Written and Directed by David Mitchell and Jay Naples
Starring: Dean Cameron, Heather Campbell, Brent Sheppard, Wendy Hamilton
Dean, triumphant on the slopes in the original, is now an emotionally-spent ex-patriot from his own mountain of dreams only one year later, having been stripped of both his beautiful fiance` and his former best friend through various and sundry machinations left unexplained by the creators of this rather more thoughtful sequel.
He awakens from his self-imposed torpor when he mistakenly receives a wedding invitation to his former gal pal`s upcoming wedding to the very same ski snob whom he`d defeated on those hallowed slopes the year before! Here begins a cautionary tale in which we see a young male hero descend into self-pitying despair, while his equally heroic female counterpart sells out to the snobs due to feelings of weakness and inadequacy.
This must not stand! And it does not-at least not for long...
Dean returns to the scene of his former triumph and is disturbed to see that the hearty youngsters he and Stuart had left in charge in their stead have not quite been up to the job at hand, and have indeed let their resort partially succumb to the slow effects of entropy and erosion. The ski snobs have regained a significant on the mountain, and Uncle Ray Walston cannot help them out here...(oh, that`s right, Ray was in Ski Patrol, not Ski School!)
The snobs deem Dean to be unclean, hold him in low esteem, and begin the battle o` pranks against our team...
At any rate, Dean energizes his temporarily defeated droogs and engages his earnest enemy in combat for the affections of the Damsel in Distress as well as for the title of King o` the Mountain.
In a hastily-arranged private meeting Heather tells Dean that he`s let his former ambition slowly fade, and has become a slacker- this was the reason for their breakup. Properly chastened, he reminds her that she is about to be wed to a sell-out. But at least he has ambition, she says!
As always, it all comes down to a one-on-one battle, this time on the most challenging ski slope on the hill!
Our boy wins, as expected, but the gal is not immediately forthcoming-where, oh where could she be?
On Their Special Slope, of course, where Dean eventually finds her. She`d known for quite a while that her former fiance` was a jerk, but saw no alternative when Dean was either absent or seemed like a total slacker. Now that he`s a hero again she loves him once more and shows her devotion by slaloming down the steep hill she`d never skiied before. When Dean follows her can anyone doubt that we have a true match Made in Heaven?
Moral o` the Story: You can`t just coast after a FFTTM victory, nor can you do it in real life. Positive momentum, when acheived, must be maintained through constant effort!
Personal Comment: YMP has perhaps built this film up a bit more than it deserves on its merits, but unlike many sequels it has more to say in some ways than the original. YMP does not pretend that this sort of movie actually reflects real life, but the scenes in which both hero and heroine examine their past actions and present motivations send this one into a higher category of FFTTM`s. Optimism is a gift, but Ferris does not make it permanent!
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