I thought "CoM" was great in 1986 but I think it's aged poorly. Maybe it wasn't actually that good back then either, but to 19-year-old me, it seemed cool - and "The Hustler" was a depressing drag. Now I see it the opposite way. "CoM" just feels too much like a 2-hour beer commercial...
I'm probably alone in this opinion but I think Jurassic Park 3 is a better popcorn flick than it's given credit for. I especially love the increased use of the Pteranodons although the Spinosaurus sequence in the latter part of the movie seemed under-cooked.
i liked "the color of money." one thing i really like about it is that of sequels i've seen that were filmed more than 20 years after the original, it really feels plausible. i like that scorsese rejected the idea of having jackie gleason come in to do a cameo, which is the sort of obvious thing that most directors would have done.
The Two Jakes — making a sequel to Chinatown is a ballsy move and I think it’s pretty successful. Really wonderful performance by Harvey Keitel as the other Jake.
I think the conventional wisdom is actually shifting towards being in favor of this one, but Blade Runner 2049 is really just great, I think. it didn’t get the critical hosannas or award season notices, but Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a stylish and grim sequel (which manages to end on a note of hopeful redemption, somehow.) 28 Weeks Later is a higher budget and bleaker sequel to 28 Days Later. I think it mostly works. The opening sequence is hyper-intense.
The 1993 movie remains the best of the bunch, but I still like "Lost World" a lot, too. Yes, it has major flaws, but it's got some really good action and that compensates. For me, at least!
I didn't care all that much for the first sequel back then but these days I like it better. It tries too hard story-wise, especially with the shift in locales. the first and third are more streamlined imo.
I actually like "Anchorman 2" more than the 1st one. It's looser and more anarchic - kinda like the 3rd "Austin Powers" when the 2nd sold so many tickets and took off the pressure built by the 1st one's cult success. It felt like those involved with the 1st "Anchorman" knew they had a popular collection of characters, said "eff it" and did whatever they felt like doing for the sequel...
"Lost World" has some serious issues, mainly because it tries so hard to be earnest via its pandering, pedantic environmental message. Look, I'm all for that particular message, but the movie conveys it in such a condescending manner that it becomes borderline insulting. And the characters act like idiots too often. Poor Julianne Moore gets saddled with most of the film's incoherent moments, such as the fact that she tells us that the T-rex has the second best sense of smell of any animal in history but she continues to wear a jacket stained with the blood of a baby T-rex. Even an idiot like me would know better to do that - shouldn't she? Nonetheless, I think the exciting, well-done action outweighs these flaws. "JP3" has its moments but kinda feels like "I guess we need to make another one - here's a handful of ideas left over. Hope they'll be enough!"
Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. Critically reviled at 1st, & disliked by many fans at the time, it's slowly gained it's just recognition & praise from both. Knowing he couldn't repeat nor top the atmosphere, tension & sheer, unrelenting terror of the original, with it's minimal gore, Tobe Hooper went the other way, piled on the gore until it was hilariously over the top, & matched that with a plot equally as deliriously gonzo insane as the original, but drenched in as much black humor as it was blood. Not as great as the original, but damned close.
Jurassic Park 2 - The Lost World. I was responding to Oatsdad who responded to my initial post about Jurassic Park 3.
I think someone in this conversation has me on ignore, so my prior post didn't show up in our discussion.
I watched this several times, wanting to like it more. But it just seems off: the unnecessary voice over narration, the performances (which range from manic to too insulated), the convoluted script designed to bring back almost every character from the original (including Hall of Records Clerk). The script needed a Polanski or equivalent to pound it into shape like the original. It works ok scene by scene, but the narrative flow is missing. And the ending is sort of a 'so what' not anywhere near as powerful as the original. Much to like here, or at least admire, like the production design, and was interesting to see how Gittes might have settled in and still remained haunted. He's no longer such a wise ass, more confident and yet more tentative. He knows his limitations, where as in the original was driven by him not knowing his limitations, and heedlessly proceeding. So a missed opportunity imo. I once attended a presentation by Richard Sylbert the Production Designer - all sorts of fascinating insights about how Robert Towne got canned (for basically going too slow and being too indecisive) and Nicholson took over directing to save the movie. But I don't think the script was ever quite finished. Seldom can a director overcome that. That the 3rd film completing the trilogy will never be made is a grave disappointment imo
I felt just the opposite. TOP GUN and DAYS OF THUNDER are beer commercials. I feel like COLOR OF MONEY gets better with re-viewing because the story stays grimy and gritty and personal. The scene between Forrest Whittaker and Paul Newman may be my personal highlight. On first viewing, COLOR OF MONEY can come across (and was sold as) as a typical Tom Cruise apprenticeship film, but this time Tom Cruise's naif grows into a rather unlikable and supremely cynical winner, while the master whose sole job in other Cruise films is to season his charge and step aside and smile during the victory lap, instead regains his own innocence in this film. You think the movie is about Eddie teaching Vince, but it's really about Eddie finally becoming -- and I hesitate to use the term -- authentic.
Not just you. I love III for being a straightforward, unpretentious adventure movie, with dinosaurs. It's a good thing the film turned out as well as it did, as the production was troubled and a bit of a mess.
Yeah, that's pretty much why I like it, too. The plot is straightforward and doesn't get bogged down with environmental or ethical arguments about bringing dinos back into existence. Just wham, bam, gonna eat you man! Sure it's pretty mindless but that just makes it easy to enjoy on repeat viewings.