My Top 85 Favorite 2nd Chapter Sequels (original) (raw)

Faraway, So Close! is the sequel to the successful Wings Of Desire. I still haven't decided whether I like this movie or not. Whenever I my mind reflects on it, sometimes I find myself liking it as a follow-up film that tries to make it's own mark, distinct from the original. Other times, I find it an uneven plot that does a poor job of continuing the concepts that were introduced in Wings.
So until I view this again in order to finally make up my mind, I'm including it on this list. For the time being, it'll help round out this list to an even eighty-five. Not to mention that with the straddling opinion that I have for this German esoteric fantasy film, I think it's worth recommending just to hear what other afficiandos might think of it.

Technically speaking, this is a sequel to the first Frankenstein kaiju flick, Frankenstein Conquers the World. Before it was released, this movie went through several different titles, everyone of 'em featuring the word "Frankenstein" in 'em. They finally settling on Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira although, that was just for their markets outside of the United States. Many American kaiju fans didn't know that this was a Frankenstein flick since the working title for its U.S. release is the more commonly known War of The Garguantuas.

The main reason for all of the extreme title changes was because the final script for this saga of battling behemoth-sized brothers is just a big ol' mess. The already wacky- ass story of Sanda and Gaira is a continuity that is barely stitched together with its predecessor, Frankie Conquers the World. This barely there second chapter's premise is worsened by the fact that it just plain gets totally lost in translation once it reaches the shores of it's more English-speaking audiences.
Which probably make anyone reading this wonder why it's featured on this of favorite second chapter cinema. And the explanation is simple. Guilty pleasure.
I grew up during the 70's, and as a kid who watched a lot of television fell in love with Japanese kaiju flick that were continually on the roster of many of those creature feature type of shows that used to run quite often on local channels.
The overall weird wackiness of these types of movies of massive monsters of madness were almost the television equivalent of the monster comics that were produced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby throughout the 50's and 60's. And those were pretty crazy too, although, I'll admit, the kaiju equivalents did take the insanity of their premise to the next level. And this particular Frankenstein franchise offshoot was a pretty good example of that.
Now, of course, this type of motion picture entertainment is not for everyone. Only those few of us born with a particularly unrefined taste for Kaiju style kamp can understand the khaos and konvoluted kraziness of these krusading kreature kombatants and the giant rubbery foot-shape imprint they can leave on our kollective konscousness.

This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse is the second chapter in the trilogy about a character named Coffin Joe. He is a caretaker with a taste for murder and on a quest to find the "perfect woman" to help him sire what he deems as immortal prodigy. Kidnapping a group of females and putting them through a series of "fear" tests, he hopes that it will filter out the ideal woman of his dreams. An example of one of these tests includes filling a room where the potential future mamas are sleeping with tarantulas. The one who screams and cries the least will be ruled as the "winner", while the rest of 'em are left to fend for themselves against a hungry horde of Coffin Joe's slithering pets.
It may not exactly the most be the romantic manner of scoring a spouse, but it does set up for an interesting story on the day when the son asks his father exactly just how daddy met mommy.

From the year of 1974, there were two female "badasses" of color who returned in sequels that, even though they aren't as good as the first installments of their stories, they have a certain cinematic lavishness that each of their films define in their own distinctive way. And both were entertaining enough (at least they were for me anyway) that the inclusion of the two movies was able to help me fill out this list to an even twenty-five (which, considering the films I had to choose from that were made in the first half of the 70s decade, was not an easy feat).
The first of these butt kicking femmes is Foxy Brown. In her first movie, she was named Coffy, but for whatever reason, the producers wanted to separate this film from that one, despite that the only differences between the two is the name and the fact that Coffy/Foxy dresses a little more "stylish" in this one.
But whatever you wanna call her, she's still played by Pam Grier, she's still hot and she still got her gun pointed where it counts.

The second of the butt-kicking femmes that I mentioned from the previous entry is Lady Snowblood, a character with whom I fell in love with after her first foray in film the year previous.
Here she returns, but with her primary goal of vengeance already satiated from the original movie, she then sets her mind and her katana (although through circumstances not of her choosing) towards the political realm of espionage.
And as we all know, there's more than enough blood in that arena to quench the thirst of any modern-day warrior's (male or female) sword.

Ever since the on-switch was turned up to eleven was by the original Leatherface Clan back in 1974 in the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there have been a certain type of subhorror slasher-family flicks that have since tried to match the bar 'o' evil that was raised that fateful day a group of unsuspecting teenagers stopped their van on a property that shoulda been condemned to the rest of civilized society.
While Rob Zombies' creation of Captain Spaulding's kith and kin, in my opinion, doesn't quite match up to the legendary status of TCM, it's was still a worthy effort to the genre. Not to mention that as a sequel to House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects did seem to manage to upgrade from being lower white trash to even lower white trash.

