eh

It’s hard to believe that many were clamoring for a sequel to 1987’s “Stakeout”, a “just fine” buddy comedy with Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez as a bickering pair of cops, and Madeleine Stowe as Dreyfuss’ love interest. There’s maybe a scene or two worth barely remembering in that one but that’s 2 more than “Another Stakeout”, with coasts along in meandering fashion.

Here Dreyfuss’ Det. Chris Lecce and Estevez’s Det. Bill Reimer’s are teamed with an Assistant District Attorney (Rosie O’Donnell) to stakeout a lakeside cabin believed to be harboring a witness in a mob trial. The cabin neighbors another home, occupied by the O’Hara’s, played by Dennis Farina and Marcia Strassman.

That makes at least five capable comic performers but Jim Kouf’s script doesn’t give them much. Dreyfuss is great with improv and he and Estevez bicker like champs but the dialogue starts to wear stale far too quickly- in the end it all falls back on old guy jokes for Dreyfuss and Estevez has even less to do. The worst is O’Donnell, who inserts herself into the comic bickering but only ever comes up with eye-rolling scenes like trying to convince the neighbors she’s a psychic during a dinner party. Farina has a scene or two that works more because of him but is otherwise wasted. Stowe, not really needed here at all, is now reduced to the sidelines, occasionally showing up in phone conversations with Dreyfuss. Her appearance is missed, as in the first film, her romance with Dreyfuss gave the plot some dimension. Here, free of that, it’s mostly going for one scene of schtick after another- bathroom jokes, fat jokes, generic chases, shoot-outs and explosions. “Another Stakeout’s” plot is non-existant and you can basically tell it just wanted to go for a good time, and if you really like these characters, the movie could be pleasant enough, but it is a watered down sequel for them to participate in.