2/5 stars
The romantic misadventures of a timid Bangkok bank clerk are again the focus in this disjointed, hyperactive sequel to the 2018 hit romcom Bikeman.
This time out, the infatuation Sak (Pachara Chirathivat) has with colleague Jai (Sananthachat Thanapatpisal) is tested to breaking point when she begs him to pose as her boyfriend to appease her intimidating father, Sakda (Somchai Kemglad). She has kept their relationship platonic up to this point, but Sak hopes this latest contrivance might finally take things to the next level.
Considering its title, there is very little biking to speak of in Bikeman 2, save for a preposterous final chase through a collapsing mineshaft. In the original film, Sak was forced to work as a motorbike taxi driver to make ends meet, while studying to become a bank clerk. With that achievement now accomplished, the title is all but redundant, as Sak wrangles his support network of oddball sociopaths into something resembling an ordinary family worthy of meeting Jai.
Written and directed once again by Prueksa Amaruji, what unfolds is a loosely connected series of sketches and high-jinks, as Sak and his entourage travel out to the countryside where Jai’s father runs a mining company.
They must win him over, which will be no mean feat considering how weird and abrasive they all are. Uncle Preecha (Kom Chauncheun), Sak’s de facto patriarch, even had a road rage bust up with Sakda during the film’s opening, only adding to the escalating tensions between them.
Sak and Jai are likeable enough protagonists, both fresh-faced and wholesome to an almost infuriating fault, but they lack any sense of agency.
Their ultimate coupling is inevitable, and the obstacles in their way so flimsy and contrived that it becomes impossible to feel anything for their predicament.
Surrounding them is a rogue’s gallery of vile, contemptible caricatures, from Sak’s bikeman colleagues to Jai’s lisping ex-boyfriend, who shriek and scream their way through one implausible situation after another. Amaruji even tosses in an unlikely murder plot solely to give his film a bit of narrative structure. The result is that Jai’s father, the film’s central antagonist, emerges as the most well-rounded and sympathetic character.
That family should be treasured in whatever form it manifests is indisputably a wholesome and universal message to be embraced by us all. Beyond that, however, Bikeman 2 falls painfully short of delivering legitimate entertainment.
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