Therefore, it's no wonder that even Lucifer himself rejected these ratchety-ass rednecks as just a buncha of hellbent hillbillies who presence would only serve to make the property value of his domain go all ta hell.

It's back!
Pennywise, the multiformed enitity of evil eternal has returned and even though the children he antagonized in Chapter One are now all grown up, his hunger for their childhood fears is as strong and as insatiable as ever.

It: Chapter Two got alotta flack from both fans and critics alike for not being "as good" or "as scary" as chapter one. But, I have to be honest here, I really enjoyed it, quite a lot. I don't understand the basis for the criticisms "It" got since the story of this film adaptation stays pretty true to what what Stephen King penned onto paper (with the obvious editing down that is a standard requirement whenever a story goes through the process of being converting from a novel to a movie). And when you pay attention to what King wrote in the book, the cosmic angle of "It's" nature, it moved closer to fantasy science fiction with an element of horrot than it did to being a tale that was just a pure horror story. If the writers and producers of the movie wanted to honor the story in the book, this movie is pretty close to what had to be portrayed to get that result. And it also required the type of elaborate special effects that were needed to bring all the elements of "It" to life. I know this is just horror fan's opinion, but if that diminishes the level of scare in favor of the seeing as much as possible King's ideas for an immortal god of fear come to fruition on the big screen, then I'm fine with "It".

In 1993, the king of summer blockbusters struck again with a massive motion picture that kicked off a brand spanking new franchise called Jurassic Park! While there had been movies about dinosaurs before (one of my favorites as a kid was a drive-in second feature called The Land That Time Forgot) this is the one that left the biggest footprint into the annals of giant prehistoric lizard film history. And one of the major reasons for that is that, utilizing the enormous purse strings that typically are attached to any of his cinema projects, Spielberg was able to make dinosaurs come digitally to life in as much realistic detail as possible, even to this date. And not just visually, but also, in its story’s premise and the scientific facts that were required in projecting this concept of modern-day colossal creatures with a high level of believability.

As was predicted, Jurassic Park was a massive success throughout the globe, and thus, a sequel was pretty much guaranteed. Maybe a bit too much of a guarantee. Because, while it was obvious that Steven had a vision for the first chapter about a prehistoric park for the public, it seemed like this follow up was relying more on firmly established formula than it was on any kind of creative inspiration.

That’s not to say that The Lost World isn’t an entertaining piece of blockbuster escapism. It definitely is. And you can tell that Spielberg did his best with the basic elements that make up a typical Amblin production (fantastic visual world building, witty dialogue, and of course, the dinosaurs look spectacular). But at the very heart of it, there is much heart. Especially considering the lead actors included Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, and Vince Vaughn, which, IMO, made for a better cast than the movie preceding this one. The oversized oomph that stampeded through cinemas just four years earlier wasn’t there. By any other filmmaker, that was fine. But with Steven Spielberg’s name on it, particularly at that time, expectations were for nothing less than the best. Or at least, the biggest.

I enjoy The Lost World: Jurassic Park every time I watch it. That is why it’s on this list. But considering the stakes of the brand, I really would have much preferred that it was good enough for a higher, much higher, spot than what I have it in now.

When you make a monster mash up movie called House of Frankenstein, how do you follow up its success with a sequel?

Easy.

If you’re gonna give the Frankenstein Monster a house in the first film, then it only makes sense that you give Count Dracula a house to call his own. Then you follow up the formula of the first film by filling it in with a group of houseguests that includes fellow universal monster superstars the Wolfman and Frankie himself. And to separate the second installment from the first, you add in an evil scientist has a touch of Jekyll and Hyde to his demeanor, plus, my favorite, an Igor style hunchback but this time, make him a her.

Now you have a final sequel which, despite its lack of any real scares, is still a fun watch and at least puts a nice little bow at the end to each of Universal Studios’ top trio of terror, Drac, Frank, and the Wolfman.

Boy.....

.... remember back when stop-motion was the sh#t?

An old Star Trek villain, the genetically engineered Khan, is back. And he now has a wrath to bestow upon our galaxy-galloping heroes.
Not only that, he also has both a United Federation starship and the Genesis device at his command.
Will the now Admiral James T. Kirk & Crew be able to stop the chesty madman before it's too late?
Well,
I don't wanna spoil the suspense for any viewers out there who have not yet seen this early 80's sci-fi classic, but since there were a bunch more sequels added to the franchise after this film, I'm sure it's pretty easy to figure out the outcome.

