Lesser Known Sequels

[Serge]

Something about how can the same ship happen to the same guy twice (doesn't work), fuck it, post.

EDIT: And new page cunt, so fucked that one right up.

[lazarou]

Here is the first sequel to the remake of a second sequel.

Nope, it's not the sequel to the remake. It's an unofficial sort-of sequel to the original film that predates the remake by a little bit, just enough to be really bloody confusing.

The actual remake is among the worst zombie films ever made, which is saying a lot. Not even trashy fun, just borderline incompetent[nb]The only thing that sticks in the mind is the way they sped the zombies up by speeding up the film[/nb]. Why is probably why it's being remade again, last I heard. So fuck knows what's going on with that mess.

[Custard]

Does Predators count? I can't think of one time i've heard or read someone mention that since it was released. Well, apart from on here recently, and that was me!

It's not even that baaaaad, it's just a pointless, toothless rehash of the first film

[Replies From View]

DID YOU KNOW that Die Another Day is actually an unofficial sequel to Day of the Dead?


WELL IT IS

[St_Eddie]

Does Predators count? I can't think of one time i've heard or read someone mention that since it was released. Well, apart from on here recently, and that was me!

It's not even that baaaaad, it's just a pointless, toothless rehash of the first film

Oh man, yes.  That was an abject lesson in why you don't hand the keys to a series over to a raving fanboy.  It's also why I'm dreading the upcoming Alien film from Neil Blomkamp.

[lazarou]

Not technically sequels at all (well alright, there's sort of one semi-official sequel to an unofficial one), but I liked that Italian thing where they just heavily implied them.

DOTD was "Zombi" in most of Europe, so Fulci made Zombi 2 (you'll probably know it as Zombie Flesh-Eaters or just plain Zombie), which was a massive hit. He dies halfway through filming Zombi 3, it gets sort of cobbled together by King of Hacks Bruno Mattei, and that would've seemed like the end of it. Except distributors just carried on implying Zombi sequels when they felt like they needed a few more sales. If you include the chancers that rebranded Absurd and Antropophagus, it goes up to Zombi 7. And that's not counting at least four other rebranded "Zombi 3"s and numerous others scattered all over the shop.

It's worth it for Zombi 5 : The Killing Birds[nb]Do not watch Zombi 5, it is really boring.[/nb]

Despite this title, zombies only feature in the last few minutes of the movie, and only one character is attacked by birds.

Zombi 3 counts as an actual lesser-known sequel, at least. I have a soft spot for it, although it's objectively really bad. I think the surprisingly good soundtrack and complete lack of consistent internal logic helps.

[thraxx]

That's very true.  I love Return to Oz.  It's so dark and has some inspired moments of creativity.

It's no surprise...  In eight seasons of Oz it's virtually mandatory to have a little male rape.

[St_Eddie]

...it's virtually mandatory to have a little male rape.

Never hurts.  No, wait... it hurts like HELL.

[Brundle-Fly]

I have no idea why but 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) was one of the films we were shown in class in primary school when I was 9 or 10 years old. This would be around 1988. I can't be sure the reason for showing it to us. I suppose the teacher must have been a fan. It may not be much cop for film reviewers and seasoned adults alike but it's a fucking head trip for a 10 year old kid who is paying attention. "My god, it's full of stars" is a line that has baffled me ever since.

or as Barry Norman opined on Film '84  "...and this brings us rather smartly on to 2010 or ten past eight, as I like to call it.  And why not? Stanley Kubrick, it ain't..etc etc

[Frazer]

Universal Soldier had a couple of straight-to-video quality sequels...

and then this brutal gem.

[SteveDave]

The actual remake is among the worst zombie films ever made, which is saying a lot. Not even trashy fun, just borderline incompetent[nb]The only thing that sticks in the mind is the way they sped the zombies up by speeding up the film[/nb]. Why is probably why it's being remade again, last I heard. So fuck knows what's going on with that mess.

I keep forgetting it's that Mark Tonderai who's a director now.

[chand]

Tagger got there first but here's the trailer

My god, they actually have a character saying "Looks like history's repeating itself!" in the trailer.

[checkoutgirl]

It's not even that baaaaad, it's just a pointless, toothless rehash of the first film

Predator 2 (1990) isn't what I'd call pointless. If they had set it in the same place as the first film with the exact same story it would be pointless. But it was set in LA so you got a sense of the predator in a city environment rather than in the jungle so there's a point to that. Also you got Danny Glover carrying an action film as the lead. You got Gary Busey who is usually good value for me. You got Bill Paxton, you got Jamaican drug lords for some reason. You got Danny Glover getting out of a ganja smoke filled car wafting his hand going "You guys should cut down". You got the predator ship with other predators in it. You got the predator healing a wound using plaster from a bathroom wall.

