‘Still Waiting’ for a good sequel to ‘Waiting’

Whether you’ve worked at a restaurant or not, Rob McKittrick’s “Waiting” was a hilarious movie from beginning to end.  Stereotypical rude customers, twisted line-cooks and the over-dramatic wait-staff allowed everyone to laugh non-stop.  What you may not be aware of, though, is that a direct-to-DVD sequel, “Still Waiting,” was just been released.

“Still Waiting” follows the same outline as the first movie, portraying more antics at the fictional “Shenaniganz” restaurant. Like a typical job in food service, the faces changed at the restaurant. This is convenient, since the more famous actors, like Ryan Reynolds and Dane Cook, couldn’t take part in this movie.

The film makes an effort to please their original audience by cramming as many characters from the previous film, while creating an entirely new cast.  Alanna Ubach’s returning role as one of the main characters, Naomi, was the best in the movie.  If it weren’t for her, this movie wouldn’t be even close to watchable. Justin Long also appears briefly to make fun of the character he played in the first film.

However, this doesn’t make up for the unappealing new cast.  Most of the new characters serve either as an ineffective punchline and are thus severely under-developed. Compared to the characters in the first film, these characters are boring, unappealing and not that funny.

Still, “Still Waiting” does have some comical moments and is not a total waste.  This film is filled with plenty of food-service jokes and enough gross-out humor to satisfy those who like this genre of movies.  Had this movie not dropped the ball on telling an uninteresting story with the new characters, it could have been just as great as the previous movie.

This film is not the kind of movie you will want to watch over and and over again, but it is good for a few laughs with its over-used and cliche jokes.  I suggest renting this movie before buying it.