Just when you thought the Evil Dead were dead, this second installment of the series shows that one of the main reasons they're so evil is because they have a nasty habit of not staying dead.

After the surprise success of the first flick, Bruce Campbell revisits the role as the teenage camper who comes back to the cabin in the woods to settle a score. And this time, he taking names and kicking Ash.
Actually, that's a really loose interpretation of what happens in this film since I could never tell just how much of a sequel the story from ED2 was supposed to be from EV1.
Nevertheless, thus began a franchise that would to continue to shamble much farther and much longer than Sam Raimi and friends could've ever fore"saw".

Back during my college days, the whole time that I was enrolled, I probably consumed enough beer so as to qualify me as some sort of a drunken master.
But through my lack of training and discipline, I was never enough of a master to be able to fight in any kind of a kung fu battle whilst in this alleviated state of inebriation. Particularly in any manner that allowed me to use every piece of furniture, silverware and/or knick-knacks that was in my immediate disposal in a cool offensive style like Jackie Chan does in this movie.
But, I was always drunk enough to at least think I could.

As far as Marvel movies go, the X-Men is a film franchise that has never been able to match the level that the comic book version held within the printed version of the Marvel Universe.

But as a series that was the motion picture industry was never really able to connect to the main MCU property (most likely due to things like copyright issues, contracts and other stuff involving profit focused lawyers, obviously), it was a cinematic “world” that was able to hold its own.

X-Men United was the first sequel of that stand alone world, and while it wasn’t any kind of a game changer when it came to follow-up films, it worked well enough to establish the Children of the Atom as a franchise. It also succeeded in demonstrating that it was possible to bring a large cast together to portray a pretty big assemblage of superheroes more than a decade earlier than any of the Infinity films.
While there had been comic book sequels before this one, X2 was the one that solidified that any motion picture project that came after, multi-chapters and spinoffs were now part of the program.

Which I’m sure made many actors, not to mention, Hollywood agents and accountants, salivate with glee.

The first French Connection is one of those movies that is often mentioned whenever the subject of classic cop movies of the 70's is bought up.
But you almost never hear about it's sequel, aptly named French Connection II (No "The" in this movie title), whether it be in discussion of cop flicks, or just in any kind of conversation whatsoever.
Maybe that's because, unlike it's predecessor, it's not a movie that helped to move or define the genre it belongs to.
Now, this isn't a criticism of the FC2. Because, on it's own, it stands as a pretty decent police thriller, as it follows Popeye Doyle across the ocean in pursuit of the drug-dealing frenchman who puts the "french" in the connection that this story is centered on.
It's just that, at it's best, what the film succeeds in is, for an hour and a half, the viewer is taken away on a ride-along of a cop caper that transcends international borders.
And compared to other films in this category, not that's not too bad.

The 1990’s was one of the best decades for watching burgeoning talents behind the scenes of the indies become really cool directors responsible for some the era’s most distinctive styles. Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Wes Anderson, and David Fincher are some of the names from that group. Also on the list is Kevin Smith.

Just like the other directors I mentioned, he came into the world of movie making with a style that was his own unique brand. However, IMO, he is also the one director that whose style failed to evolve very much past what he started out with. As a result, to this day, Clerks is easily his best film.

When the long-awaited sequel to Clerks finally came out, a full years later, it didn’t really have the same magic of the first. I mean, it isn’t a bad movie by any means, but the luster of being part of a “new wave” young talent was dulled down a bit. Particularly, because Smith has a sophomoric taste for humor, which worked well in the beginning, but after a certain amount of time needed to show some kind maturity, if not in the content, but at least in the sharpening of the wit.

As I said, though, this is still a good movie. I found at least half the funnies laugh worthy and it was great to see the original cast come back for another shift behind the cash register.

I'll be honest here, the main reason I liked the first First Blood was because of the manner that Rambo was able to seriously kick ass without as much snickering or as many eyerolls from movie viewers that the character began to get starting with Part II. For me, that first chapter in this series was was able to straddle the fine line of being over the top and yet down to earth at the same time.
After R:FBP2 however, Sly's crazy ex-soldier easily crossed over that line and just sorta became more of a cartoon-like character of violence that he's become famous for since then.

Still, for all the bloated brawny ridiculousness that has infested this franchise, I've been able to accept this particular movie for the fiery explosion-laden popcorn escapist fare that it is.
Though, that doesn't mean I have to like any of the sequels that followed up after this one. For me, those all still suck.

