As I completed my summer movie preview in the last edition of the Activist, I noticed that a whole lot of sequels are coming out this summer. “Mission Impossible,” “Clerks,” “X-Men,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “The Fast and the Furious,” and “Superman” all have additions to their respective canons coming to a theatre near you. It got me to thinking of the best and worst sequels I have ever seen, and since a worst sequel list would take forever, here are my top 10 best sequels for your enjoyment.Oh and by the way I saw “Mission Impossible 3” this weekend. What does Tom Cruise and the action scenes in the movie have in common? They are both freaking crazy. So go see “MI: 3” if you’re into that stuff, but seriously Cruise is a flaming nut. Now let’s get back to the list.
10) “X-2: X-Men United.” The only reason they are making an “X-3” is that “X-2” kicked way more butt than its slow moving predecessor.
9) “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey.” All right stay with me here. Bill and Ted are dead. They meet up with Death; kick it with some naked aliens who, thanks to their expert engineering, create robot Bill and Teds out of crap from a local Ace Hardware store. That’s freaking awesome and worthy of mention.
8) “The Devil’s Rejects.” The sequel to director Rob Zombie’s first movie, “House of 1000 Corpses,” is far darker and more realistic. The first movie was funny and fantastical, but “Rejects” is a disturbing thriller that never strays down the campy route its prequel did.
7) “Dogma.” While not a direct sequel of any of the prior Kevin Smith movies, it does live in the same Kevin Smith universe (i.e.: Jay and Silent Bob are in it). Much more intellectually stimulating than his first three movies, it also features a star studded cast that includes Chris Rock, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. This is Kevin Smith’s best movie to date (sorry “Clerks” fans).
6) 3 way tie. “Rocky II,” “Rocky III” and “Rocky IV.” I know the original “Rocky” won best movie but “Rocky” wins in all these movies. You get to see Stallone knock out Carl Weathers, Mr. T, and Ivan Drago in these movies, and that is all I care about.
5) “Terminator 2.” Not nearly as touching as the original, the second one kicks your rear into overdrive with eye popping special effects (given the time that it came out) and handy one liners delivered by the governator.
4) “Godfather 2.” To be honest I’ve never actually sat all the way through this movie, but lots of people tell me its better than the original.
3) “For a Few Dollars More.” The second of Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti western trilogy. Clint kicks more butt, the movie looks awesome, and there are lots and lots of guns.
2) “The Empire Strikes Back.” The first one was legendary for the cultural wave it created, but the second one has snow wars, amputation, ferocious snowmen, floating cities and a baby’s daddy drama and most importantly it doesn’t have any little kids running around in teddy bear costumes errrrr…Ewoks.
And the number one sequel of all time is
1) “Aliens.” How could a sequel to a movie Ridley Scott broke the mold with be better than the original? It can be better (or at least on equal footing) when you do everything in your power to make it look different and feel different than the original. Scott’s “Alien” was a slow moving, claustrophobic horror movie. James Cameron took Scott’s monster design, multiplied the baddies by 100, and sent a bunch of Vietnam era like “colonial Marines” to do battle with the acid spitting killers. With a heart felt mother-daughter love story at the center, “Aliens” has enough emotion to keep the sappier movie goers happy while supplying heart pounding gung ho adrenaline for the rest of us.