New results, familiar recipe
Frédéric and Gérard hope to get through their children’s wedding without another family feud. Then the earlier DNA results turn out to be wrong, starting the ancestry chaos again. Julien Hervé changes a few details but clearly sticks to the first film’s recipe.
Christian Clavier and Didier Bourdon supply the necessary friction. Their timing works, especially when they wind each other up. Bourdon even lets a recognisable person emerge behind Gérard’s wounded pride.
Losing the opposition
The men now spend more time on the same side. That removes the collision between two worldviews that previously carried much of the comedy. Faster pacing and frequent changes of location only partly compensate.
A support group, emigration plans and wedding preparations create activity without combining into particularly clever chaos. The young couple remain more a reason for the plot than its emotional centre.
More conciliatory, less pointed
Sylvie Testud receives some good moments, while several other cast members have surprisingly little material. The jokes still rely on national clichés and linguistic misunderstandings, but the characters’ narrow-mindedness is targeted less sharply.
Without that satirical edge, some punchlines feel more like repetitions of stereotypes than a dismantling of them. Brisk pacing prevents boredom, but it cannot replace a fresh idea.
Verdict
Fans of Clavier and Bourdon may enjoy the occasional successful joke. As a sequel in its own right, Cocorico 2 offers too little. Its experienced leads hold together a comedy that repeats the same test with different results without finding enough new conflict. My rating is 5 out of 10.