Despite being a great premise for an animated, feature that is based off of the original Universal Monster characters that made up the cinematic versions of Dracula, Frankenstein‘s Monster, and the Wolfman so iconic, the Hotel Transylvania franchise has pretty much gotten so-so reviews from just about everybody. But me, I’ve always been a fan of the Mash, The Monster Mash. And I don’t mean the song (even though I do like the song, despite the fact that so many other people think of it as too much of a novelty). A monster mash used to be the term used to describe movies that featured the trio of terror that was Drak, Franky and Wolfy, plus any other 2nd tier add-ons such as the Mummy or the Invisible Man. As a result, I think that I like these HT movies more than most people,

I think it is a testament to how far we have come in terms of computer-generated imagery that a movie like this one would be considered as simply average. Everything about it is fine. The story is good, the visuals are sharp crisp, and the caricature aspect works well enough to keep it from looking boring. The humor, while some of it is pretty predictable, overall, there’s enough bite to fit within the premise of monsters running an establishment.

As a result of Pixar and Disney raising the bar so high when it comes to animated features, this movie gets a bad rap for being just average. For me, I find that this Transylvanian hotel may not be worthy of a five-star rating, in the end, it is still good enough for a couple of stays overnight, whether it be during the Halloween season or not.

With the first chapter of the Harry Potter film franchise proving to be almost as successful as the book, the 2nd book in the series is released in movie form (and in the nick of time considering that the movies must coincide with the age of the child actors) and solidifies that the kid with the lightning scar is worthy of the reputation of being "The Chosen One". Particularly when one considers how this is a franchise that pretty much raised the bar on how literarily based properties can fare in as a box office booming cash cow.

It wasn't after the smashing success of Chamber of Secrets that the movie makers were confident that they now had at least 6 other movies ahead of them that were going to rake in some pretty serious "quiddage". It was the profitability of this second Hogwarts adventure that established the idea that a franchise could practically write their own checks, starting almost from the very beginning, if they were based off a wildly successful book series. Yes, there were franchises with multiple movies in them before any of these of Rowling's creations, but it was the success of this particular film that established the idea that multiple movies would be given the go ahead to their production even before tallying up of all of the numbers of the first few that were released. From here on end, contractual negotiations and production budgets would begin the instant that the property rights were sold. Before this, there were many instances where a property would lay in production limbo (also known as "developemental hell") because the idea of setting up a budget for the series as a whole as opposed to each individual movie, wasn't one that we saw much of in the motion picture industry. This would result in multi-movie franchises such as Lord of the Rings, Twilight, and The Hunger Games type of deals, which in turn, would even lead to establishing entire fictional universes (such as the Marvel and DC cinematic universes) that filmmakers could play around with and establish a plethora of entertainment visual series, in order to satiate the tastes of a growing market of fan-based audiences. Movies, TV shows, specials, and videos games, all tied together into one mega-franchise that entertainment company shareholders could count on in order to reap in the profits.
Movies with hardcore followers that would traverse into other entertainment mediums were now not just big business but were now even becoming the standard.

I've stated this before, that I am not that big of a fan of Disney's animated movies. Especially from the stuff they put out during the 70's, 80's and most of the 90's.
Not until they began getting more three dimensional with their graphics did I find myself seeing the three dimensional quality in their stories. And when it comes to computer generated films, I obviously prefer Pixar over Disney.
However, I do enjoy some of Uncle Walt's very early efforts in the area of cartoon cinema. Including the original Fantasia from the year 1940.

The first film successfully integrated classical music with animation in eight featurettes with each medium complimenting the other. The power of the music was enhanced by the visuals of each short (with various degrees of success of course) while at the same time, the hand crafted artwork of each cell seemed to be powered by the notes and melodies of each time tested arrangement.
Almost sixty years later, Disney released this follow-up, which follows the same format of the original with the same amount of varying degree of success of each feature. Although, TBH, personally, I wouldn't have minded if they could've found a way to rev up the stylings of both music and visuals in way that would have better demonstrated the progress made in each field. But in the end, F2000 still manages to entertain and delight in the same manner that Uncle Walt had envisioned when he first dreamed up this moused-eared manner of movie magic.

Harry Callahan may be a cop who's often referred to as "Dirty", but he's still a cop who strongly believes that, when it comes to taking the law into your own hands, a man has got to know his limitations. So when a "magnum force" of renegade officers begin a reign a rogue vigilantism, naturally, the only one who could stop 'em is a good cop with a bad attitude. With his trusty Smith & Wesson Model 29 .44 Magnum by his side, it's up to Dirty Harry to clean up the streets of dirty traffic officers who tend to deal with violations with more than just a citation.

