When making a sequel, it’s important to cast actors from the previous film in order to connect it to earlier entries. Otherwise you end up with a mess like The Sting 2. Of course, I doubt even Robert Redford or Paul Newman could have saved that film. This is especially true when you’re trying to shift the focus of the series and/or introduce a whole bunch of new characters.
Some actors add a lot of emotional weight to a sequel just by showing up. They inspire feelings of nostalgia and lend credibility to the project they’re a part of. So here are 10 actors whose presence adds gravitas to torch-passing sequels.Continue reading →
I’m in a nostalgic mood. I’ve had The Last Starfighter on my mind lately, and I can’t help wishing that movie had been a mega blockbuster so that it would have inspired at least one sequel. It’s a movie that feels both perfectly self-contained and also like it’s setting up even greater things to come.
Here are four ideas for sequels to The Last Starfighter that I’ve been bouncing around. You might think they suck or they sound interesting. I spend a lot of time thinking critically about films as they are, so I think it’s only fair that I put forth some ideas on what I would love to see in feature films.
So let’s go right ahead and explore four sequels I would have loved to see to The Last Starfighter.Continue reading →
Disney is about to debut its second attempt at a live-action Jungle Book remake next week. So I figured now is a good time to look back at Disney’s numerous tries at remaking their old animated and live-action films into modern live-action films. They’ve been doing this since the early 1990s with varying levels of success.
As I went through all of these remakes and adaptations, I noticed that they seem to fall into four categories or eras. So let’s go through them and see how Disney is building its future by mining its rich past.Continue reading →
1984 was a magical year. A lot of great science fiction and fantasy films came out then, such as The Last Starfighter, The Terminator, The Neverending Story, Splash, and two of the biggest blockbusters of the year – Ghostbusters and Gremlins.
While those last two films were wildly popular upon their initial release, they aren’t held in equal regard today. One is still just as popular while the other has fallen by the wayside of cinematic history.
They’re both comedies that stray into horror territory by telling stories about frightening creatures that terrorize a town. My purpose in this Movie Matchup isn’t to compare the two films’ stories, but to figure out what made one a classic and the other a curiosity. So let’s cross the streams and explore the biggest difference between Ghostbusters and Gremlins.Continue reading →
I don’t usually describe films as “stunning,” but that’s the best word I can find for 2009’s Law Abiding Citizen. I am stunned by this film, from its opening scene to its finale it’s constantly surprising me and leaving me gasping for breath.
My younger brother recently invited me to watch this film with him. He didn’t describe it at all, and I didn’t read anything about it before watching it. So I had no idea what to expect from it. The cover wasn’t revealing at all. It just has close-ups of actors Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx looking serious.
Law Abiding Citizen does something better than Seven, The Dark Knight, The Avengers, and Skyfall. It takes that brief moment when the villain gets captured and thrown into prison, and it turns it into an entire film. The reason that it’s so much better than those other films is that he’s able to accomplish all of his goals while being stuck in prison. In all of those other films, the villain had to set everything into motion and do all of their dastardly deeds beforehand in order to get to the moment where they were locked up. And it’s only after they get out of their cage that they can keep moving forward with their plan. The villain in Law Abiding Citizen wants to be in prison.
There’s much more to say about this film. Let’s do this film justice by talking about what a pleasant surprise Law Abiding Citizen is.Continue reading →
You know who never gets any glory? Sidekicks. Those faithful friends who are just as hard-working as the main character, but who don’t get any credit for their contributions. I’m here to speak up for them by highlighting 18 supporting actors and actresses who quietly appeared in every movie across 10 film series. They were so dedicated that many of them continued on past the point where most other cast members had come and gone and the films had descended into abysmal territory.
I’m only including film franchises that ended on a down note, so you won’t see any of the actors from the first six Star Trek films or The Lord of the Rings included here. These people had to be in a series that crashed and burned. And, fittingly, we’ll start this list with the Airport films.Continue reading →
I never enjoyed the classic Scooby Doo cartoon shows. Even as a child, I found them repetitive and formulaic. In every episode Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby Doo would drive into some spooky town in the Mystery Machine and get chased by a scary-looking creature for a while before accidentally gaining the upper hand and unmasking the fiend.
Yawn.
The animation wasn’t all that impressive, nor were the characters. So there was absolutely nothing for me to enjoy about the show… except for the catchy theme songs they always managed to have at the start of the show’s various incarnations. Seriously, check these out. They’re amazing.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered a little show called Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010-2013) as I was looking for something interesting to watch with my kids on Netflix. From the first 10 seconds of the first episode, I was hooked. It was so different than what I was expecting. The show actually has a flowing narrative that is complex and rewarding to untangle. The characters are suddenly interesting, and they have evolving personas and relationships. There are betrayals, tragedies, and redemptions. And – I can’t stress this enough – this is Scooby Doo!
The cartoon I found insufferable as a kid has matured into an incredible piece of art. I worried my kids would find it too scary at times, but they love it almost as much as I do.
So let’s test our mettle as we uncover the mystery of what makes Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated such a pleasant surprise.Continue reading →
Sequels are never easy. They have to continue where the last film left off and add something new to the mix so they don’t feel stale. Frequently this involves writing out the previous love interest in order to make room for someone new or because the screenwriters just don’t know what else to do with them.
In this list I’ll only talk about instances of an established character in the first film who is briefly mentioned or makes a short appearance in the sequel. So no Bond films will appear on this list because none of James Bond’s former lovers get a farewell at the start of a sequel. And no, I don’t count For Your Eyes Only because she was already killed at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
With that said, here are 10 unceremonious ways sequels dump their preceding film’s love interest.Continue reading →
In between his two Home Alone films, Chris Columbus wrote and directed a little romantic comedy starring John Candy called Only the Lonely. It wasn’t exactly a huge hit like many of Columbus’s other films, but it has a lot of his signature charm in it. It’s a fascinating film for several reasons, not the least of which is that it’s not every day you witness the personification of pure evil in a film.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Only the Lonely tells the story of a lonely, aging police officer named Danny Muldoon (played by John Candy) who attempts to choose between his overbearing mother and his budding romance with a soft-spoken young woman. Will he find lasting love or live a life of regret? Let’s discover his fate in the forgotten film gem Only the Lonely.Continue reading →
This is an article about the definite article we all know as the word “The.” This word says a lot through its presence or absence, and we can clearly see that in movie titles. Here are a number of ways “The” dramatically affects the meaning of movie titlesContinue reading →
Deja Reviewer 