Hi, friends!
I’m enjoying the halloween content on TV this month, and today was watching The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. The sequel, in my opinion, is waaay better mainly due to the comedic awesomeness of Joan Cusack and letting Wednesday Addams (Christina Ricci) have more screen time.
Morticia: “Wednesday’s at that very special age when a girl has only one thing on her mind.”
Ellen Buckman: “Boys?”
Wednesday Addams: “Homicide.”
Anyways, I digress.
What are your favorite sequels? Bonus points if general consensus is that the sequel is not better than the original. For example, I will tell you that Step Up 2: The Streets is far superior to the original. Channing Tatum can’t act nor can he dance all that well.
Poltergeist 2 still gives me the willies!
Mad Max: The Road Warrior & Fury Road
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
National Lampoon Christmas Vacation
I’m going to beat Butcher to it and say Young Frankenstein.
OK, not exactly a sequel. A lot people call it a parody. But it’s way too respectful and affectionate to count as a parody. Frederick Frankenstein is the successor to Victor Frankenstein in the way that Michael Corleone is the successor to Vito Corleone. I say sequel anyway.
In a way the sequel to The Poseidon Adventure, called, what else, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, is better than the original. If you have a few minutes, and if you haven’t seen BtPA, this about sums it up:
I will just add that the main character is played by Michael Caine, and does anyone have any evidence that Michael Caine has ever turned down a role?
The summer after 9th grade I did an exchange program to Madrid and the only English VHS tape my host family had was The Poseidon Adventure.
I watched that more than a few times!
Toy Story 2 because it had a blooper reel.
Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey was better than the original. The second Bad Santa movie was not, but well worth the watch anyway.
Thor:Ragnorak is better than the original Thor and Thor 2 combined.
I love Thor: Ragnarok! It was actually the first Marvel movie I watched.
I watched it yesterday, too!
I don’t know if they really count as sequels, but:
The very first Bond film was Dr. No (1962). A year later came From Russia With Love, which I think is better for many reasons, not the least of which it costars Lotte Lenya! Plus it’s 1963 so it’s completely fabulous, the Cold War is about at its peak, the Berlin Wall had just gone up, our parents/grandparents were almost obliterated during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so Bond’s calm, cool collectedness was probably very welcome.
On the other hand Dr. No had Ursula Andress as the proto-“Bond girl”. Did you know that Ursula Andress was only married once, to serial-marrier John Derek, but in the early 80s was coupled off with Harry Hamlin, who is 15 years her junior? Good for you, Urs!
Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khaaaaaaaaaaan
The Shat is suffering a middle age crisis and Mexican American actor Riccardo Montalban plays a Sikh with a Muslim family name for a first name (which isn’t great, but loads better than the reboot’s Benedict Cumberbatch.) Both chew scenery.
Aliens (Don’t call it Alien 2.)
A much different film than the original. Closer to Starship Troopers than not so great parody done by Paul Verhoven called Starship Troopers.
Casino (sequel to Good Fellas)?
Wrath was actually the only Star Trek movie I liked. The first one was especially awful.
return of the killer tomatoes!
oh fuck…now the songs in my head
gonna be a long day
Uh, well clearly Evil Dead II is better than Evil Dead.
And The Empire Strikes Back is better than A New Hope.
T2: Judgement Day was better that the original.
I thought Tim Burton’s Batman Returns was better than his Batman (mainly because Catwoman and The Penguin were more intriguing villains).
Paddington 2 was so good, it had a record 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes for a long stretch.
Came here to mention Paddington 2! Both the Paddington movies are great fun; I put them on for background noise while cleaning or cooking.