In 1943, Universal Studios released Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, a film that is considered the first to actually team up two of the monster mainstays that will make the studio company famous (in the horror flick circle, that is). Its story is considered the sequel to the original 1941 Wolf Man and at the same time, the fifth chapter in the Frankenstein series.
And while it seems like it's the werewolf who experiences more development as a character, it's still cool to see that the creatures who have become staples in legendary lore of the scare flick are now sharing terrorizing tactics together in the same world.

While I will admit that I was never really what you would call a big Bond fan, I did find some of his films entertaining enough. However, when the Roger Moore stuff took the character to the lower depths of camp, it kind of made whatever modest interest I had for the movies trickle away to almost complete indifference. After Casino Royale rebooted the character back to his roots, however, I started to see this Agent 007 from a different albeit darker light. Royale really took me off guard as such a high-quality action flick (in fact, my favorite action flick of that year) but one that established that Bond was more than just a human vehicle for some really cool (and sometimes outlandish) spy gadgets. And even though, Quantum of Solace slips a bit from the trajectory that started in Casino (choppy action sequences, looser story) it's high energy and emphasis on characterizations, particularly between Bond and "M", were enough to still keep this installment entertaining to the eyes of this usually non-Bond fan.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for more Scream.
Scream 2 is the follow up flick of this list that can be considered the one that help to invigorate sequels when it comes to the slasher genre. Which is fitting considering how its predecessor was the movie which helped to reinvigorate the entire genre itself.
And as a result of the success of these first two installments, these kinds of groupings of property-based motion pictures were now being called franchises.
Therefore, to the benefit the film companies that were behind this type of murder-mashed movies, theater goers didn't consider themselves so much as fans of a particular film now as they were more fans of an entire film franchise.
Which in turn, made producers and filmmakers feel like they had an obligation to pump out chapter after chapter of a franchise with more of a guarantee that these "franchise fans" will flock to see 'em in droves as each new one is released. Thus, establishing a kind of cushion for the companies since, whenever a certain chapter in the series hits a lull, all they had to do is "reboot" the series with a new first chapter and start the whole thing all over again.
Now, to be honest, for me personally, this comes off more as an endless cycle of movie marketing which would make any serious connoisseur of the medium wanna scream out of oversaturation frustration. But that's just me.

But I do have to admit, Scream 2 was still a good slasher flick.
Displaying vociferous success in terms of both script and box office, this is a sequel that shows that when it comes to this type of usually overwrought sharp-edged thriller, screaming twice, or thrice, can be almost just as nice.

Green.
The answer to the title of this movie is green.

In the first Omen, we are introduced to a little boy named Damien, who just so happens to be the hellspawn of none other than the Devil himself.
Yep, he's the Anti-Christ. But in the first film, we hardly got to know "Lucifer Jr." as the story and action centered more on the "paternal father" & how he deals with the fact that the boy who he thought was his son was in reality, "the Beast marked with the 666".
So in this follow-up, we now get to see what Damien the person is really like as he struggles thru the growing pains of anti-christlike adolescence. And just like any boy approaching manhood (or half-manhood, half goat-hood), he soon finds that even a pathway towards a demonic destiny is bound to be paved with a few blemishes and pimples along the way.

Originally, I hesitated about including this movie on this list, because I see it more as its own individual film, but since Pegg and Frost have stated that it's "Part 2" of their so-called "Three Flavours Cornetto" trilogy, the rest of the world of cinema fans have come to regard as an actual sequel to first Cornetto, Shaun of the Dead. So, I put here simply more as a way of avoiding any eventual questions of why it was not included.
Hot Fuzz is a film by the same duo responsible for what is, as far as I'm concerned, the best zom-com in the history of Romero inspired satiric schlock. This time, the comedy team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost put their love for the Bad Boy franchise on display by taking on the world of the buddy-cop genre. Now, I'll admit that Fuzz never really manages to reach the high a levels of humor, humanity, or witty dialogue that Shaun was able to shamble up to, nor is it as genre groundbreaking (SotD pretty much started up the term "zom-com"), but when all is said and done, there was enough of the typical high balance of comedy and chemistry between the two British bad boys to make this action comedy a very commendable effort.

Michelle is just a typical gal who tends to runs away from relationships whenever they hit a bumpy road. And during one of these runaways, the bumpy road ends up being the one she's driving on as it leads to a car accident serious enough to knock her out. When she wakes, Michelle finds herself trapped in a bunker, with it's maker and another bunkee. According to her host, while she was out, the world has gone apocalyptic and her only chance for survival is an extended stay underground.
But is it the outside world that has come to an end, or is it her host's sanity?

