Movie sequels get a bad rap, but every now and then, one comes along that totally blows its
predecessor away. Which comic-based franchise found its direction with
the help of a morally ambiguous love interest? Keep watching to find out!
"Gremlins" is a classic, but it's also a dark, cynical little film. It establishes an idyllic
"It's a Wonderful Life"-esque setting and then has ugly little monsters destroy the whole thing.
"Gremlins 2: The New Batch" is a wholly different animal. It moves the setting
to a high tech skyscraper in New York City, introducing a far zanier cast of Gremlins who
wreak a much sillier sort of havoc, thanks to a geneticist whose experiments lead to a much
wider variety of gremlin shapes and sizes. "Gremlins" was fun, but as Key and Peele
pointed out, "Gremlins 2" is completely bananas in a way that makes it awesome.
“This is G2, people. We writing Gremlins 2. It should be a party!”
And even all these years later,
it’s exactly what Hollywood should do whenever it's time to "drop a deuce."
Chris Hemsworth has always been charismatic and funny as Thor Odinson, the Asgardian God
of Thunder and the Avengers' resident himbo. In fact, he's probably the best part of 2011's
"Thor," a movie that has a lot going for it, but never quite lives up to its potential,
despite the work of Hemsworth and a star-making turn from Tom Hiddleston as Loki.
A mix of mythic fantasy, superhero action, and fish-out-of-water romantic comedy,
it remains less than the sum of its parts, and is perhaps a bit clunkier than it ought
to be. The 2013 sequel "Thor: The Dark World" seemed to double-down on this clunkiness,
with arguably the MCU's worst villain ever and a MacGuffin that made no sense, even for the MCU.
Then came the third movie, "Thor: Ragnarok," and finally things got on track. Shifting directors
from Kenneth Branagh to Alan Taylor to Taika Waititi, these movies clearly
reflected whoever was in the chair. "Ragnarok" brought a Waititi-esque, unorthodox buoyancy
to the series that felt like an injection of buttery popcorn directly into the vein.
Thor and Loki are relocated far away from both the overwrought fantasy of Asgard and the mundanity
of Earth, setting the second act of the movie instead on the weird junkyard planet of Sakaar,
ruled by Jeff Goldblum's campy Grandmaster. The MCU had never seen anything like this before. For
the first time, Thor and Loki had a plot as fun as their characters, plus the Hulk, played by Mark
Ruffalo and Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson memorably came along for the ride. The stakes were
as high as ever — or higher, considering Asgard was being threatened with complete destruction.
Nevertheless, the storytelling in "Ragnarok" allowed for a lot more fun and a level of knowing
ridiculousness that helped the whole "mythic space gods" concept go down just a little bit easier.
"I just couldn't help myself.” “I know.”
“I'm a trickster."
"Yes. So mischievous."
David Ayer's 2016 "Suicide Squad" was a mess. To start with,
it was the third film in the DCEU, arriving the year before "Justice League." That meant
Ayer had the unenviable task of introducing an entire team of incarcerated supervillains
in a world where audiences had barely met any of the superheroes, let alone their enemies.
Even though "Suicide Squad" spends at least half its run time on multiple sequences designed to
introduce the team, most of the characters remain sketchy and underdeveloped at best.
When the plot finally does get going, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Furthermore, main villain Enchantress, played by Cara Delevingne, was one of the villains Amanda
Waller, played by Viola Davis, had recruited for the team. So it really calls into question
why her idea of a supervillain task force ever seemed like a good idea to anybody.
“Needless to to say, the whole thing was a bad idea.”
Despite being just plain terrible, "Suicide Squad" did uncover a tremendous hunger for an offbeat
film about these DC antiheroes. In the aftermath of "Batman v Superman," Warner Bros. took footage
from Ayer's somber film and put together a fun, breezy trailer that went viral. It was as if
someone had made a fan-produced cut of "Suicide Squad" as a comedy. But the resulting tug-of-war
between director and studio ultimately resulted in a disjointed, unsure-of-itself debacle.
