In the eyes of movies studios, there is but one single requirement needed for green lighting a sequel to a movie. Money. Did the first one make enough money that it would suggest a sequel has a chance of repeating or exceeding the results? And who can blame them? That's smart business.
But for me and most other movie fans there really are 3 reasons that we'd want to see a sequel made:
1) The Story Demands It - Just as an example... can you imagine watching the ending to "The Empire Strikes Back", after Boba Fett has made off with his frozen captive Han Solo and then there being no "Return of the Jedi"?!?!?! It doesn't even have to be that open ended. Sometimes movies have stories that seem to close off, but have worlds of opportunities to explore and it leaves us wishing we could see it unfold even further.
2) It Has Characters We Love - Movies go through a lot of trouble to give us characters we love (some obviously don't succeed). Many times characters are there to SERVE THE STORY, but there are also many movies where the STORY IS THERE TO SERVE THE CHARACTERS. A great example of this is the Kevin Smith cult classics "Clerks" and "Clerks 2". In those films we have characters that we just love to see and the story almost becomes secondary. These movies leave us wishing, not to return to the story, but to return to visit these characters again.
3) The Original Has To Be Good - Ok, you can have EITHER point #1 or point #2 to make us wish to see a sequel... but whichever one it is, they both need this one to go along with it. You can have a movie with a great story, but still ends up being a terrible movie. You can have he best character in the world, and still end up with a terrible movie. Obviously, for us to find ourselves wishing fora sequel to a film, it has to start with being a good movie first... then at either point #1 or point #2... or if you've hit the movie jackpot, both!
But sadly, not every movie that deserves a sequel gets one, and many movies that don't deserve sequels do get them. So today I thought I'd jot down 7 movies that for a long time have deserved the sequel treatment... nay... that DEMAND the sequel treatment, but still have not, and probably never will, have them.
So allow me to present to you:
7 SEQUELS THAT NEED TO GET MADE
There are a handful of not-superhero superhero movies out there now. "Kick-Ass" is the latest one (and a great one at that). But they all started with "Mystery Men". To this day it is my favorite movie of this sub-genre of film. With a cast like Ben Stiller (I still think this is my favorite movie he's ever been in), Janeane Garofalo, Hank Azaria, William H. Macy, Pee Wee Herman (aka Paul Rubens), Greg Kinnear and Geofrey Rush as the arch villain Casanova Frankenstein (tell me that's not the greatest villain name in a movie of all time) how could it miss?
The movie pokes great fun at the whole superhero genre, gives terrific performances, memorable one liners and some of the best hero characters ever. I loved this movie so passionately! There simply must be a "Mystery Men 2". But there never will be. :(
To this day my absolute all time favorite Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. This film just pulls it all off. First of all it's a great spy movie. Second of all it's a great spoof of a spy movie. Thirdly it's a great action movie. Four, and most importantly, it's a great comedy. All these things are just rolled up into one with "True Lies".
The cast does seem like an odd mixture, but there simply aren't many movies that have ever had such fantastic on screen chemistry as Arnold, Tom Arnold and Jamie Lee Curtis (and I mean seriously... has she ever looked sexier than she did in that movie?). Bill Paxton gives an incredible and hugely memorable supporting performance as well. Every word out his mouth in that movie is forever quotable. The film even has a 14 year old Eliza Dushku.
There simply MUST be a "True Lies 2". But sadly there probably never will be. :(
DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (1988)
Frank Oz may be most well known to the average media fan as the voice of Grover on Sesame Street and the Jedi Master Yoda in the "Star Wars" movies, but he's also an accomplished and gifted director (he also directed such great comedies as "Bowfinger" and "What About Bob" as well as the classic film "The Dark Crystal"). In "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" he has the crowning jewel of his career.
There is no other way to put it, this movie is just one of the greatest comedies of all time. The recipe for the movie is a simple one. Take two extremely wonderful characters and one outrageous scenario and just let things take their natural course. This is my all time favorite movie of both Michael Caine and Steve Martin (and that's saying something).
