What are movie sequels that get a bad rap in your opinion, but which you feel are better than the general consensus holds? For myself, Die Hard 2 - while it isn’t as good as the original, or the third movie, it’s a good B movie and an enjoyable waste of a couple of hours. Even if it’s a retread of the original in many ways, its got an atmospheric and isolated winter setting that gives it its own unique identity in a way. It retains the claustrophobic feel of the original, and has that bleak vibe that a lot of early 90s action films have, whereas the third movie feels much more larger in scope and feels more upbeat. You?
“More American Graffiti” - I thought the structure of its overlapping plots set years apart was ambitious and largely successful. It also had a great soundtrack and performances from Candy Clark, Paul Le Mat and Charles Martin Smith.
While I don't think either is underrated, I'd say that Bride Of Frankenstein & Godfather Part II are the finest sequels to already great movies ever. And for the record, even though I place Bride very highly, my personal preference as to sequels in that series is Son Of Frankenstein. But I do feel Bride is the better of the two, it just has a bit less appeal to me.
2010. It lacks the Kubrick uniqueness but it's a great sci-fi film in it's own right with a great cast and some really solid writing. It suffers as it can never compare to what is one of the most iconic films ever made.
Ridley Scott's "Hannibal". Wonderful, Grand Guginol, crazed, weird romance film with great performances by Gary Oldman, the always reliable Anthony Hopkins, Ray Liotta and Julianne Moore doing a credible job filling in for the of course much missed Jodie Foster. Great Hans Zimmer score with that beautiful opera piece by Zimmer and Patrick Cassidy written for the film. Beautifully shot by John Mathieson and cut by Pietro Scalia, both also did "Gladiator". Suffered before release I think because of the much hated ending of the book which Ridley Scott, David Mamet and Steve Zallian rightfully changed. I really, really liked this film. If you haven't seen it in a while give it another shot.
I'm a fan of Room At The Top. Love Simon Signoret in it, and thought Lawrence Harvey was excellent as an aggressive social climber in postwar Britain. I never wanted to see the sequel Life At The Top, because I thought the prior film was perfect and there was nowhere else to go with it. But it was on TCM recently and I gave it chance. Not bad. Had some really good moments.
I'm a fan of THE COLOR OF MONEY, the sequel to THE HUSTLER. It seems to have been dismissed as another Tom Cruise vehicle and a sop to the marketplace by director, Martin Scorsese. (I can also assure viewers it bears almost no relation to the COLOR OF MONEY novel by Walter Tevis, with whom it shares only the character, Fast Eddie Felson Cruise's character, Vince, doesn't exist in the book.) But this apprentice story works, because it's not just about the seasoning of Vince, but the redemption of Fast Eddie. Despite his contempt for Vince's naive, go-for-the-throat gameplay, Eddie is drawn back into a world without subtrefuge and hustles and lying. Unlike Vince, Eddie learns his days are numbered and he wants to play as well as he can for as long as he can.
