Thursday 23 July 2015

Thursday Movie Picks: Sequels


 There are just too many great sequels out there to pick from. Of course I am not counting the terrible straight to video/DVD efforts, but the greats like Ghostbusters, Die Hard, Star Wars, X2, Honey I Blew Up the Kids and those films that didn't even warrent a sequel, Pitch Perfect 2, Magic Mike XXL, Ted 2, I could go on but I won't.

When I was younger, for some reason my sister and I would always get to see the sequel first. I saw Ghostbusters 2, Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future 2, Terminator: Judgement Day first. This was a strange coincidence.

Don't forget to check out what Wandering Through the Shelves picked, the blog that started Thursday Movie Picks.


1. Back to the Future 2
As stated above, I saw this film first and this is how I fell in love with this trilogy. I experienced the future Hill Valley before the past one. I saw flying cars and old Biff before I saw a younger version of everyone. I will always love this film more than the others, even though the first film is beyond the scope of brilliance. The Secret Cinema event, recreating Hilly Valley was epic and kept the flame of 80s nostalgia, mixed with 50s nostalgia with added hope and wonder for the future and after all some of things predicted in the film did eventually (in some way) come true. But its 2015 and still no sign of flying cars. Or that Sports Almanac.

2. Addams Family Values
Besides the first film being hilarious, quotable, riduclosly good, the sequel was just that tiny bit better. This is probably because it had the two things, Debbie the serial killer and Camp Chippewa. There are also some excellent lines in this film, a favourite is Nathan Lane's cameo police officer when he meets the family, 'Who are? What are you? Who moved the rock?'. There are also a few plots going on, Fester wanting to find love, Debbie wanting to kill Fester after marrying him, Wednesday and Pugley at camp trying break out and Gomez and Morticia's timeless romance even finding space in the time frame of the film. It's a film my friends and I always seem to quote at some point for no reason, but then again, no reason needed.

3. Day watch
Having not seen that many Russian films, I'm not sure what made me want to watch Night Watch. Forget Timur Bekmambetov ever went to Hollywood and made a couple of bad films, remember for Night Watch and the great sequel, Day Watch. This was way back in 2005 and I was just getting into my cinephile shoes. I got the film cheap and was hooked. I bought the sequel as soon as I finished. Day Watch obviously had that 'second film with bigger budget after success of first film' vibe and the story was a bit muddled. But after a second watch, I got into it. The characters are great, plus is a fantasy based story rather than pure supernatural, which I liked. Anton, the reluctant hero continues on as a Light Other, while trying to cover upthe attacks made by his crazy son who is now a Dark Other. Underneath he is a spoilt brat who wants his father all to himself but on the surface, he is being used as weapon to start a war. All set in Moscow, an unbelievably fresh view from the constant shots of LA, New York or some other American city.