Oh, and here's some interesting trivia for you "Star Wars" fans. The man who plays Arthur, Michael Caine's butler in the movie, is Ian McDiarmid. You may better know him as The Emperor in the "Star Wars" films.
I don't care if Caine and Martin are both 120 years old now, there simply MUST be a "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels 2". Sadly, what we're going to get instead is a blasphemous remake in 2012. How sad. :(
THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN (2005)
Steve Carell may have had his break out role with "Anchorman" (which is also on this list a little further down), but it was "The 40 Year Old Virgin" that cemented him as a Bona Fide comedy A-List superstar.
The movie starts with s simple premise, a 40 year old man who has still never had sex, and then takes an incredible collection of characters with an insane amount of comedic chemistry and just lets those characters explore all the wonderfully ridiculous possibilities within that premise.
Just as "Anchorman" was the break out role for Carell, this film served as the break out role for Seth Rogen who has gone on to star in several of his own big hit comedies (like "Knocked Up", "Zack and Miri Make a Porno").
What ultimately made this film so special that the aforementioned chemistry between these characters and the crisp, quick and hilariously funny dialog between them. I would personally rush back to the theatre to see them together again.
I'll go so far as to say that I believe this is one of the top 5 comedies of all time. There MUST be a "40 Year Old Virgin 2", but sadly there will probably never be one. :(
Without a doubt the most emphatically quotable comedy of the past decade and in my opinion the single best movie of Will Ferrell's ridiculously successful career.
Story? What story? And who cares? I could watch a 7 hour movie that was nothing but the Channel 4 news team (Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, Paul Rudd as Brian Fantana, Steve Carell as Brick Tamland and David Koechner as Champ Kind) sitting around in an office and just talking. That's it... 7 hours... and I'd love every single second of it.
"I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch"
"It's called Sex Panther by Odeon. It's illegal in nine countries... Yep, it's made with bits of real panther, so you know it's good."
"60% of the time it works, every time."
"I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science."
"You're a smelly pirate hooker"
"I don't know how to put this but I'm kind of a big deal."
I could literally go on quoting this for an hour. There simply MUST be an "Anchorman 2", but sadly there probably will never be one. :(
Sure, this might be one of the greatest animated films of all time, but when you really stop to think about it, it's probably also one of the greatest superhero movies of all time (I'd put it in the top 5 for sure).
This movie had it all. Great humor, fantastic action for an animated film, a fantastic story for adults (looking at the topics of aging, trying to recapture past dreams, the importance of family, dissatisfaction with career and a lot of other more mature themes) and yet completely entertaining for kids of all ages at the same time.
The film is built around a wonderful little mythology of superheroes of the past being banned and now living in secret forbidden from performing superhero work, and one man who just can't adjust and dreams of his past glory days.
This isn't the best Pixar movie of all time (I'm not sure it's even in the top 3), but it is the one most needed a seqeul. Sadly, it's looking more and more like we'll never get one. :(
THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1993)
All lists have that one entry that no one else agrees with, and I have a feeling my inclusion of "The Three Musketeers" will be that one for me. But without any apologies I flat out adored the original. It was fun, it was funny, it was exciting and it had characters that I so badly want to visit again.
Even today, 17 years later, the film has an all star cast with Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Oliver Platt, Tim Curry, Rebecca De Mornay and Chris O'Donnell.
The dark seriousness of Athos, the care free exuberance of Porthos and the liberal take on being a man of the cloth for Aramis made this such a joy to watch.
This movie was always, and in my opinion continues to be very underrated and for that reason and more, "The Three Musketeers" needs to have a sequel, but really never will. :(
CONCLUSION
So there you have it folks. My list of 7 films that still NEED sequels. I'm sure that even if you love my list you don't 100% agree with it. So jump into the comments section below and let me know which films on my list don't deserve to be there, and which ones you would have added to it!
