GREATEST MOVIE SEQUELS OF ALL TIME - SPECIAL EXPANDED UPDATED VERSIONJan 02 '04 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Here's 20 exceptions to the rule that sequels are never as good as the first movie in a series. Enjoy.
This isn’t a sequel to one of my most popular Epinion pieces I ever wrote, it’s more of an extended edition with a few additions and some brand new commentary added. In the 2 1/3 years since I wrote the first piece there have been a couple of films that deserve to be mentioned on the list. I also realize after Matrix: Revolutions and Bad Boys 2 there probably needs to be a worst sequel list---but that one will have to wait. The original piece I wrote was part of MrSocko316’s write off where participants were supposed to choose a movie sequel they thought surpassed the original. I decided to come up with 15 and posted it on August 17 in 2001. There was no best sequel category and so it got posted here. There’s a rule that states sequels are never ever as good as the original. Rules however are made to be broken and there are exceptions. It might hold true 98 percent of the time that sequels suck or are never quite as good as the original film—but that’s not always true. In compiling this list there’s a few that didn’t quite make the cut. I might be able to make a convincing argument that Superman 2 is a better film then the original Superman, but it’s still too close to call. Terminator 2 doesn’t make the cut because it might be a bigger, and louder roller coaster ride than the original TERMINATOR but I don’t think it’s any better—just a darn good sequel. I've also overlooked the entire Lone Wolf Aka Baby Cart/ Sword of Vengeance series… because its impossible to pick just one. There's also a few sequels that are marginally better better than their original because the first movies stunk. I’ve skipped over things like Rugrats in Paris, Pokemon 2, and some others because.. well who cares. O LUCKY MAN which you might argue is a sequel to IF. . . probably should be on this list. Both films are great (while the third in the informal trilogy Brittania Hospital is a let-down), but I didn’t make room for them. See IF and O LUCKY MAN when you can. This original list included a ties so it was actually 16 films long. This one includes 20. 20. TOY STORY 2 1999 (directed by John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, & Ash Bannon All the beloved characters and voices from the first film are back with some wonderful new additions. This one is slightly better than the original because it's denser, packed with a better plot and more jokes that skewer everything from old movies to television. It also deals with bigger and more important issues without pouring on the pathos . 18 & 19. (TIE) FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE 1963 by Terrence Young and GOLDFINGER 1964 directec by Guy Hamilton You might call the James Bond movies a series and not really sequels, but rather than quibble, here’s what I still think are the best Bond films surpassing the first one. DR. NO. started it all, but the low budget and rough edges showed through on that one. Here with a slightly higher budget RUSSIA gives us a smoother, cockier Connery we had a Bond film that was classy, perhaps a bit too reserved for some but it delivered the goods, some thrills, a little sex, some humor and Connery, Sean Connery. The formula was firmly established with FROME RUSIA WITH LOVE and the next changes would involving adding a little more sex, some more gadgets and stripping away some but not all of the sophistication, and reserve. GOLDFINGER ramped up the camp factor and gave us Connery at his most dashing and rogue like, a great villain (Gert Frobe), some great Bond Girls like Pusssy Galore (Honor Blackman) some fun gadgets, and Odd Job (Harold Sakata). Good show.. good show. It's been anti-climatic ever since this one (though still fun). 17. BABE: PIG IN THE CITY 1998 Directed by George Miller The original was a charming and captivating film that rose far above it's gimmick of talking animals to deliver a timeless children's classic of a film. This one is even better and inexplicably failed at the box -office because a few critics insisted it was a little too dark for kids. It's not. It's funnier, more inventive, and livelier than the first one. Okay it is a little darker, but only teenagers and adults will really put together the darker part… It's a great family film. 16. EVIL DEAD 2 : Dead by Dawn 1987 Directed by Sam Raimi Sequel? Hell this is pretty much a re-make of the original with a bigger budget, better script, better acting and much better special effects. Once again an ancient book of magic revives nasty witches and ghouls back from the other world. There was no holding back the inventive campy , slapsticky humor this time and Bruce Campbell and company were up for the task. Reinventing the zombie gore film with Three Stooges slapstick humor complete with all the gore and special effects sounds audacious and impossible to pull off until you see this inventive, campy, funny film. Give them a hand (hehehe). 15: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY 1966 Sergio Leone The quintessential spaghetti western and the second sequel to A Fistful of Dollars, after For a Few Dollars More. The trilogy created a popular sub-genre, made a star of Clint Eastwood and indirectly led to the making of one of the greatest films of all time (Peckinpah’s WILD BUNCH). Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach are the headliners here. They play low-lifes during the Civil War looking for a Confederate government’s treasure chest who are forced to work together since each of them only knows the partial whereabouts of the booty. Ennio Morricone did the classic score with the whistling theme song. The film A Fistful of Dollars was based on Kurosawa’s YOJIMBO (1961) which has been re-made and ripped off many times (LAST MAN STANDING, PEACE HOTEL, to name a couple) starred Toshiro Mifune as a Samurai hired by two warring groups. He teaches both a valuable lesson. . There was an excellent sequel to YOJIMBO called SANJURO which was a bit campier and slightly more comic book in style—but since it wasn’t better than the original, it isn’t listed here. 14. ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN 1948 Directed by Charles Barton It's more or less a sequel follow-up to 1945's House of Dracula, which followed 1944's House of Frankenstein and it was designed as an attempt to bolster Abbott and Costello's box-office which had begun to fade while using Universal's classic horror characters one more time. It worked beautifully. Combining new and well worn A & C routines (Hold that Ghost) with an exciting horror plot was the right combination. Everyone else but Abbott and Costello play it straight, though you can tell Lon Chaney Jr. Bela Lugosi and others are having fun. (Note: technically it's even a sequel to Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolfman which were all wedded together in House of Frankenstein but we are not going there and this one is too far removed from those for the association.) 13. ROAD WARIOR Aka Mad Max 2 1982 Directed by George Miller Mad Max was a gritty and very low budge apocalyptic revenge/action film. It was also first released with very thick Australian accents and barely made a dent with U.S. audiences. Road Warrior takes place after Australia has been nearly destroyed by nuclear war. Only two things matter-- water and oil and both are in short supply making life very cheap. The countryside/outback desert is populated with wild punked out madmen which our anti-hero Mad Max (Mel Gibson) must fight to survive. Oh there's more including one of the most exciting climatic chase scenes ever filmed. The movie made a huge star of Mel Gibson, created a sub genre and re-invented the action movie forever. It's been imitated by scores of low/no budget wannabe's and big turkeys like Waterworld but never duplicated. 12. ALIENS 1986 Directed by James Cameron The first Alien had a gripping exciting set-up, and those incredible sets. It introduced us to Sigourney Weaver as the tough, sexy but still very feminine Ripley. However, it all wound up being a souped up version of a 50's camp classic called IT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, that was over-loaded with phony scares and too many people worried about a stupid cat. Aliens was James Cameron, fresh off the surprise success of Terminator, armed with a lot of money and able to do a wild, over the top roller coaster ride of an action, science fiction horror film. Incredible special effects highlight the film, but Sigourney Weaver still turns in a wonderful, memorable performance. There's even some well written subtext about motherhood to be found here. Time has diminished the special effects WOW effect slightly but it remains an exciting film. 11. X2: X Men United -2003 Directed by Bryan Singer When you take the time to make sure the audience cares more about the flawed heroes with super powers and special abilities than they do about the stunts and action sequences—you’ve made a good movie. This one surpasses the first one in just about every way you can think of. 10. BATMAN RETURNS --1992 Directed by Tim Burton The whole idea about doing a new Batman movie was to take the extremely dark Dark Knight graphic novel and turn into a film we had not seen before. The original Batman had the look, the right tone and Nicholson, but that ending (hurriedly shot because of studio pressures--) stunk. Burton created an even darker and more twisted vision with RETURNS and I believe made a superb, unique film in the process. Oh yeah there’s also Michelle Pfeiffer MEOW. 9. SUPER COP AKA POLICE STORY 3 -1992 Directed by Stanley Tong & Jackie Chan Jackie won America's heart when after Rumble in the Bronx was finally a big success and Jackie became a bonafide U.S. box office star after a couple of decades of trying to do so, the older and much better Police Story 3 was dubbed, given a new soundtrack, edited (by about 20 minutes) and thrust on U.S. audiences. Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chan perform some incredible action packed stunts. Who can ever forget Michelle's motorcycle jump onto the train or Jackie hanging from a helicopter? Actually Police Story 2 is better than Police Story as well but this is the high point of the series which was followed by Jackie Chan's First Strike Aka..Police Story 4. (Oh it gets very confusing.. there's a Super Cop 2 which has just a cameo by Jackie but is an above average action film starring Michelle Yeoh and there is a fairly serious based on a true story Jackie Chan film called Crime Story which isn't related to these at all). The Police Story series is basically the Project A film series idea updated to modern times with a lot of the same actors and most of the stunt men involved in several of the films) 8. ARMOR OF GOD 2 AKA OPERATION CONDOR - 1991/ 1997 U.S. as Operation Condor Directed by Frankie Chan & Jackie Chan The U.S. titled Operation Condor 2 (1997)was actually Armor of God (originally made in 1986) and not quite as good as the sequel Armor of God 2 (made in 1990). This is the Jackie Chan sequel where Jackie does his version (parody) of Indiana Jones and winds up in the finale fighting the bad guys while in a heavy duty wind tunnel. It's an astounding action packed film with some brilliantly conceived stunts. The plot? Oh it's utterly non-sensical and ridiculous. It's the action and the comedy that you tune in for and you're rewarded with some of the best. It's all in the tradition of a modern