It's actually a cracking B movie bit of business with the predator running around LA in a heatwave killing Jamaicans and shit. I might rewatch it to be sure though. The last time I saw it was probably around 1992 on some dodgy video tape on a shitty Samsung portable telly. Maybe what was cool to my supple 13 year old mind will not hold up.

[checkoutgirl]

Does Predators count? I can't think of one time i've heard or read someone mention that since it was released. Well, apart from on here recently, and that was me!

Hang on, are you talking about the Adrien Brody film? I thought that was pretty good. Machete was in it. What more do you want?

[Ignatius_S]

Hang on, are you talking about the Adrien Brody film? I thought that was pretty good. Machete was in it. What more do you want?

Yeah, I thought it was decent enough - and a nice turn from Walton Goggins.

[Paaaaul]

Predator 2 (1990)  The last time I saw it was probably around 1992 on some dodgy video tape on a shitty Samsung portable telly. Maybe what was cool to my supple 13 year old mind will not hold up.

I actually re-watched it a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in ages.
It was considerably worse than I remembered. Bad acting, direction, story and dialogue, but it's still quite watchable. Better than Predators at least.

[Panbaams]

Disney has done a whole bunch of direct-to-video/DVD sequels of its late '80s/early '90s movies (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King), plus oldies like Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp. From what I've seen of them they look and sound OK – it seems that, where possible, they get the original voice actors in – but there's a massive drop-off in the quality (and catchiness) of the songs.

[Ignatius_S]

Disney has done a whole bunch of direct-to-video/DVD sequels of its late '80s/early '90s movies (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King), plus oldies like Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp. From what I've seen of them they look and sound OK – it seems that, where possible, they get the original voice actors in – but there's a massive drop-off in the quality (and catchiness) of the songs.

Quite so – although they were making those for a little longer, certainly in the 2000s. They stopped making those because although solid enough, and no doubt very profitable, they were thought to be devaluing the Disney animated film brand. The division is still going but the focus has changed slightly and the films get some kind of cinema release.

[great_badir]

I actually re-watched it a couple of weeks ago, for the first time in ages.
It was considerably worse than I remembered. Bad acting, direction, story and dialogue, but it's still quite watchable. Better than Predators at least.

I think Predator 2 is brilliant - nastier and funnier than the first, and all the stuff expanding on the predator itself is great.  Obviously the jury's out on

Spoiler alert

Danny Glover beating the Predator

[close]

, but otherwise it's a cracking sequel.

Also, I don't think it really falls into the "lesser known" category - there was a huge fanfare for it when it had its cinema run, and its home video release was (as far as I can remember) much better publicised than the first one, partly thanks to it being a tent-pole laserdisc release.

[Dr Rock]

It seemed to devalue the brand to me - you've done a sequel to The Lion King, but it's straight to DVD? Is it 'canon'? Because I assume it's shit or you'd put it in the cinemas like Toy Story 2 is.

Not that I've ever seen the Lion King. The Elton John songs put me off.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Universal Soldier had a couple of straight-to-video quality sequels...

and then this brutal gem.

Jesus, that's all kinds of fucked up!

I read an article about this subject not too long ago, but I can't find it now. There's a mini industry dedicated to churning out straight-to-video sequels to pretty much any film that's moderately popular. The example given in the article was Jarhead 2: Something Something - it had no connection to the original beyond the name, but that's apparently enough. It's all about brand recognition and such. It's basically the slightly more respectable cousin of the mockbuster.

Apparently Jarhead 3 is currently in post-production, and features Scott Adkins, one of the stars of the Universal Soldier sequels that Frazer linked to above.

[Panbaams]

It seemed to devalue the brand to me - you've done a sequel to The Lion King, but it's straight to DVD? Is it 'canon'? Because I assume it's shit or you'd put it in the cinemas like Toy Story 2 is.

Which all rather misses the point, given who the films are aimed at. In my experience, under-12s aren't remotely interested in whether a movie's brand is devalued (they like to see more of the same), have no interest in canon (which is a stupid thing to care about anyway) and aren't bothered if a film came out in the cinema first.

