Movies with titles that sound like they're sequels, but they aren't

Cafe Society
1

…at least not officially. Sometimes they want to give that impression, though.

This is in response to the thread about sequels that don’t sound like sequels, but are.

Destry Rides Again – two movies with this title, which trace back to a book of the same name. None of these are a sequel. There is no original “Destry Rides”. This book (and movie) introduces the character.

Egghead rides again – Warner Brothers cartoon directed by Tex Avery that got its name from the first Destry Rides Again movie. Again, not a sequel. This cartoon introduced the character of “Egghead”, who was a sort of proto-Elmer Fudd, based (everyone agrees) on annoying radio comic Joe Penner.

Lets Do It Again – 1975 movie starring Bill Cosby, Sidney Poitier, and newly-famous Jimmy Walker. Not really a sequel to Uptown Saturday Night (the characters are different, and have different names), but they wanted to give the film the same vibe.

Return of the Vampire (1943) – Columbia got hold of Bela Lugosi, who had famously portrayed Dracula on stage and on screen (for Universal), but didn’t have the rights to the name “Dracula”, so Lugosi (who had already played a vampire not only in Dracula but in Mark of the Vampire(1935) , also directed by Tod Browning) plays vampire Armand Tesla. They clearly wanted to imply that this was a sequel to Dracula, which fits the events and chronology (except that this vampire’s “Renfield” is a werewolf). This film also co-introduced the concept of a vampire returning to life when the stake is pulled out of his heart, and of dissolving under sunlight (Universal introduced the tropes in Son of Dracula (1943) and House of Frankenstein (1944))

Return of the Dragon (1972) Bruce Lee film was titled “Way of the Dragon” in Chinese. It isn’t the sequel to anything, although it looks like it should be the sequel to *Enter the DRagon.

The Return of Martin Guerre – great film starring Gerard Depardieu, based on a real incident in Medieval France. But not a sequel to anything.

Return of the Native – Thomas Hardy novel (1878), dramatized many times on stage and screen. Not a sequel.

2

Leonard Part 6

3

One that might have been…

The Madness of King George

According to IMDB trivia:-

This movie is based on a play by Alan Bennett called “The Madness of George III.” An urban legend formed that the title was changed to prevent non-British audiences from mistaking it for a sequel to two other movies about “The Madness of George.” Nicholas Hytner clarified that in the U.K. it would be obvious that “George III” was a King, but it might not be so clear elsewhere, hence the name change. That does not rule out the sequel theory, as the numeral III was not mentioned by Hytner.

4

Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

If it’s the final one there must have been earlier ones, right?

5

The Fall of a Nation (1916) sounds like a sequel to “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) (based on the book "The Clansman), but no. When the movie became a hit, Thomas Dixon attempted to cash in on the title recognition and wrote an unrelated novel about a European invasion of the USA. This film is considered lost.

6

28 Days Later sounds like it should be a sequel to 28 Days.

7

Troll 2

What do I win?

8

The 1992 American biographical film Malcolm X is NOT a sequel to the 1986 Australian comedy film Malcolm.

9

Or Malcolm II, III, IV…

10

Hard to Die (1990) is not a sequel to Die Hard (1988).

Spoiler: Orville Ketchum is not Hans Gruber’s brother.

11

Hard to Die (1990) is also not sequel to the 1990 Steven Seagal movie Hard to Kill.

12

Good point!

BTW, I cautiously suggest checking out Hard to Die if only because it is jaw-dropping in about six different ways. It’s no Tammy and the T-Rex, though.

13

This token of my appreciation.

Sounds a bit like the case of Prom Night 2, which originnaly had nothing to do with the original Prom Night, but they decided to piggyback after the success of the first film.

Most of the “sequels” to The Howling, after the first sequel, actually don’t have anything to do with the original film, aide from having werewolves in them.

14

It always bothers me that they keep coming up with more “Final Fantasy” titles. I mean, after you make the first “Final Fantasy”, that should be it, right?

15

Jack Goes Boating isn’t a sequel to Jack.

16

We seem to be going off on a tangent here – I’ after films where the title alone makes it sound as if it ought to be a sequel, not taken in tandem with some other film with a similar name.

Although I’ve thought, often enough, that the film Bulletproof Monk sounds like a sequel to the Tony Shaloub series Monk, where he becomes an OCD superhero.

17

Surf II .

There was no movie called Surf, but the producers wanted people to think it was a sequel, since that was popular at the time.

18

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever has such a specific title, as if it expects us to know who “Ecks” and “Sever” are, that it sounds like a sequel.

In fact, this film introduces that characters. It has the coveted 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made. (Despite starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu)

19

Got it. How about Son of Saul?

20

And in the same spirit, xXx from 2002, starring Vin Diesel, is not a sequel to xXix. Which does not exist (as far as I know…).