Enter the king of "offbeat." James Gunn's 2021 "The Suicide Squad" with the all-important
definite article in the title is a whole lot better. It brings in a bunch of new
team members like Bloodsport, played by Idris Elba and Peacemaker, played by John Cena, all funnier
and more well-developed as characters than anybody from the first film. It also capitalized on Margot
Robbie as Harley Quinn, who had been the best part of the first movie, and then had another movie
in between — "Birds of Prey" — to develop as a character and gain new fans. With a better script,
better cast, better direction, and a clearer sense of the DC Extended Universe as a whole,
it's no surprise that "The Suicide Squad" became a vast improvement over its "The"-less predecessor.
A live action/CGI family movie based on the classic children's character Paddington Bear
is exactly the sort of film you'd expect to get made these days. What nobody saw
coming was that 2014's "Paddington" turned out to be absolutely delightful, retaining
the quaint charm and warmth of the original stories. It also boasted a truly stellar cast,
with Ben Whishaw as the voice of the bear, Sally Hawkins and Hugh Bonneville as the
couple that welcomed him into their family, and Nicole Kidman as a villainous taxidermist.
The movie charmed both children and adults, earning a truly impressive 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
"Paddington" was so beloved by its audience that it is all the more impressive that 2017's
"Paddington 2" turned out to be even better than the first film. It earned an almost-unheard-of 99%
on Rotten Tomatoes that ranks it among the most acclaimed films of all time.
Consider this: "Paddington" and "Paddington 2" have a higher cumulative Rotten Tomatoes
score than "The Godfather," at 97%, and "The Godfather II," at 96%.
The sequel, centered on Paddington being framed for a crime and sent to prison,
might sound like a bit of a bummer. However, as the little bear's charisma wins over
hardened inmates, it becomes the sort of film that renews your faith in humanity,
humor, love, and kindness. With Hugh Grant and Brendan Gleeson joining the already impressive
cast, "Paddington 2" might be as perfect a family film as you're ever likely to see.
"Magic Mike" is a Steven Soderbergh drama about a male stripper who doesn't want to be a stripper
anymore. "Magic Mike XXL," directed by Gregory Jacobs with Soderbergh as a producer, is a movie
about the joys of being a male stripper. While there was a lot of fun to be had in the first
movie, the sequel puts that fun at the forefront. It portrays a kind of easygoing, comfortable
masculinity that isn't threatened by putting one's body on display for the pleasure of others.
“That’s the Mikey I remember!”
Unsurprisingly, the biggest fans of "XXL" were women, who flocked to the movie in groups,
almost as if they were going to an actual male strip club, albeit one populated by
some of the most handsome actors in Hollywood. Visual pleasure is central to film as a medium,
and few films have made that pleasure as central, or as visceral, as "Magic Mike XXL."
While 2014's "Godzilla" was a huge improvement over the previous attempt to recreate the Japanese
monster for American audiences, it didn't exactly set the world on fire. Godzilla looked great,
but the monsters he fought were generic and bore little resemblance
to the unforgettable foes he faced in the original Japanese series of films.
Furthermore, the soldier played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson was equally milquetoast.
It was about as forgettable of a human protagonist monster movie as we've ever seen.
This was a problem that was made even more glaring by the lack of screentime for the giant lizard
everybody had paid to see. Nevertheless, the movie was enough of a hit for Legendary Pictures to move
forward with their plans to make Godzilla the center of a "Monsterverse" franchise.
The next film in that franchise was 2017's "Kong:
Skull Island," but it was a prequel that didn't even involve Godzilla directly.
A direct sequel to the 2014 film didn't arrive until "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" in 2019.
Fortunately, it arrived with everything Godzilla's previous effort was missing.
The classic monsters Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah all made their return to kick off a
globe-spanning giant monster battle royale, with the kind of monster-fighting action Godzilla fans
crave. "King of the Monsters" also brought in Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, and Millie Bobby Brown to
lead the human cast as a family being torn apart in the midst of the apocalyptic monster conflict.
Whether this Americanized series is your cup of tea or not, it's hard to deny that "Godzilla:
King of the Monsters" improves on "Godzilla" on basically every level.
