12.23.2008

TEN SEQUELS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL : PART FIVE


YOUR ARGUMENT
The original good cop/bad cop, mismatched buddy, fish outta water action dramedy has Mel pulling a suicidal jumper off of a building & Gary Busey holding his arm over a Bic lighter.
MY ARGUMENT
The first movie is tight, clever & structurally flawless. Groundbreaking? Certainly not. But that doesn't make it any less of a movie, & that's not what this is about. This is also not about the quality of first installments - it's about sequels.
One of a couple things that weakened part 3 was a completely forgettable bad guy. Busey's hard to top, & Arjen & Vorstedt can at least match him - & there's also a twist that reveals a correlation to the setup of the first movie.
Admittedly, the addition of Joe Pesci is weak & desperate in it's own right, but as far as comic relief sidekicks go, you could do worse.
Patsy Kensit is certainly a nice addition as well.
One device that works well in any movie is: when the story, character development, EVERYTHING comes to halt to deal with one situation (in Silence of the Lambs, it's the escape of Hannibal Lecter). In this movie, it's a toilet bomb.
ALWAYS BE CLOSING
The first 20 seconds (including the Warner Brothers logo) is enough to make it a worthy sequel. "Cheer Down" by George Harrison is enough to make it better than the first.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm probably crazy, but I am pretty sure I hear more people quip about diplomatic immunity and quote "It's just been revoked" more often then I hear people reference the first movie