sequels that don't suck

[Shirt Ninja 13]

So, having seen both Spider-man 2 and Shrek 2 in as many weeks, I'm starting to think that maybe sequels don't have to be worse than the original movie. That said, I was wondering if people could come up with some other good examples of sequels that were on par with, if not better than, the original movie; sequels that don't suck, if you will.

Any ideas?
*bamf*

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Star Trek II
Superman II
X2

[CandidGamera]

Must disagree on Superman II - some good bits, but it introduced some weirdness to the franchise that I've always hated.

Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Army of Darkness all come to mind.

[tanstaafl]

Aliens

Thank god they didn't do any more after that... ;)

[Mr. Blue Sky]

Must disagree on Superman II - some good bits, but it introduced some weirdness to the franchise that I've always hated.

I'll have to disagree with your diagreement.

It's just a movie, after all.

[CandidGamera]

I'll have to disagree with your diagreement.

It's just a movie, after all.

Of course, you're entitled to do so.

I just cringe everytime I see Kryptonian hand-blasts or giant cellophane 'S' symbols entrapping the bad guy.

[Maus Magill]

Lethal Weapon 2 - That was the last one, wasn't it?

A Shot in the Dark

[Ethilrist]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

From Russia with Love.

Highlander II: The Quickening (naw... just kidding...)

[picker]

Godfather 2 (of course)

Evil Dead 2 (and Army of Darkness) - i think both are better than the original Eviil Dead

X Men 2 (This is obviously controversial, but personally I liked the second a lot more)

and without a doubt,

The Muppets Take Manhattan. The crown jewel of the mythos.

[Dangerosa]

Toy Story 2 is generally thought to be better than the original.

Even numbered Star Trek movies (which makes II better than I).

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

Sequels that are as good (or better) than the originals:

Godfather 2
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (better)
Aliens (better)
Empire Strikes Back
X-Men 2 (better)
Spider-Man 2
Blade 2 (better)
LotR: The Two Towers
LotR: Return of the King
Army of Darkness (better than Evil Dead 1 and 2)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (better than Temple of Doom, at least)
Desperado (better than El Mariachi)

[Ephemera]

X Men 2 (This is obviously controversial, but personally I liked the second a lot more).

It is? I only know of one or two people that prefer the original which when compared to the sequel was nothing more than a paint by numbers comic book movie. A good one, yes, but still rather pedestrian.

X2 was ten times better. At least.



Even numbered Star Trek movies (which makes II better than I).

Star Trek: Nemesis was ST:X and it was horrible so that theory's now been shot.



TV Spin-offs are sequels of sorts so I will have to nominate all four of the Treks following the original which, to me, sucked. To be less controversial (I'm sure the purists would kill me for saying Voyager and Enterprise were better than TOS) though, I'll just say TNG and DS9.

[ElectricZ]

The Road Warrior (Mad Max 2)

[Dewey Finn]

I liked Babe 2: Pig in the City better than the original, but my brother disagrees.

[AskNott]

Superman II is far and away the best of the Supes, and S II's Zod stands among the top-notch movie villians. Warning, though. This movie may leave you craving a Marlboro, because of product placement.

Sherlock Holmes's Smarter Brother, a Gene Wilder vehicle, is a pretty entertaining thing. It's certainly better than the fing Basil-and-Nigel-foil-the-Nazis SH sequels.

[Chunky Bum]

Silence of the Lambs

[Coelacanth Soup]

Would Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger count as sequals to Hunt for Red October? Both (actually all three) were great films.

AskNott - Superman II is far and away the best of the Supes, and S II's Zod stands among the top-notch movie villians.

Correct - Superman II might have sucked sans ZOD. But that performance clinched the film's status as a classic. Terrance Stamp perhaps gave one of the best portrayals of a villan in all of film history.

[Ethilrist]

Silence of the Lambs
Cool. Most people wouldn't get that it was a sequel, and say Hannibal instead.

[Telemark]

Bride of Frankenstein

[Telemark]

Cool. Most people wouldn't get that it was a sequel, and say Hannibal instead.
Except the OP was looking for sequels that don't suck.

