After the massive worldwide success of Three Men and a Baby in 1984, a sequel was launched 7 years later with Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg all reprising their roles as Jack, Peter and Michael and a slightly grown up Mary tagging along for the ride.
In this sequel, Mary's biological English mother, Sylvia- played by American actress Nancy Travis decide to move to 'merry old England' and start a new life. Her London/English accent sounded a bit bizarre ; when I first saw this film, I'd thought she was English. However, I think it would have made much more sense if the casting directors had opted to hire an 'English' born actress for the role of Silvia instead.
On the way, Sylvia's charm and beauty attracts the attention of fellow Englishman, Christopher Casonove (Note: I use the term English as opposed to British here, in an attempt to dispel any confusion and to say that 'Britain' is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Later on, Peter suddenly develops feelings for Sylvia and when he finds out she is going to marry her English boyfriend, he, alongside Jack and Michael fly to England to stop Sylvia from proposing to him.
The film is set within the English countryside backdrop (according to this site, it says it was filmed in Oxfordshire), and so rather you only get a glimpse of one part of English culture and not the rest, which is unfortunate. Many American and overseas films and TV shows in their portrayal of British/English culture and the people, have a habit in depicting British people as either upper- class snobs speaking with posh accents or the Queen's English for instance, or with Dick-Van Dyke, 'Oliver' Cockney London accents.
I think this is partly because people outside the UK view the nation as being nothing more than London itself- which is a problem and many of them are unaware of the different accents and regions that exist in and around the UK, such as Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Cardiff etc. Also people confuse England with Britain, which coincidently, is not the same thing. The lack of Media representation of these cities and its people to the wider world in both TV and film needs to addressed, if we are to get beyond the 'geezer' and 'maa'm' stereotypes.
Apart from the much stereotypical portrayal of us Brits, Three Men and a Little Lady, is in itself, a lacklustre sequel to what was, in my view, a very good movie, first time round. It is very sickly sweet in most places, some of the jokes are quite flat as well and it is a bit too 'hammy' for my liking. For a so-called light- hearted movie, there are less laughs to be found and the plot and narrative is all-too predictable that you'd be able to figure out what is going to happen in the end.
The soundtrack is great though; Boy Meets Girl's worldwide smash- hit of 89','Waiting for a Star to fall' is still one of the most infectious-yet equally memorable movie songs of all-time.
Overall, Three Men and a Little Lady is a disappointment; well I didn't really like it that much, but if you liked the first movie so much, then give this one a spin. Otherwise, there are better family films on the market, which whilst a lot of them aren't as similar to 'Three Men and a Little Lady'- plot-wise, they offer a lot more for your money, in contrast.
