The Drinker's Top 5 Underrated Sequels

You may be surprised to know this, but Hollywood can be a pretty cautious and unimaginative place at times, and rather than risk developing new stories and characters, they usually prefer to milk existing ones for all they're worth, hence the sequel and, My God, do you love your children?

sequels

nowadays, I mean, take a look at the release list for 2024, you could count the number of original IPS on the fingers of a really competent Yakuza member, the funny thing is that, although we tend to think of them as a more modern phenomenon, it has been around almost as long as cinema itself.

The Fall of a Nation was the first sequel to a generally recognized film and was released back in 1916, making it almost as old as the average US presidential candidate. . at this point, but

sequels

didn't really become standard procedure until the 1970s, when we were suddenly bombarded with sequels to movies like The Godfather, The French Connection, and Jaws, to name just a few. Since then, we've had literally hundreds of things, some good, some bad, some, but what I want. To talk about here are the sequels that didn't get the respect or attention they deserved the first time around and could have earned their own little Redemption arcs, so get ready as I take you through the

drinker

's top five most

underrated

sequels, Die Hard 2.

You don't need me to tell you that Die Hard was one of the best action movies ever made and is now a regular part of my Christmas Eve tradition, well that and drinking Bailey's until it looks like I'm reenacting the scene from Bishop of Aliens. Regardless, a sequel went into production almost immediately and by 1990 was ready for release. This time with Finnish director Renie Harland at the helm. Die Hard 2 begins about a year after the events of the first film with John Mlan waiting in Dallas. airport for his wife's plane to land, unfortunately, there is also another plane on the way, this one carrying a captured South American drug trafficker who is being extradited to the United States to stand trial before it can be said that it is plot convenience that a disgraced American colonel and his team of Special Forces soldiers have taken. airport control and close all the runways, leaving hundreds of people stranded in the air, if someone gets in their way, they will start crashing planes.

I think it's fair to say that Die Hard 2 was never going to match the novelty and impact of the original and perhaps its biggest flaw is that it's a bit generic in comparison. William Sadler's Colonel Stewart is not as memorable a villain as Hans Gruber. The airport environment doesn't offer as many interesting possibilities as the Nakatomi Tower and it definitely suffers. the problem with relying on bigger stakes instead of better storytelling, not only are we threatening hostages now that we're crashing entire planes, mlan is also much more of a traditional action hero this time instead of a man trapped in a situation that it's absolutely not prepared for that and while a lot of things go boom, the action scenes don't have the same energy and visceral impact as the first film and for the life of me I will never understand how grenades now take like 30 seconds to detonate.

All that said, it's definitely a fun rollercoaster of an action movie in its own right with some truly impressive effects and one that I'll never feel guilty about rewatching, it may not reach the same heights as Die Hard, but to be fair , that's a pretty high bar, number four, Rocky 2, yes I know people like this movie as a weak, predictable sequel to the original, but hear me out on this one, the phenomenal success of the first Rocky immediately created demand for a sequel. Sylvester Stallone was interested in branching out into other roles, but when his next two films flopped, he returned to Rocky on the condition that he could direct.

At this time, the film sees a difficult attempt to leave boxing after his narrow loss to Apollo Creed. . But when his overnight celebrity status begins to wane and the money runs out, he is forced to accept a rematch with the champion hot on the heels of one of the most beloved films of all time. Rocky 2 was always going to have an uphill battle and it's not hard to see why structurally it wasn't a big hit with critics, the plot is basically just a repeat of the first film, the final fight is bigger and more bombastic and if you shoot Every time Rocky takes a Haymaker to your face, you'll be on your way to the hospital by the end of the first few rounds, but if you look a little closer, you'll start to appreciate the little details and extra thought that make this movie more than just a money theft and that maybe it has There is more to say than you imagine, since the first film was about a man catapulted to fame and stardom with a one in a million chance.

This movie is largely about what happens to him next, like so many other people who become overnight celebrities and quickly go bankrupt. all the prize money from him through reckless spending and when all those much-desired business opportunities and sponsorships lead nowhere, he finally finds himself back where he was. It's an interesting observation about what happens once your 15 minutes of fame are over and it's a very real reflection. of where Stallone was in his own career, the film also gives a much better look at Apollo as an antagonist in the first film, there wasn't much to say about him, he was just a charismatic and brash champion, full of his own success. and he's very overconfident here, although he's much more focused and determined, his pride and reputation are damaged by not being able to knock out Rocky and it's interesting to see him passing up opportunities to move on or easily score points because he can't seem to let it go. . he left and I'll be honest, I always felt a little sorry for him in that final round.