About a year after Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle came out, I remember reading an online article about product placement in films, and it mentioned that the first H&R movie actually helped the White Castle franchise to experience a double digit rise in burger sales for that year.
After Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, I've not read or heard anything about how this movie may have affected the amount of inmates coming in or the amount of inmates escaping out of Guantanamo Bay. One thing that I do know about G-Bay is that there has been a rise from government officials (including the President) to close down the detention facility. How or if Harold and Kumar's exploits may have influenced this attitude is not yet known.

Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi," goes from micro-budget indie to macro-budget hit as the traveling gunslinging guitarrero goes from looking like a Mexican everyman to looking like a Spaniard, well, Antonio Banderas. Who, even speaking as a straight-up hetero, you gotta admit.... is a really good looking guy.
Which is probably the main reason why the gal that the hero gets in this flick is played by the always insanely-beauteous Salma Hayek.
Kinda makes me wish I was good-looking.
Maybe then, I'd be spending alot more time outside of the house getting some action instead of kooked up in a dark room putting lists like this one together on the internet.

Oh, hey look, what a surprise, a horror movie that suprised everyone at just how much money it made at the box office has been followed up by a sequel and then quickly has been made into a franchise which includes a buncha spin-offs. The Annabelle flicks (based on a "devil doll" that was introduced in the first chapter of the Conjuring) were the first to come cranking outta this new macabre multi-movie-making machine , which then spawned off two other flicks, The Nun and La Llorona. While the production value of all these projects are in the top class category, for me, the first two installments of the Conjuring are the only ones worth putting on any "best of horror" lists, so far.

Okay, lemme start off by saying that I'm not that a big fan of the slasher flick. So it's rare that I like one (I made a list of the few that I like watching, and it only came out to ten films). What's even more rare is that I'll like a slasher flick sequel.
I enjoyed the first Cold Prey enough to see why it was such a surprise success. This 2nd installment, made more as a result of that the first one did so well (as opposed to a story that had always been planned to be made as a series from the start), follows the standard of other sequels that came from unexpected successful movies; it's not as good as the original. However, because it was somewhat willing to venture outside the formula it's predecessor, it felt more as an extension of the first film & not simply as a xerox-copied script hoping to just lazily cash in.

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How do you up the ante of a zombie flick that already raised the level of "reality-based" horror & therefore finally busted through the mired schlock that had infected the genre?
Well,
revealing the answer to that question would require some big-time spoiler,
so let me just say,
it's about time the films about the living dead starting showing some new signs of life.

So when movie makers worked out a deal between the studios that owned the rights to Godzilla and King Kong, they decided to merge the two kings of monsters into one universe called the MonsterVerse. Of course, the obvious objective was to get them to eventully fight each other as Toho Studios did back in the early 60s.
However in keeping with the modern trend of putting the time, effort and money that is needed to make today's cinematic franchises profitable, these new MonsterVerse flicks have pretty much eliminated the big rubber feet style camp of earler kaiju and giant monkey movies. That doesn't guarantee that the stories of these new colossal creature features will be winning any awards any time soon, but the way they look could rack up a couple "Best Visual Effects" nom. And even if they don't, they will still most likely be pretty baddass.
And in King: Skull Island, which is really more of transitional film for the battle royale that is still yet to come, they are.

While in most parts of the world, this South Korean zombie epic is simply called "Peninsula", in a few other areas, it is being marketed as "Train To Busan presents: Peninsula". In other words, movie execs want it to be known that this film is basiclly a loose sequel to 2016's runaway success, Train To Busan.
If there was a way to describe the first Busan movie in theatrical terms, I guess whe say that it's basically Runaway Train meets World War Z. In that regard, we could probaby then describe this fast-fiend follow-up as The Fast and the Furious meets World War Z ... with a nod to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome ....and another nod to the Road Warrior ... and maybe a slight hint towards Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Basically, it's a series whose major premise is to hve different types of fast moving vehicles smash into World War Z types of carcass-accumulated pile-ups. And just like it's predecessor, Peninsula does a good job of delivering it's goods while at the same time, stitching it's undead body count action scenes with the type of talking head scenes that build a story that actually comes to life in the midst of all the macabre and mercurial moving mayhem.

The humans have almost been totally eliminated whilst the monkeys have progressively propagated (yeah yeah, I know.... this story is about apes, not monkeys.... it's just that, as everybody knows, describing these PotA films as "monkey movies" sounds much more humorous....).
And now, the smartened up simians have learned how to shoot guns and have thus turned our own weapons against us (NRA groups, are you listening?).
Oh woe, the future looks pretty bad for humankind, yet pretty damn good for the monkeys.
This planet has now seen a new dawn...
one that's full of those damn dirty apes!