[Ant Farm Keyboard]

The funny thing is that Toy Story 2 was supposed to be a direct-to-video movie but that, during production, everybody realized that with a slightly bigger budget it would make a good theatrical film. It was also a bone of contention between Pixar and Disney before the merger, because Michael Eisner still considered it as the DTV it was originally, so not a part of the three or five picture deal between the two companies. And Disney still owned all rights for sequels, which caused them to start production on a totally different version of Toy Story 3, when Pixar threatened to sign with another distributor.

Then, when the merger was done, and Ed Catmull and John Lasseter were put in charge of both studios, they decided to stop producing DTV sequels that were diluting the value of the original films. Steve Jobs was a big opponent of cheap productions, and had been vocal with Michael Eisner about how crappy stuff such as The Lion King 2 1/2 was, while Pixar was busy delivering Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo or The Incredibles at the same time.
But Catmull and Lasseter actually compromised. The sequels are still considered to be part of the official catalog, they even said that some of them were good, but that they would only approve a sequel from now on if the creative from the original was involved. What they did was to replace sequels with spin-off films such as the Tinkerbell series or Planes, so they can keep the minor studios part of the group busy and print money using the franchise without damaging the brand (they still did Cars 2, anyway).

[Blumf]

Jesus, that's [Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning] all kinds of fucked up!

It is, and amazingly it was on ITV4 last week, with minimal cuts (that opening scene, fucking hell!). In fact it's on again tonight 2335h, do watch it.

http://www.radiotimes.com/film/sprpy/universal-soldier-day-of-reckoning

It's amazingly different to the original film, trying something much more... intelligent(?), has some great fight scenes, and it's just plain fucked up.

[St_Eddie]

Hang on, are you talking about the Adrien Brody film? I thought that was pretty good.

Um, that's a bit of a contradiction with your earlier comment...

Predator 2 (1990) isn't what I'd call pointless. If they had set it in the same place as the first film with the exact same story it would be pointless.

Obviously it's not the exact same story or location but I'd venture to say that it's near enough to qualify as being a pointless exercise in filmmaking.  I'd be curious to know how many times you've watched Predators?  I've found that the majority of people who say that they liked it, have since changed their minds upon revisiting it.

Machete was in it. What more do you want?

A decent script with some originality?  A soundtrack that doesn't just simply ape the original film?  A non-laughable (and less fat, considering that he's been stranded in a jungle, on an alien planet, being continuously hunted for years) mad man character?  Just a film that's not an inferior rehash of the first installment in pretty much every way...

Characters being hunted in a jungle - check.

Butch man wildly firing a mini-gun - check.

Characters jumping down a waterfall - check.

Characters planting traps for their hunter - check.

A one-on-one showdown with a Predator, ala Billy in the original - check.

Hero covering himself in mud to throw off the Predator's senses - check.

The song Long Tall Sally - check.

...and so on.

I think Predator 2 is brilliant - nastier and funnier than the first, and all the stuff expanding on the predator itself is great.  Obviously the jury's out on

Spoiler alert

Danny Glover beating the Predator

[close]

, but otherwise it's a cracking sequel.

I agree.  I actually marginally prefer it to the original.  The only bit I don't like is the subway sequence (too many flashing lights for my liking and it seems pretty out of character for the Predator to so brazenly attack a whole group like that, even if they were all carrying guns).

Even for those who didn't dig the movie, surely the production was worthwhile for this alone...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxQmFw565_8

[Ignatius_S]

..Just a film that's not an inferior rehash of the first installment in pretty much every way...

A rare example of Hollywood repackaging and rehashing what's worked before – how that one managed to slip the net, we'll never know.

[St_Eddie]

A rare example of Hollywood repackaging and rehashing what's worked before – how that one managed to slip the net, we'll never know.

Well, yes.  It happens all the time, I know that.  Doesn't mean I have to like it though, does it?  Especially when Predator 2 did a decent job of shaking things up and going down a fairly different route.

[Dr Rock]

Porkies 2 - The Next Day. I saw it once but didn't feel the need to repeatedly hire it from the video shop like its predecessor.

[checkoutgirl]

I'd be curious to know how many times you've watched Predators?

Once in the cinema where I enjoyed it a lot. Watched it again online where I still enjoyed it but probably less so. It's a solid actioner and Brody does pretty well in it.

[St_Eddie]

Once in the cinema where I enjoyed it a lot. Watched it again online where I still enjoyed it but probably less so. It's a solid actioner and Brody does pretty well in it.

Ah, okay.  Fair enough.  I agree that Adrian Brody was (surprisingly) good in the role as an action tough guy.