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

[Starman]

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.

I'm not a fan of Halloween 2. There were some great tits in it, but it did nothing for me aside from that. Every sequel has only served to demythologize Michael Myers. He was the boogeyman, a nameless, faceless shape that emerged from the shadows to slash his way through a quiet little town on a lonely Halloween night. There was no rhyme or reason, only evil for the sake of evil. And when Halloween night was over, he faded back into the shadows from whence he came, a frightful, nightmarish memory to haunt the hearts and minds of those fortunate enough to survive.

His only connection to his victims is death. They should have never tried to make it anything more than that.

 

[Batjester]

Weekend at Berney's 2

You're no longer a mod, so...





BAN THIS MAN.

 

[Steelers4life]

when I watched Childs play 2 I had nightmares of being in a factory with Chuckie as a kid lol

" How's it hanging Phil?"

And

" Now park this piece of shit"

2 quotes that make me laugh everytime

 

[ZERO THEORY]

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.

I'll give you Black Panther; a movie whose merits are entirely based around political theater. However, Fury Road is a genuine monolith.

The original Terminator was a fantastic concept, but pretty middling movie as a sum of its parts. Much like Scarface is iconic, but a laughably basic plot with eye-rolling performances.

I'm not disagreeing with the zeitgeist/paradigm shift of what constitutes Oscar-worthiness. However, Young Guns II came out the same year as Misery, Goodfellas, Jacob's Ladder, Dances with Wolves, etc. The idea that it could take first place in terms of performances, editing, screenwriting, or otherwise is pretty silly to me.

 

[TheSlothMan]

The original Terminator was a fantastic concept, but pretty middling movie as a sum of its parts. Much like Scarface is iconic, but a laughably basic plot with eye-rolling performances.

 

[moreorless87]

From a UK perspective I actually grew up watching a lot of these "unnderated sequels" more than the originals because they'd be shown on TV more, I assume because they were cheaper.

ITV movies had Die Hard 2, Predator 2, Robocop 2 on heavy rotation in their 9 PM film slot for much of the mid 90's along with stuff like Big Trouble In Little China.

 

[BisexualMMA]

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

Heh, well I pointed you guys to McCabe & Mrs. Miller where Leonard Cohen does the whole soundtrack and...I think it was HBK that wasn't blown away.

Joan Baez does the music for the Bruce Dern sci fi movie Silent Running. It's pretty good.

I think In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel had been around for a few years when Say Anything was made. Otherwise I think there would have at least been a best song nomination.

 

[BisexualMMA]

I'll give you Black Panther; a movie whose merits are entirely based around political theater. However, Fury Road is a genuine monolith.

The original Terminator was a fantastic concept, but pretty middling movie as a sum of its parts. Much like Scarface is iconic, but a laughably basic plot with eye-rolling performances.

I'm not disagreeing with the zeitgeist/paradigm shift of what constitutes Oscar-worthiness. However, Young Guns II came out the same year as Misery, Goodfellas, Jacob's Ladder, Dances with Wolves, etc. The idea that it could take first place in terms of performances, editing, screenwriting, or otherwise is pretty silly to me.

I don't think I said much more than Young Guns 2 (or more specifically Emilio Estevez) wasn't far from 5th place.

I can't agree on The Terminator and Scarface. I think they are pretty much master works as they are.

 

[HHJ]

The very idea of another Jaws movie is fuckin retarded


ANOTHER SHARK LOL

 

[BisexualMMA]

The very idea of another Jaws movie is fuckin retarded

ANOTHER SHARK LOL

It was a story that wasn't really necessary but if they were going to make the movie they did it pretty well.

 

[moreorless87]

It was a story that wasn't really necessary but if they were going to make the movie they did it pretty well.

Its basically has enough talent involved in it for replicate the shark scares of the latter part of the first film quite well and Scheider gives a good enough performance as well.

I did always think though you could have made a more interesting sequel with a bit more ambition(perhaps Speilberg himself might have if he did it) that played on the first film more. Something like you have another killer shark somewere else in the US and Scheider and Dreyfuss get roped in to deal with it but the "Hunt" is really more of a PR/money making exercise playing on their celebrity and everything goes wrong, news media filming them, hangers on following them and the Shark attacks and starts picking them all off.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Its basically has enough talent involved in it for replicate the shark scares of the latter part of the first film quite well and Scheider gives a good enough performance as well.

I did always think though you could have made a more interesting sequel with a bit more ambition(perhaps Speilberg himself might have if he did it) that played on the first film more. Something like you have another killer shark somewere else in the US and Scheider and Dreyfuss get roped in to deal with it but the "Hunt" is really more of a PR/money making exercise playing on their celebrity and everything goes wrong, news media filming them, hangers on following them and the Shark attacks and starts picking them all off.

That could have been interesting, though I liked how Murray Hamilton's character developed by keeping it in Amity. A Quint prequel might have been decent. Yours sounds a little like Aliens, could have been fun.

 

[moreorless87]

Jawses

 

[BisexualMMA]

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

Good list. Crocodile Dundee 2 is one I always forget. Liked it quite a bit.

Now I'm trying to remember if Mannequin 2 and They Still Call Me Bruce and The Gods Must Be Crazy 2 were decent.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

Like Voltaire I will defend to the death that Alien 3 is the third best movie in the combined Alien/AvP/Prometheus movie universe. Is it as good as Alien and Aliens? No, of course not. But it absolutely is better than Alien: Resurrection, AvP, AvP Requiem, Prometheus and Alien Covenant, and by a LOT imo.