Here's an animalistic tale that's about an Australian talking pig that moves from small time lifestyle of the farm to the bustling streets of the big city. And to whom everyone refers to as "Babe".
Take out the Australian part, and you could easily be describing my last girlfriend. ('Ey, who do I talk to about having a "ba-dum-tish!" emoticon installed around here, anyway?)
An underrated and good intentioned sequel that never seems to get the kind of fair shakes that it deserves.

Two years earlier, A band of bachelor partying buddies wake up on the "day after" to find that the group has a missing friend, a missing tooth and a missing mommy all collectively wrapped up in a missing memory of what exactly happened.
Backstepping through the City Of Sins, the three grown-up "katzenjammer kids" discovery that the happenings of what occurred the night before is a murky mystery wrapped in one raunchous riddle after another.
Jump to 20, the same group of party-hadry boys once again find themselves in almost the exact same situation, although this time, the backdrop of Bangkok Thailand.

The Hangover movies have become one of the biggest blockbusting comedy franchises to come out in years. And after experiencing the some of the lascivious out-loud laughter that resulted from these two first films, it's pretty easy to see why.

To be honest, over-all, as a film, I liked 28 Weeks Later more than it's predecessor, 28 Days.
I thought that Days was much horror-like than it's sequel, but, for me, Weeks had a much more thrilling factor. I liked the increase of the non-stop action, and I found the plot to be more cohesive (whereas in the first movie, the antagonists seemed to change mid-thru, from the zombies to the stoney-hearted soldiers).
I mean, don't get me wrong, Weeks has enough to qualify itself into the category of the horror genre.
But Days felt like it had the creepiness factor in it's advantage since it's the film that first introduces the rabies-infected psuedo-zombies that liked to behave more like the running dead than they did the walking dead.
Either way , between the two films, the quality of the franchise so far is high enough that I'm glad to be able to include both of them on my list of fear-fraught favorites.

The Three Colours Trilogy was an emotional and ambitious project for famed Polish director Krzystof Kielowski in which he aimed to create three stories based on the three political ideals in the motto of the French Republic: liberty, equality, fraternity. Which is why each film is titled on the colors of the French flag (Blue, White and Red).
Taking on the subject of equality as it's theme, White tells the tale of a man named Karol Karol, who after losing literally everything in his life, embarks on a series of acts with hopeful result of setting his life aright.

Despite some of it's darker plot elements and unlike it's movie brothers, White takes a lighter approach in it's unfolding of it's machinations (which may be due to it's color scheme). Considered as the "weakest" of the three Colours, it is nevertheless still regarded as one of the best films to come out of the year 1994.

As the title of this movie suggests, this is part two of a documentary trilogy that reveals the behinds the scenes lifestyles of various music scenes in the L.A. area during the middle 80's through the early 90's. Obviously, the Metal Years focuses on the metal years & shows the excesses that many of the heavy metal bands of the time, big or small, indulged in and which led to the decline of many of them in this particular part of the Western world. And while the negative aspects of the headbanging way of life are typical of what we would expect within the perimeters of La-La Land,
when captured on film, they can reveal just how gruesome the glam of lead laden rock'n'roll can truly be.

After catching fire with the first Hunger Games, super hot actress Jennifer Lawrence continues her hot streak as the hottest working actress in Hollywood with the second chapter of the tummy growling franchise, in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
And in this one, the games are still hungry, Lawrence is still hot, and the shaft that she grips as her primary weapon is still taut for release.

To be quite honest, as someone who, as a kid, was raised never to play with his food, I wasn't sure how I would respond to these here Hunger Games. But I must say, I found these first two installments of the millenial blockbusting franchise to be quite an enjoyable little epic saga.

Personally, while I really liked the first Addams Family flick, the truth is, I found this sequel to be alot wittier than it's predecessor. I point that out because we must remember that Values came out at a time when the idea of a sequel being better than the original was deathly rare.
Nowadays, when it comes to superior sequels, the theatres aren't exactly crawlin' with 'em, but still, there are definitely alot more now than then.

Clint Eastwood excellently directs this tale of the pacific war from the view of a band Japanese.
A country in which the war is not just against the the Allies, but also in a war within itself between the new methods and technology of the new age against it's revered ancient traditions of honor for one's native land and emperor, not to mention against the obligational feelings towards own family.
Who knew that a tale about the "other side" would make such a great American movie?

