You often see these manifestations on the shelves of a DVD-rental store: straight-to-DVD follow-ups to a fairly successful original.

The first ‘Open Season’ had rifle-toting redneck hunters, Martin Lawrence giving voice to a grizzly, and Billy Connilly spewing forth Scottish-accented verbal machinegun-fire from the mouth of a squirrel.

It was oddball humour, in a strangely appealing neurotic fashion.

It came as no surprise, therefore, to see a sequel. It was, however, surprising that it went straight to DVD.

Immediately this makes one suspicions and, taking into account that Martin Lawrence (Boog) and Ashton Kutcher (Elliot) are no longer lending street cred, it seems that ‘Open Season 2’ is going to be a half-a-chuckle affair — if not a complete dud.

If it wasn’t for Billy Connolly’s rabid Scottish squirrel making a return, and a host of characters that are snort-water-through-your-nose funny at times, ‘Open Season 2’ would have been worth ignoring completely.

But fortunately the characters are good for a couple of chuckles, guffaws, and one tear-jerking hilarious scene. The story doesn’t serve as more than a mere vehicle to showcase these characters, but when the characters are this well-rounded and interesting, it doesn’t really matter.

The grizzly is desperately in need of Lawrence though, whose absence makes the bear utterly bland. Fortunately Connolly’s squirrel has a verbal punch or two at the grizzly that makes for the movie’s most hilarious scene.

All-in-all, ‘Open Season 2’ is probably not worth the fee of a cinema entrance and it is, therefore, wise that it went straight to DVD. Forking out a few bucks on this movie as a rental is definitely a respectable Friday-night investment.

Extras

The special features on the disc don't include anything major, but a featurette, interactive game, a music video, teasers, and some deleted scenes do help to fill out the package some.