Sequelitis II: The Surge

Oh sweet irony, how I love to embrace thee. Ok, now that we have talked about sequels that should never have been, let us discuss a much smaller topic: sequels we wish had happened. Every now and then there comes a film whose characters and situations are just so enthralling that we dearly want to see more of them, yet in this puzzling world of multiple visits to the Well-O-Crap(tm) the producers never make another one. I have been racking my tiny little brain over this one, and I can only come up with one and a half, but I have no doubt that you wonderous visitors will rectify my senility and fill in the blanks admirably. And so, without further stuff(ala Chuck Barris) I give you Marius' List of Sequels The Should Have Been:

1. The Adventures of Remo Williams. In 1985 a tiny little B movie premiered based on The Destroyer books in which a cop, played by Fred Ward, presumed dead, is forced to choose between becoming really dead, or becoming a secret assassin for the government. He is trained in the mysterious martial art, Shinanju, by a diminutive Korean, played wonderfully by Joel Grey, who heaps both physical and verbal abuse on Remo. The training is as amusing as it is effective, and even though the film had more of a made-for-tv feel it was a lot of fun. It also featured a young actress by the name of Kate Mulgrew, although IMHO she was pretty awful in this flick. It was not a great film, but it was entertaining, and a hell of a lot better than some of the celluloid turds that get two and three sequels, and I looked forward to more installments. I later found out, when I worked with Joel Grey, that he was expecting to do more movies as well. But it never came to pass.

1/2. Galaxy Quest. This movie was a beautiful send up of the world of Star Trek fandom, but never insulted the people it was lampooning. A group of actors from a now-cancelled Science Fiction tv series suddenly find themselves portraying their on-screen personas for real. With Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Allen Rickman leading a wonderful cast the film was a comic masterpiece. I give this one 1/2 because I would love to see more, but I fear that a sequel would be subjected to the same crapification I spoke of in the last blog. I suppose it is best that there was not a second movie, but it would be nice to see if done right.


Ok, your turn. What movies would you like to see continued?

Marius