Since it is usually considered more of a companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers, I debated whether on not to include Letters here on a sequels list. The inclusion of Charles W. Lindberg, played by Alessandro Mastrobuono, in both films is finally what made me decide to put it here, although I will not debate anyone who may feel otherwise.

As just about every horror fan knows, there have been a bunch of sequels to the first Halloween movie from back in 1978, which was a surprise hit in it's day and launched one of the longest running franchises in horror history. However, since none of 'em have been able to match the success of the first one, particularly on a critical level, it felt like the horror of it's iconic slasher's "visage" was being slightly diminished with each subsequent release. So, in an effort to bring the franchise back to life, this 2018 entry just ignores all those follow-ups and takes place as if though this outing into All Hallow's Eve was the one that actually follows the original '78 movie. In other words, officially, this is supposed the "real" sequel to Michael Myers' first outing a blade-wielding bad man. And judging from it's high critical ratings from both critics and fans alike, plus it's incredible box office returns, this latest semi-reboot of Michael Myers and his murdering inspired mask looks like it's gonna stick as such.

The Up Series is a continual set of documentary films that literally lasts a lifetime. Started in 1964, it documents the lifespans of a select group of individuals, starting at the age of seven and constantly returning to their individual lives every seven years to update their progress in this journey that we all share.
The end result is a group of storylines of real lives that cause the kind of deep reflection and introspection than can only come from being a spectator of human lives other than our own.

A woman goes to the Doctor, worried about her husband's temper.
The Doctor asks: "What's the problem?"
The woman says: "Doctor, I don't know what to do. Every day my husband seems to lose his temper for no reason. It scares me."
The Doctor says: "I have a cure for that. When it seems that your husband is getting angry, just take a glass of water and start swishing it in your mouth. Just swish and swish but don't swallow it until he either leaves the room or calms down."
Two weeks later the woman comes back to the doctor looking fresh and reborn.
The woman says: "Doctor that was a brilliant idea! Every time my husband started losing it, I swished with water. I swished and swished, and he calmed right down! How does a glass of water do that?"
The Doctor says: "The water itself does nothing. It's keeping your mouth shut that does the trick."
I know that joke has nothing to do with this movie, but it's one that always come to mind whenever I think about the idea of women playing with fire. :P

The second chapter of the Millenium Trilogy, a series which despite it's fiery debut, seemed to burn out with most other connoiseurs of cinema. But for me, I found it to be quite a satisfactory series, overall.

In this second chapter of the Hobbit movie franchise, the central big-footed protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, causes what would eventually lead to the desolation of Smaug.
And while that sounds more like a job for the Department of Air Quality Control in the city of Los Angeles, in the world of Middle-Earth, it's actually the manner in which a lord of the ring goes about slaying a dragon.
In this "early" installment of the Tolkien epic fantasy series Peter Jackson and his crew continue the very complicated journey of "bringing home the gold", juggling Hobbits, wizards, orcs, elves, wargs and a buncha other eldritch life-forms, the kind of which you would usually find in any fantasy-based novel, but for so long, were very difficult to pull off on the silver screen. I mention this just because TDoS, along with the rest of the Hobbit series, got such a lukewarm reponse from so many other cinephiles, despite the accolades and awards of the LotR trilogy. But for me, I thought they did a great job of bringing to life this classic saga of sword, sorcey and Smaug. And therefore, this expansive prequel trilogy will always have a home in my favorite films lists, even though elsewhere, judging from the vast majority of ratings and reviews, it's placement in the fantasy film genre will most likely be one of overall general "desolation".

After the Sixth Sense, M. Knight Shyamalan was being touted as the next Steven Spielberg. However, with each succeeding film, his reputation as an exciting new filmmaker became more and more diminished. And it wasn't a rep that had no basis. Personally, I disliked each film he came with a little more than the last. By the time After Earth was released, it appeared as though there was no hope for the "fallen" film-maker.
That is, until Split came along.
A story about a mentally disturbed patient suffering from dissociative identity disorder. In total, he has 23 separate personalities, each distinct from the others. And one, called "The Beast" which seems to endow with extraordinary abilities.

This movie demonstrated the kind of talent that allowed Shyamalan to make a great piece of cinema like Sixth Sense gave hope that he might have still have a couple of more good movies in him.
*fingers crossed*

Even though previous Marvel movies had shown that this was a cinematic universe that could put asses in the seats, it was this film, the sequel to Cap's debut in the millenial generation, that upped the ante of superhero storytelling and showed the world that the concept of costumed crimefighters had pretty much broken free from the bonds of throwaway entertainmant that was geared more toward kids who read comics on the playgrounds or in thei bedrooms on lazy Saterday afternoons.