THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL—four years on, the hardy post-colonizers of the endearing lodge for coots in modern/ancient Jaipur return to their rooms. The 2016 rematch proves the Empire’s sun may have set but the glow lingers. And that sex may not be possible after death, but is still worth damn well pursuing while you’ve got a pulse. Look, we tried various cricket metaphors and gave up (pretending to understand the game is like trying to feign fascination in a wine windbag blather on barrel age). As ‘Muriel’ (the eternal Maggie Smith) puts it: “Just because I’m looking at you when you talk, don’t think I’m listening – or even interested.”

Once more, director John Madden guides his actors and their milieu with aplomb, and Ol Parker provides them plenty of non-lethal-but-on-target ammo in the script. This time out ‘Sonny’ (Dev Patel, elevated to top billing) intends to open a second die-here retreat, hoping to convince a US investor to see it’s viable, and in his down time presses forward with his dream marriage to dream girl ‘Sunaina’ (Tina Desai). If anyone can mess things up, it’s Sonny, but his spirit as is resolute as his logic is circuitous. If you excuse some improbable linkups in the last act, quite good fun all around.

“Some you win and some you learn.”

Returning to the meal: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Ronald Pickup, Penelope Wilton, Diana Hardcastle, Lillette Dubey, Sid Makkar and Seema Azmi. Added to the new brew: Richard Gere, David Strathairn, Rajesh Tailang, Tamsin Greig and Shazad Latif.

Breezing by at 122 minutes (exactly mimicking the first), once more pleasingly scored by Thomas Newman, with Ben Davis coming back on camera duty.

“You know, there’s a long list of things I don’t care for: doctors, sunburn, mosquitoes, people who outstay their welcome… I could go on forever. But there is one thing I cannot bear, and that’s self-pity. It destroys everything around it.”

Along with the Indian locations in Rajasthan, some filming was also accomplished in Spain, for budgetary sake posing as southern California. The $10,000,000 invested (the same cost as the first one, rather a feat in the money end of the movieverse) amounted to a sure bet: $85,978,000 came back, not quite the stash from the original, a drop of 27%, but still registering as a happy hit.

EVELYN: “How was America?”  MURIEL: “It made death more tempting.”