Here’s the short of it: If you liked “The Kissing
Booth,” you’ll probably like “ The Kissing Booth
2.” If you didn’t, you’d be better off spending
your 132 minutes (seriously) doing something
— anything — other than giving this shameless,
uninspired and, worst of all, dull movie a
moment of your time, attention or thought.
It’s not a surprise that it exists. “The Kissing
Booth,” based on a 15-year-old’s internet-
published novel, became an unexpected,
grassroots phenomenon for Netflix in 2018.
The silly teen trifle struck a chord with the ever-
elusive young adult demo who watched, re-
watched, tweeted and talked about this movie
in which a high school junior, Elle (Joey King)
starts dating her best friend Lee’s (Joel Courtney)
older brother Noah (Jacob Elordi).
Their social media followings exploded (it didn’t
hurt that King and Elordi were also dating in real
life at the time), and people kept watching the film
despite the fact that it carried a decidedly rotten
Rotten Tomatoes score. And, ultimately, it’s the
kind of organic, enthusiastic audience that money
can’t buy and boardrooms can’t replicate —
although that doesn’t stop anyone from trying.
Thus the sequel, directed and co-written again
by Vince Marcello, doesn’t stray too far from the
formula of the first, putting well-worn high school
movie tropes in glossy, expensive packaging.
Marcello has gathered up much of the original
cast, including poor Molly Ringwald as Noah
and Lee’s mother, to take us through Elle’s senior
year in which she navigates college applications,
a long-distance relationship with Noah (now a
freshman at Harvard), a new crush and the big
Dance Dance Revolution contest that she has to