[RikWriter]

They've already been mentioned but...
X Men 2
Aliens
Star Trek II
The LOTR trilogy
The Empire Strikes Back
Blade II
Toy Story II
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Army of Darkness
Terminator II

[duffer]

Empire Strikes Back

Rocky 5 (not better than the original but it didn't suck)

Toy Story 2 (again, not better but didn't suck.)

Jeepers Creepers 2 (thought it was about even)

American Pie 2 and American Wedding

Die Hard with a Vengeance. (Best on in IMO)

Lethal Weapon 2 and 3 (though I hate Danny Glover)

[plnnr]

Telemark beat me to it - Bride of Frankenstein is easily as good, if not better, than the original. It certainly has lots more humor.

[Monkey Chews]

National Lampoon's European Vacation

[Snickers]

Blade II?! Are you people insane? This movie sucked hard.

[dantheman]

National Lampoon's European Vacation
What did you like about it? Why did you think it was better than or as good as the original?

[Stonebow]

Rocky 5 (not better than the original but it didn't suck)


Please tell me that you really meant to type rocky 2-4. 5 was certainly not better than the original, though Rocky IV was one of the best movies of all time, certainly near the top of the 'guy's top 100 movies' list.

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

My favorite Rocky movies are actually 3 (because of Mr. T and Hulk Hogan) and 4 (because of Dolph Lundgren and the Vince DiCola musical score). Both stupider films than the award-winning first Rocky, but a lot more fun.

And how about Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo? Maybe not a great film, but people often refer to it, or add the suffix to random things, as in "Iraq War 2: Electric Boogaloo." What, you've never heard anyone say that? Maybe I just hang with a bunch of nerds. Anyway, NOBODY ever refers to the original Breakin'!

[duffer]

Please tell me that you really meant to type rocky 2-4. 5 was certainly not better than the original, though Rocky IV was one of the best movies of all time, certainly near the top of the 'guy's top 100 movies' list.

I meant 4. Not that shitty Tommy Gunn one. And his kid was such a little bastard in it, I refuse to ever watch it again. Sorry for the confusion. :smack:

[Munch]

Blade II?! Are you people insane? This movie sucked hard.
Thank you. I was going to ask Voodoo Lou is that was some sort of code to let us know his house is being held by terrorists or something.

[Zsofia]

[i]Addams Family Values[/b] was much better than the first Addams Family movie. With a crazy Joan Cusack and some "Addams family members deal with the Real World" bits.

[Cisco]

I know some wiseacre will come along and say they both sucked but I think Ace Ventura 2 was much better than the first.

In fact, I didn't care for the first one much at all, but I think the sequel is a modern-day classic.

[Hey, It's That Guy!]

Thank you. I was going to ask Voodoo Lou is that was some sort of code to let us know his house is being held by terrorists or something.

No, honestly, I don't remember anything from Blade 1 except the neat "bloodbath" sequence in the beginning. Didn't make much of an impact on me. But I saw Blade 2 recently (right after seeing Hellboy, by the same director, Guillermo Del Toro), and enjoyed it for what it was. Of course it had many similar elements and visuals to Hellboy, plus the Ron Perlman factor going for it. So I was probably just in the right mood.

[pepperlandgirl]

Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey

Return to Snowy River.

[Live Better Electrically!]

Drunken Master 2, Hong Kong version

[Little Nemo]

Dogma was the fourth movie in Kevin Smith's New Jersey series and was in my opinion the best of the series. And even people who might not agree it's the best will usually agree it was at least better than Mallrats.

[Little Nemo]

And the second Brady Bunch movie was okay. Not quite as good as the first but it held up.

[Snooooopy]

And how about Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo? Maybe not a great film, but people often refer to it, or add the suffix to random things, as in "Iraq War 2: Electric Boogaloo." What, you've never heard anyone say that? Maybe I just hang with a bunch of nerds. Anyway, NOBODY ever refers to the original Breakin'!

Well, nobody's likely to argue that "Electric Boogaloo" is a better title! :D

[Typo Negative]

National Lampoon's European Vacation

Obviously, you meant National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

[ouryL]

Must disagree on Superman II - some good bits, but it introduced some weirdness to the franchise that I've always hated.