day Buster Keaton/Martial Artist/Gymnast and charmingly nice guy named Jackie Chan. Don't miss it. 7.. LEGEND OF THE DRUNKEN MASTER AKA: DRUNKEN MASTER 2 - 1994 -Directed By Chian Lang Liu and Jackie Chan In 1978 Jackie Chan became a huge international star (everywhere but in the United States) with Drunken Master . So in 1994 on the brink of becoming a huge star in the U.S. too, Jackie made this sequel/homage to the original. It continues the story of Chinese folk legend Wong Fei Hung. It's one of his very best films. In 2000, they finally dubbed, edited and re-mixed the soundtrack to show Jackie at his very best in an amazing and thoroughly enjoyable action comedy which proves once and for all what an incredible athlete and martial artist Jackie is. This film has some of the most intricate, creative, and beautiful one on one fighting choreography you will ever witness. It's also very funny and Jackie's at the peak of his skills and charisma here. 6. LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING --2003 Peter Jackson’s third film of the ambitious RING trilogy is the best. Even if you weren’t obsessed with the books in Junior High school, this is one of the most breathtaking epic adventure films ever made. It’s fantasy and humanistic elements are blended seamlessly—at least until the film’s sappy last half hour (and given the book’s anti-climatic ending—Jackson’s improved it). You can quibble about all kinds of things with the films (yeah some interesting characters were left out, some character motivations given short shrift at least until extended footage is added), but they remain just quibbles when you look at the entire film. It’s an incredible 3 and a half experience. Bravo. 5. PROJECT A : PART 2 -1987 Directed by Jackie Chan After rescuing turn of the century Hong Kong from Pirates in Project A, Navy special forces guy (or the equivalent thereof) Dragon Ma (Jackie Chan) is recruited by the Police to help stop some visiting assassins and clean up Police corruption. But the police department is rampant with corruption and the gangsters are powerful and feared by everyone. Can Jackie.. I mean Dragon Ma save the day? A more interesting story than usual, a plot that makes sense which contains a few minor twists and the remarkable fight choreography, humor and jaw dropping stunts make this one perhaps Jackie's finest ever. In this one he pays the the ultimate tribute and homage to Buster Keaton when he has a huge wall under construction come crashing down on him… similar to how Buster had the front of a house crash on him in Steamboat Bill Jr. Funny, exciting and not to be missed. The best way to see this one is on DVD where you'll be able to easily read the subtitles and enjoy the film as it was originally distributed in Cantonese. You've noticed that Jackie Chan has FOUR sequels… that are better than the original in the series right? 4. DAWN OF THE DEAD 1978 Directed by George Romero There's no denying for a moment that Night of the Living Dead is a true horror classic. But this film is more shocking, in color, and has a more interesting socio-political subtext. It's also better acted and has more humor. The gruesome and still shocking gore is mostly confined to the first and last half hours as a group of people try to keep alive and work out a plan to restart society. Comments on commercialism, greed and how far people will go to survive follow. The soundtrack features a fun but now dated Goblin score. 3. The EMPIRE STRIKES BACK 1980 Directed by Irvin Kershner Star Wars Episode 5 was the second installment of the Star Wars (1977) franchise. The characters were better written and acted, the story had more meat to it and the special effects were the very finest in the land at the time. It was structured even more like an old time Saturday Afternoon Western Serial than the first one was , but wasn't quite as utterly juvenile. And it introduced us to Yoda, while keeping the best parts of the first one and adding other new elements to the mix--none of them going over board in the cute department. 2. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN 1935 Directed by James Whale Science fiction and gothic horror are blended into an incredibly atmospheric film that boasts an incredible performance from Boris Karloff as the Monster. It's creepy, inventive, humorous, touching and tragic. Fun performances from Ernest Thesiger, Dwight Frye, Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester as both author Mary Shelley (in the prologue) and the famous bride ! 1. GODFATHER PART 2 1974 Directed by Francis Ford Coppola It didn't seem possible that anything could possibly top the original Godfather-- particularly Brando's acting. A wider story retracing the history of the Corleone family and the continuation of the story brought out some of the most impressive performances from an impressive cast that includes Robert DeNiro, Diane Keaton, John Cazalle, and Robert Duvall who are eclipsed by a stunning performance from Al Pacino. WOW. The people below all contributed fine reviews and articles to the original write-off a couple years ago. It inspired me to write my original round-up of sequels and this updated revision. There were some good things written by the following people and I suggest jumping in the way back machine and taking a look, even adding a few belated comments. Enjoy. Mike_Bracken , MrsNormanMaine , ChrisJarmick , shawnmfan1 , debbie26 , deaser26 , shaithis , D.Markusen , shadow8 , obdoc , James23 , toby_baldwin , oakraider1 , jasonmv1701 , eplovejoy , quasar , yuffie , dequebec , Diversity646 , lorinsilver , the_musician , Barnz , BBALLIN2413 , sunkah , timdunn , bigmatt and of course mrsocko316. Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick 2001/ 2004  |
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