Some Underrated Movie Sequels You May Have Missed or Overlooked...

[Fedorgasm]

Everyone likes kill Bill vol 1 better but I think vol 2 is the superior movie.

Watching two people who literally still love each other fight to the death... That ending was just so perfectly executed.

 

[HereticBD]

Evil dead 2 is light years better than the first one.

In fact I usually recommend people skip the first one altogether since you don't need to watch it to get the story.

I don't know about all that. The original Evil Dead is the superior horror movie. ED2 has a jarring comedic tonal shift, that isn't for everyone. Depends what you enjoy more. I personally like the original better than ED2 and AOD.

I think the TV series was the best at balancing both aspects.

 

[The Good The Bad The HBK]

Everyone likes kill Bill vol 1 better but I think vol 2 is the superior movie.

Watching two people who literally still love each other fight to the death... That ending was just so perfectly executed.

Same movie, just split in 2

 

[ufcfan4]

I enjoy Halloween 2, especially the use of the security camera footage to add some suspense. but yeah after the second one quality really fell off

Halloween 2 is like Jaws 2 or Rocky 2 (sort of the linchpins of this thread lol) where it feels like a proper continuation and that the director though different made a conscious effort for consistency with the original. That adds to their quality in my opinion because they are sequels where, even if they don’t live up to the classic original, they feel like worthy successors.

Halloween falls off after that but there are good ones in there. It’s just partly diminishing returns. When you first watch Halloween, there is that ominous air cause you sense the doom and danger but don’t exactly know how things will play out. Once you know what Myers’ gimmick is, how many times can it be compelling?

It’s like seeing Jurassic World and how it could never be as good as the original film because the original film had a sense of wonder while the sequels felt like more of the same.

 

[AFanNotAFighter]

French Connection II. Many who have seen the first one have not seen the second one. It's actually pretty decent. It received respectable reviews but didn't do well at the box office. Nor is it on the telly as much as the first one.

 

[Five Fingered Fresh Fist]

Yeah NOES 2 has its place in a run through the series, and the Fonda Rae / Wish song is good...even if it's put to pretty bad use...but it's definitely not a movie that stands that well on its own two feet. A watchable bridge to the next two though.

I rewatched 2 not too long ago and it’s more watchable than I remember. The whole bar/shower scene with the coach is still very wtf but it does have some of the darker moments of the series. Freddy busting out of Jesse and killing Grady with the shot of the knives through the door is solid, and the whole pool party massacre is a standout scene and much different than anything else in the series.

As for other horror sequels, Hellraiser is one of my favorite films but I still love me some Hellraiser 2. Dr. Channard made a pretty great centobite. I watched 3 recently and it’s not terrible but didn’t really do it for me. I get they were trying to become more on the level with the other horror franchises by giving Pinhead more screen time and kills, but that’s definitely a character where less is more. The centobite scenes were just a lot creepier and more meaningful in the original since they didn’t have a ton of screen time.

 

[Gene Tunney]

American Ninja 2
Batman Returns
Gremlins 2
Poltergeist III
Crocodile Dundee II
Short Circuit 2
Airplane II
Nice Dreams
Return to Oz
2010: The Year We Make Contact
Inspector Clouseau
F/X 2

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

Weekend at Berney's 2

 

[TKing]

Exorcist 3, creepy movie with a wild ending. Overshadowed as it should be by the og but still a good movie.

 

[Gene Tunney]

Another 48 hours
Fletch Lives
Escape From L.A.
Beverly Hills Cop 2
Howling II
The Magnificent Seven Ride Again
Adios Sabata
Futureworld

 

[ZERO THEORY]

Young Guns 2 - actually better than Young Guns 1. The score should have been up for an Oscar. The role Emilio Estevez was born to play and the best performance of his career. Not too far from Oscar nomination worthy itself.

 

[Highway99]

Psycho II
Halloween III
Child's Play 2

 

[BisexualMMA]

Oh Godfather III for sure for me. Always felt like it got a bad rap. The notion that it was terrible always struck me as people just looking at it compared to the exceptional predecessors. But taken on its own merits, I really like the story with Michael’s quest for redemption, the shady clergymen/bankers and Immobiliare.

Yeah Michael's line "you wish to do business with me, I will do business with you" is actually my favorite line of all three movies. It's still a big drop from the first two movies. I would give Godfather 1 and 2 a 10/10 and Godfather 3 something like a 7.5 maybe...but that's still pretty good.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Anything with the Brat Pack had a big hill to overcome with critics or to be taken seriously for awards right from the outset. A lot of the scripts were pretty light stuff, and a lot of them were merely competent actors (Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, C. Thomas Howell etc.) but some of them (or those a half degree of separation away) were very good actors (James Spader, Kiefer Sutherland, Robert Downey).

And there were a few who were competent but had one or two great performances in them (Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez) but it was at a time when those movies weren't taken that seriously.

Nowadays teen dramedies like Lady Bird can get Oscar nominations, as can action movies like Mad Max Fury Road or Black Panther. Meanwhile no nominations back then for Say Anything, let alone something like First Blood, The Terminator or Scarface.

 

[HereticBD]

Psycho 2?

It's been a while, but I remember it being way better than it had any business being. Could be mistaken, though.

 

[revoltub]

Anything with the Brat Pack had a big hill to overcome with critics or to be taken seriously for awards right from the outset. A lot of the scripts were pretty light stuff, and a lot of them were merely competent actors (Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz, C. Thomas Howell etc.) but some of them (or those a half degree of separation away) were very good actors (James Spader, Kiefer Sutherland, Robert Downey).

And there were a few who were competent but had one or two great performances in them (Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez) but it was at a time when those movies weren't taken that seriously.

Nowadays teen dramedies like Lady Bird can get Oscar nominations, as can action movies like Mad Max Fury Road or Black Panther. Meanwhile no nominations back then for Say Anything, let alone something like First Blood, The Terminator or Scarface.

If they had some folk song in them I'm sure they would've been nominated or won

 

[Two Crows]

I don't have any under-rated sequels.

All the ones I really enjoyed are generally recognized as decent films.

 

[Kal-El]

Hellraiser 2
Rocky 2 is seriously one of my favorites of the whole series.
Dusk till dawn 2

 

[Plutoburn]

Matrix Reloaded.

It was definitely very hyped upon release but the hot mess that was Revolution had the unfortunate effect of Reloaded being lumped into bad sequels. I think Reloaded was great, it expanded the universe, Zion was cool to see, the villain programs were cool to see.

 

[Starman]

Critters 2 is the greatest sequel of all time, with the most gratuitous rated PG set of Playboy centerfold boobs you'll ever see.

RIP Roxanne Kernohan.

I have it on DVD but never watched it because I didn't enjoy the first Critters. Now I have a reason to watch it. We'll see if they compare to Debi Sue Vorhees and her Grade A tits.