"House of 1000 Corpses," the feature directing debut of rocker Rob Zombie,
was a fun movie for horror fans, so over the top that it played more like an ultra-violent cartoon
than a serious film of any sort. The titular house, occupied by the murderous Firefly family,
became a treacherous last stand for two young couples with the misfortune of ending up there
on Halloween night. Zombie's tribute to the sort of low-budget grindhouse horror
movies he grew up on, the film never really attempted to be more than that.
Nevertheless, the film was a success,
so Zombie jumped at the opportunity to make a sequel, becoming considerably more ambitious.
"The Devil's Rejects" opens with the destruction of the Firefly house in a police raid,
and the movie focuses on three family members who escape and go on the lam. While every bit as
violent as its predecessor, "The Devil's Rejects" abandons the cartoonish tone for an atmospheric
1970s-inflected road movie with a soundtrack of classic Southern rock. If horrific violence isn't
your thing, this movie probably still isn't for you — but if it was the overall ridiculousness
of "House of 1000 Corpses" that turned you off, "The Devil's Rejects" might be exactly your thing.
Which Wolverine movie was "Logan" an improvement on? How about practically
all of them? The X-Men movie franchise first introduced Hugh Jackman as Logan,
the nigh-indestructible mutant with metal claws in 2000’s “X-Men”. Also known as Wolverine,
he had his own solo films before James Mangold came along: 2009's "X-Men Origins: Wolverine"
and 2013's "The Wolverine." However, this Western-tinged goodbye to the character
was absolutely transcendent to the point where some regard "Logan" as not just the
best film in the X-Men franchise, but the best superhero movie of them all.
In any case, "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is a nonsensical mess,
and "The Wolverine" is merely a pretty good superhero action movie. Differently, "Logan" is a
genuinely moving story about an aging hero dealing with his own mortality and the apparent loss of
the hope he and his fellow X-Men once fought for. Into this apocalyptic landscape arrives Laura,
a young girl in need of protection, who has far more in common with Logan than he expected.
Naturally, she brings his long-buried heroic spirit back to the fore,
and the old man once known as Wolverine makes one last stand. Owing as much to Westerns as
it does to the X-Men movies, "Logan" is about as good as superhero films can get.
It took the "Fast and Furious" movies a few installments to figure out exactly
what it wanted to be. The first film, 2001's "The Fast and the Furious," was a relatively
straightforward crime drama set in the world of street racing, starring Paul Walker, Vin Diesel,
Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster. Only Walker returned for 2003's "2 Fast 2 Furious,"
which filled out the cast with Tyrese Gibson and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges,
for another story about crime and racing. The third movie, "The Fast and the Furious:
Tokyo Drift" left all of the previous characters behind, in service of a story
about an American teen, played by Lucas Black, involved in street racing in Japan.
"Tokyo Drift" ended with a cameo from Vin Diesel, however, and "Drift" director Justin Lin
would turn out to be instrumental in shaping the franchise's future.
He would return — as would Diesel and Walker — for the fourth film
"Fast & Furious," and 2011's "Fast Five" brought it all together.
Justin Lin directed once again, and with Walker, Diesel, Brewster,
Tyrese and Ludacris, the franchise was finally firing on all cylinders. Also along for the
ride was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a US Government Agent hunting the protagonists.
"The men we're after are professional runners. They like speed and are guaranteed to go down
the hardest possible way, so make sure you got your funderwear on."
"Fast Five's" over-the-top heist plot put the hot rods to new use and became a huge hit,
but it also crafted a blueprint for future installments of this series,
each going bigger than the last. Even still, "Fast Five" is probably still the best — and
there's not many franchises that can say the fourth sequel was their best film.
The 1968 George Romero classic "Night of the Living Dead" remains a great film,
both on its own merits and as the birth of the modern zombie genre that stands today.
"They're coming to get you, Barbara."
It’s a cross-media cash cow that extends from "The Walking Dead"
to "Left 4 Dead" to "Army of the Dead." Despite an effectively grim atmosphere and talented cast,
however, its budget was tiny and ambitions small.
Although the zombie problem appears in "Night" to be widespread, the movie is focused entirely
on a small group of people holed up in a rural farmhouse. They are attempting to hold the dead
at bay with only vague hints that something far greater is going on in the rest of the world.
