The follow up to “Zapped!” obviously wants to be thought of as a legacy follow up to the original Scott Baio movie but has none of the budget to pull off the fantasy we saw in the original. There almost seems to be no budget for our main character Kevin to pull off the infamous mind tricks, so a lot of his powers involve moving things very slowly with his minds, and often making people slap themselves. Even in the climax where we know we’ll see a reproduction of the original film’s climax, people instead rip their own clothes off rather than have the clothes ripped off by the main character. Pretty much a sequel in name only, “Zapped Again!” stars Todd Eric Andrews as Kevin.
He’s a smart aleck new student in high school who runs afoul a football player and his violent sidekick. When he joins the school’s science club, he’s lucky enough to find the stash of secret chemicals that the character from “Zapped!” apparently hid from everyone for ten years. After being force fed the concoction during a scuffle, Kevin gains the supernatural abilities and then—pretty much does nothing with them. As explained, “Zapped Again!” seemingly has no budget for wire work or special effects, so a lot of the pranks Kevin pulls are simple and not at all fantastic. You could really cut out the scenes with his magic, and you’d instead be left with a mediocre teen sex comedy.
That said there are some redeeming moments, including a very welcome walk on role by Linda Blair who plays a sexy home ec teacher. She also has an inexplicable connection with Baio’s character from the first film. Karen Black also appears as a sexy French teacher. Kelli Williams is also very fetching as Kevin’s science loving best friend who harbors a huge crush on him, and struggles for his attention as he battles with the local jocks for high school supremacy. That said “Zapped Again!” is a pretty poor and dull follow up to the original, borrowing heavily from “Revenge of the Nerds” and completely losing sight of the original fantasy premise.