—and split screen we get; baby's first jigsaw puzzles of simultaneous action, until we long for a simple cut from a moving car to a closeup of the driver." "More American Graffitti" is a truly strange follow up to "American Graffitti" focusing on the main characters life after the first film. It´s a scattered piece of film with intertwining sections that doesn´t really work. He first film had the focus on the innocence of youth while this follow up goes the opposite direction and focus on the Vietnam war, anti-war protests etc. Much heavier subjects making the films so different from eachother. And the decision to use split screens to tell the story makes the film even more uneven and confusing plus the idea of not telling the storyline in chronological order doesn´t help. George Lucas reflected on the experience in 1997 during the production of "Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace", remarking to Frank Oz: "You just never know on these things. I did a More American Graffiti; it made ten cents. Just failed miserably." But, we get a great soundtrack nevertheless. All in all, there´s no need to see this film if you ask me. Trivia: George Lucas came up with the idea of shooting each of the four storylines in a different aspect ratio. Milner's Drag racing was in the 1950's exploitation style using a wide angle, stationary camera. The Vietnam sequences were shot on 16-milimeter film, like the television reports of the time. Laurie and Steve's campus riot resembled a Hollywood version of student rebellions like The Strawberry Statement (1970) or Getting Straight (1970). Debbie's trip were in multiple-image split-screen, inspired by Woodstock (1970). See more Read all reviews
More American Graffiti

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Movie Info

Synopsis This sequel to the nostalgic film by George Lucas revisits characters from the earlier movie, most notably nice guy Steve Bolander (Ron Howard), who has gone on to marry his sweetheart, Laurie (Cindy Williams). Also featured is car enthusiast John Milner (Paul Le Mat), who has moved into a career on the drag-racing circuit. As the characters deal with personal matters, major social issues such as the Vietnam War and the peace movement also factor into their lives.
Director
Bill Norton
Producer
Howard G. Kazanjian
Screenwriter
Bill Norton
Distributor
Universal Pictures
Production Co
Universal Pictures
Rating
PG
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 3, 1979, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 7, 2015
Runtime
1h 51m
Sound Mix
Surround