Empire Strikes Back, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Army of Darkness all come to mind.

Superman II could have been a great movie but the amount of trouble among the director, producers and studio left us with something almost :( awful.

[Estilicon]

Highlander II: The Quickening (naw... just kidding...)


Look around pal, NOBODY is laughing. I'll give you and advice never mention that movie again, most of us have managed to forget it.
Back to the future II and III.

[Fish]

To go with Drunken Master II I nominate Armour of God Part II. The fights in that were sooo-ooo much asskickinger than the first.

[Lamia]

Addams Family Values was much better than the first Addams Family movie. With a crazy Joan Cusack and some "Addams family members deal with the Real World" bits.I agree. The first movie was too much of the Addamses shut up in their own little world, without enough humorous contrast with "normal" people. I always like Joan Cusack too, and this may have been the best part she was ever given! It was great fun to see her play crazy/sexy/evil for a change.

Addams Family Values is also the only movie I can remember seeing that produced spontaneous applause in the theater. I'm not talking about applause at the end, I've heard that before. But during the summer camp sequence, when

Wednesday, Pugsly, and their misfit friends launched a rebellion in the middle of the Thanksgiving pageant

the whole theater started clapping and cheering! I'd guess such a reaction may be common at action movies when something Impressive or Cool happens, but it's pretty rare in comedies.

[Guinastasia]

I don't even remember the first Addams Family movie, but I have a lot of lines from the second memorized.

(Plus the nerdy kid at camp was played by the same guy who stabbed Carter and Lucy on ER).

And I thought that A Very Brady Sequel was even funnier. The whole Greg/Marsha incest subplot. Heh.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the best of the series, at least so far.


The second Friday the 13th was pretty good. After that, the series degenerated into the typical slasher crap.

[ouryL]

:cool: I guess Deep Throat II don't count :D

[mbh]

Faraway, So Close! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107209/

sequel to

Wings of Desire http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093191/

The original was a highbrow, artsy-fartsy Work of Cinematic Art (Don't get me wrong, I loved it. But you have to be in the mood for Great Art.)

The sequel had a plot, and even some action. I suspect the cineastes hated it, but to this uncultured Yank, it was better storytelling.

And then, of course, Hollywood had to go and make City of Angels. :mad:

[saoirse]

The Four Musketeers was as good as The Three Musketeers (the Michael York/Raquel Welch one), although whether it qualifies as a sequel or just the second part of the movie depends on who you talk to.

[borschevsky]

Back to the future II and III.These movies don't get enough credit. They're probably not as good as the original, but they're still good movies. I've always thought that the sequels were a bit stretched, and they could have been cut a bit and combined into a great single movie.

Rocky IV was one of the best movies of all time, certainly near the top of the 'guy's top 100 movies' list.I disagree, I thought Rocky 4 was terrible. It needed more patriotism.

[Beauty Personified]

The Chronicles of Riddick - I almost fell asleep watching Pitch Black, so I went to bed. I was pleasantly surprised by Riddick.

I liked El Mariachi more than Desperado. Desperado just felt flat to me. Once Upon A Time in Mexico, however, may turn out to be one of my all-time favorite films.

Call me sacrilegious, but Army of Darkness didn't do it for me. I liked Evil Dead 2 a lot more. I've actually never seen the original Evil Dead. (I've heard that the first sequel more or less a remake. True?)

I didn't like Back to the Future, Part II at all. I don't know what it was - the direction or the script - but with all the trips back and forth in time, the film didn't flow very smoothly, IMO. At least not for an enjoyable watch. I liked Part III though.

Some people consider the original Dawn of the Dead to be a better movie than Night of the Living Dead. :eek: I don't know about that. NOTLD is, IMO, one of the best films of all time. However, I must admit that I've yet to see the original Dawn from beginning to end. And Day of the Dead is a very good film, if not as good as the first two.

The other branch of NOTLD sequels (Return of the Living Dead et al.) aren't as highly rated, but they did tell us what part of the human body zombies really like to eat. ;)

What about The Color of Money?

Anyhoo...