By the time Romero returned to the zombie narrative for 1978's "Dawn of the Dead,"
he had more resources to play with. After a brutal opening showing how
the zombie infestation has devastated low-income communities in Philadelphia,
the movie follows two cops and a pair of TV journalists as they flee the city and
find refuge in a suburban mall. Although the main cast is even smaller than that of his 1968 film,
Romero's reality now feels much bigger, and the threat that much more real. Although the group
manages to secure the mall against the hordes, this apocalyptic temple to capitalism wasn't
made to serve as a fortress. The tension becomes palpable as the living dead storm the gates.
1995's "Bad Boys" was the debut` movie from Michael Bay.
Yes, the rock star music video filmmaker who would re-shape Hollywood with his glossy visuals,
adrenaline-pumping spectacle-over-story aesthetic, and belief that when all else fails,
just blow something up. It all began, for better or worse, with this one.
"Bad Boys" stars Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as two reckless cops protecting a witness
and trying to find a large amount of heroin that disappeared from their police station.
The movie combines comedy and over-the-top action into a frothy thrill ride in cinematic form.
It's a style Bay would perfect in the years to
come with crowd-pleasing spectacles like "The Rock" and "Armageddon."
By the time he made "Bad Boys II" in 2003, Bay was riding high at the top of his game,
and that's reflected in the product. "Bad Boys II" was bigger in scale than the first movie,
from the explosions to the amount of missing drugs. On the other hand, it didn't forget the
importance of Lawrence and Smith's chemistry and the appeal of their characters. Its introduction
of Gabrielle Union as Syd added a whole new level of conflict. While "Bad Boys" was a fun time,
every facet of the film was heightened in "Bad Boys II,"
striking a balance that kept it from being too big or loud, making it simply fun to watch.
“Yeah, I could see that.”
Although it was a monstrously huge hit at the time, 1989's "Batman" is, in retrospect, a bit
of an odd duck. It's a superhero film, sure, but outside of the Christopher Reeve Superman series,
superhero films weren't really much of a defined thing yet. "Batman" contains a surprising amount
of '80s action movie DNA, which pulls it away from the conventions of comic book storytelling.
Meaning, there’s a villain revealed to be responsible for the hero's parents' deaths,
the hero revealing his secrets to his love interest, a climactic fight in a tower that
ends with the villain falling to his death. On the other hand, director Tim Burton put a
lot of his oddball gothic style into the film. It became distinctive enough to briefly foreshadow a
superhero film revolution that wouldn't truly take hold until more than a decade later.
By the time he directed 1992's "Batman Returns,"
Burton had a lot more freedom to bend the project to his own aesthetic and narrative whims.
Consequently, "Batman Returns" is also an odd duck, but one with a much clearer vision.
It's set at Christmas, with lots of atmospheric snow and statues of angels. The new villain
the Penguin, played by Danny DeVito, is a former circus freak whose henchmen are all weird carnies.
The grotesquery of the Penguin is juxtaposed with the far more appealing, morally ambiguous
Catwoman, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, who's both an enemy and a love interest for Batman.
Christopher Walken also appears as evil businessman Max Schreck, giving one of the
most Walken-esque performances of his life. The whole thing is a weird, spooky, campy delight,
and you can tell it's exactly what Burton wanted it to be.
Visionary director James Whale didn't want to make a second "Frankenstein" movie,
even though the first had been a smash hit. The studio finally convinced him by letting him do
pretty much whatever he wanted. The result was "Bride of Frankenstein,"
an arch, deliberately campy outing that's generally regarded as the first horror comedy.
Whale paired the high-strung Dr. Frankenstein with a new scientist named Dr. Praetorius,
a proud degenerate who gleefully defies the laws of nature. He also gave the Monster
the power of speech, which he had in the novel but lacked in the original film.
“Good. Good.”
There's still plenty of pathos in "Bride," particularly the extremely dark ending,
but it's balanced with a levity that the original lacks, making for a much stronger film. This was
Whale's last "Frankenstein" movie, and is widely regarded as the highlight of the franchise.
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