Movie Review: Psych 2: Lassie Come Home (2020)

 Synopsis: After being shot multiple times and suffering a stroke during surgery, Santa Barbara Police Chief Carlton Lassiter is forced to recover in a hospital with no memory of why he was doing prior to being ambushed. When he suspects something is a bit off about the hospital, he asks Shawn and Gus to help him by secretly investigating but they don't know if Carlton, who is also seeing the "ghost" of his father, is just imagining things.

Who's in it? The movie stars James Roday Rodriguez, Dule Hill, Timothy Omundson, Maggie Lawson and Kirsten Nelson.

Review: Even though part of me wanted to watch this movie when it first came out a couple years ago, I wound up putting it off, mostly because I didn't enjoy the first movie as much as I was hoping to. However,  I had some free time yesterday afternoon and couldn't find much else to watch so I finally decided to put it on.

After seeing the movie, I can honestly say I enjoyed it more than the first film. However, my overall opinion of the film was still mixed.

I'll start out by saying I was pleased to see Timothy Omundson receive quite a bit of screen time as Carlton Lassiter. He was always my favorite actor/character from the television series and, other than the brief cameo, he was severely missed from the previous movie as a result of Omundson's stroke. I loved how the movie wrote Omundson's real-life health issues into the script, setting up what I thought was an awesome and emotional tribute to both the character and actor at the end.

I did think the mystery itself was somewhat interesting. There was stuff definitely happening at the hospital he was staying at but it was unclear what was happening or how it tied into what he was investigating when he was shot.  And, while I did figure out one of the bad guys without any real effort, there were enough other potential suspects to make this interesting.

I also thought the movie did a good job including some of the other characters from the show, including Shawn's dad (Corbin Bernsen), Woody (Kurt Fuller), Buzz McNab (Sage Brocklebank), and even Mary Lightly (Jimmi Simpson), without making the film seem more like a reunion special than actual movie (a big problem with the first movie). In fact, the scene with the deceased Mary was probably one of the funniest scenes in the film.

My biggest problem with this movie is I feel like it doesn't give Shawn (Rodriguez) a whole lot to do, at least as far as his special gifts go. Yes, he figures out one or two things, but most of the other clues either fall into his lap or are discovered by Juliet (Lawson). Plus, since pretty much everyone knows his secret at this point, other than maybe Chief Vick (Nelson), him still pretending to be a psychic just doesn't have the same impact (not that he does a whole lot of that to begin with).

I also wasn't as big of a fan of the whole subplot involving Shawn discovering the pregnancy test. His overreaction to becoming a father honestly seemed both cliche and out of character for him. Not to mention, it wasn't too hard to figure out the "surprise" twist thrown in at the end (which I predicted within seconds of him discovering the test).

Final Opinion: Again, I liked it better than the first movie, mostly because of Omundson's return. However, it still ended up being a bit of a disappointment when compared to the television series it is spun off of.

My Grade: C+