Alien/Aliens are close to 10/10 for me.

Alien 3 I’d call about a 7.5 or 8.

Resurrection maybe a 6

The rest just go down from there.


And @BisexualMMA why you got no love for Die Hard with a Vengeance? I love that movie. Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons are brothers irl in my head canon.

 

[BisexualMMA]

Like Voltaire I will defend to the death that Alien 3 is the third best movie in the combined Alien/AvP/Prometheus movie universe. Is it as good as Alien and Aliens? No, of course not. But it absolutely is better than Alien: Resurrection, AvP, AvP Requiem, Prometheus and Alien Covenant, and by a LOT imo.

Alien/Aliens are close to 10/10 for me.

Alien 3 I’d call about a 7.5 or 8.

Resurrection maybe a 6

The rest just go down from there.

And @BisexualMMA why you got no love for Die Hard with a Vengeance? I love that movie. Alan Rickman and Jeremy Irons are brothers irl in my head canon.

Yeah Alien 3 is a weird one. On the one hand I would probably prefer that it didn't exist in terms of the whole story. On the other it's the third best movie for sure, pretty good overall and has a few very good scenes.

Even Alien: Resurrection has grown on me over the years since...kind of in Star Wars prequel fashion but a bit more on its own merits as opposed to the doggy doo that followed.

Die Hard 3...I like it all right. But I like it about as much as a decent Van Damme movie like that one with Rosanna Arquette, or a decent Seagal movie like Out for Justice. It's a good action movie but the world has it backwards putting it over Die Hard 2. Die Hard with a Vengeance...some good stuff in it overall but I have to get through some eye rolling moments (way more than Rocky 5) to get to them. It's just one plot convenience after another...McClane has to do mad libs and SAT questions all day long, hey look at that, Samuel L. Jackson does them as a hobby all the time. McClane needs a shortcut at the end...hey random truck driver is a city blueprint historian in his spare time, how about that. It's just a really "don't ask questions" kind of plot from start to finish and it does what many franchises do (Beverly Hills Cop, Lethal Weapon, Mad Max, Death Wish, Terminator) and becomes less serious in tone and stakes after the second movie.

I will grant that Alien 3 definitely didn't do that.

Jeremy Irons has fun and chews the scenery well but I felt the teams of villains in 1 and 2 had a lot more depth and threat. Die Hard 2 has 3 big bosses in John Amos, Franco Nero and William Sadler, plus internal "with friends like this who needs enemies" antagonists like Dennis Franz and Roberto Costanzo and Fred Dalton Thompson for at least part of it.

In that way it really lives up to Die Hard 1...where there were obviously Rickman and Alexander Godunov and then lesser villains with character like Theo. Then there's fighting against his own team again in Paul Gleason, Robert Davi, Hart Bochner and so on. And then William Atherton as the antagonist reporter in both. McClane and Holly are constantly fighting off threats from all sides like a swarm of bees. It's actually hard to think of movies with more effective antagonists coming from different angles than the first two Die Hards.

I also thought Die Hard 3 lost a couple of the things that made the first two really work. The claustrophobia is gone with McClane running all over the city but moreso his team gets too big for my liking and he's not a lone wolf anymore. Those aren't fatal issues...they just make me enjoy the first two more.

 

[moreorless87]

I can't agree on The Terminator and Scarface. I think they are pretty much master works as they are.

I tend to think the issue with Scarface is people view it as attempting to be The Godfather or Once Upon A Time In America when its really more interested in being a trashier exploitation thriller with larger than life characters in it.

By its own standards I think its an exellent film even if its perhaps not aiming as high.

 

[BisexualMMA]

I tend to think the issue with Scarface is people view it as attempting to be The Godfather or Once Upon A Time In America when its really more interested in being a trashier exploitation thriller with larger than life characters in it.

By its own standards I think its an exellent film even if its perhaps not aiming as high.

At the same time I think it achieves most of what The Godfather does...from cinematography to score and soundtrack to acting to a crime story of great scope. I think The Godfather kind of benefits because it takes place in a classier time. Scarface captures the 80s...on the one hand it has the look and sound of Flashdance, on the other it has a crime epic that I think does compete with the other films. It just moves faster.

 

[moreorless87]

At the same time I think it achieves most of what The Godfather does...from cinematography to score and soundtrack to acting to a crime story of great scope. I think The Godfather kind of benefits because it takes place in a classier time. Scarface captures the 80s...on the one hand it has the look and sound of Flashdance, on the other it has a crime epic that I think does compete with the other films. It just moves faster.

The Godfather is I think a bit more pulpy than perhaps its rep makes it, a lot of it is "cool gangster shit" but I do think besides the setting being classier the performances(most obviously Pacino) are a lot more subtle.

I would say even by De Palma's standards Tony is a larger than life character compared to say Travolta in Blow Out.

 

[BisexualMMA]

The Godfather is I think a bit more pulpy than perhaps its rep makes it, a lot of it is "cool gangster shit" but I do think besides the setting being classier the performances(most obviously Pacino) are a lot more subtle.

I would say even by De Palma's standards Tony is a larger than life character compared to say Travolta in Blow Out.

The cinematography in The Godfathers also kind of elevates it out of pulp regardless. The DOP directed one film later, Windows with Talia Shire. The movie was pretty bad but it looked fantastic and way better than a story like that should.