Clearly, a film like this was never going to recapture the timeless magic of the original, but rather as a solid, well-constructed sequel that packs a lot. There's more to say than you might think, it holds up surprisingly well, it's the closest in tone to the original film before the series became cartoons and if you're willing to judge it on its own merits rather than in comparison to its predecessor. I think you can quite enjoy Rocky 2 number three 20110 the year we get in touch. Ask any pretentious film critic and he will probably list Space Odyssey 2001 as one of his best films of all time and rightly so, it is a Sci-Fi Masterpiece made by one of the most talented and unique directors in the history of the western cinema. 2001 really casts such a long shadow that it tends to overshadow the sequel that was released in 1984 and that's a real shame because 2010 is actually a great science fiction film in its own right, it tells the story of a joint Soviet American expedition to recover the discovery of the first film and investigating the mysterious orbit of the monolith on Jupiter and actually does a pretty good job of tying up some of the loose ends from its predecessor, although it leaves enough unanswered questions that audiences can still draw their own conclusions.

The creeping paranoia, existential dread, deep philosophical questions and painfully slow pace of Kubrick's work are less overwhelming here, the characters are much more grounded and human, there are many references to the tension of the Cold War that prevailed at the time. and the final message of peace and cooperation may seem slightly hacked compared to the deep mystery of 2001, but overall I think it's a very

underrated

message. sequel that actually accomplishes a lot more than people give it credit for, the cast is excellent, the special effects are solid and the ending provides a touching redemption arc for one of the most memorable villains of all time and I think maybe this movie deserves it. a little more love than number two Ghostbusters 2 gets I've never seen a movie more unfairly screwed up than Ghostbusters 2, the infamous and unpopular sequel to the 1984 classic, a movie that most actors were reluctant to make in First of all, Bill Murray. famously disowned upon its release and whose failure pretty much ended the prospect of further Ghostbusters movies until the bad times started and to be honest I never quite understood the hate it generated, yeah it definitely stuck too close to the structure and formula from the first movie playing very safe and cautious when they probably should have been bold and inventive, yes vgo the Carpathian was a pretty forgettable villain compared to the goer and yes, given everything that happened at the end of the first movie, it's pretty ridiculous that the Ghostbusters aren't international celebrities at this point, but as a movie still offers plenty of entertainment on its own terms, many of the jokes are much funnier and better constructed than in modern sequels like Afterlife and whatever the problems and struggles behind the scenes. the cast is still in top form throughout, even Bill Murray looks like he really wants to be there and there are some interesting little jokes about how long it's been since the first film, my point is that even if it's a bit of a safe sequel and unimaginative, it still feels like a Ghostbusters movie in a way that the afterlife of the 2016 version never had the tone, the humor, the performances and the energy are still there, even if they're not as fresh as they were before that it was a movie.

I have a lot of happy memories watching TV as a kid, and I think ultimately its biggest problem is that it had the near-impossible challenge of following one of the best comedies of the 1980s, but considering what came next, I don't know. . Be man, I think it will be remembered much more fondly as time goes on, Predator number one 2, the original Predator is the closest thing to a perfect action movie and I've waxed lyrical about it many times before, so I'm not going down the same path again, the point is that like every other hit movie of the 1980s, a sequel was almost inevitable and that sequel came in the form of 1990s Predator 2 and as much as Ghostbusters 2 was criticized for being Predator 2, kind of safe and formulaic, took a very different path.

Gone is the atmospheric jungle backdrop. Gone where the action heroes of the 1980s went. Gone was survival, claustrophobia, and isolation. Instead, we find ourselves in Los Angeles in the near future, immersed in a full-scale war between rival drug gangs and our protagonist is now a middle-aged police detective who finds himself searching for a mysterious new killer who He leaves a trail of mutilated bodies in his wake, and while all this is happening, a shadowy government task force lurks. At its core it sounds like a movie that should never have worked, but what's impressive is how effectively Predator 2 makes its new cast and location work while keeping the core elements of the Predator franchise alive and well.

This Predator has new weapons and abilities that he uses. very effectively in combat, the script develops its origins and purpose a little more clearly and adds a new air of intrigue without Jumping the Shark. There are some wonderfully gory action sequences, especially the subway shootout, which still manages to scare me even today. The characters are beautiful. well drawn, likable and played by capable actors, especially Danny Glover who gives a great performance as a world-weary detective whose mission becomes very personal when his own friends fall victim to the predator and I like the fact that the government is very The Predator's conscious exists now and is actively working to counter their technology so they can steal it for themselves.

It's a logical continuation of the events of the first film and it's a shame we never got a third film that develops this further. definitely shortcomings Arnold's absence leaves a big void in the film, there's none of the subtle transitions to different genres that made the original script so compelling and if I'm honest the final battle drags on too long but overall I think it's a very fun action. horror movie that stands on its own merits and probably the only really good Predator sequel I've ever seen and for that reason I'm dismissing it as the most underrated and underrated sequel of all time and there you have it on the

drinker

's list. the most underrated sequels in history.

I don't think you'll agree with me on everything, but that's what makes these films so endlessly fascinating: the opportunity to counter, debate and offer your own alternative suggestions, and I'm sure you have plenty of your own anyway that's it. everything I have for today go now