Sometimes it’s hard to come up with fresh ideas for sequels. A lot of the time, the filmmakers try to recapture the success of the first movie but as a result, they end of up with a product that is just a repeat of the original. Here are some films sequels that offer nothing new.
- Escape From L.A.
Kurt Russell (“The Thing”, “Stargate”) burst onto screens as Snake Plissken as he was sent to a dystopian New York to rescue the President (Donald Pleasence “Halloween”). “Escape From L.A.” follows Snake as he’s sent to a dystopian Los Angeles to rescue the daughter of the President. The consensus was that it was pretty much the same as the first movie.
- Beneath The Planet of the Apes
The original “Planet of the Apes” had Charlton Heston (“Soylent Green”) play an astronaut trapped on a planet where apes on the dominant species, only to discover that he’s travelled into the future and that it was Earth all along. The sequel sees James Franciscus as a different astronaut, who goes through a lot of the same situations as Heston’s character.
- Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
The first “Home Alone” film saw Macaulay Culkin (“Uncle Buck”) outsmart some crooks (Joe Pesci “Goodfellas”, Daniel Stern “Leviathan”) with lots of whacky traps after being accidentally left at home when his family goes on holiday. Now, he’s accidentally gone to New York and just so happens to bump in the same bad guys. He sets up some more whacky traps and beats them yet again. While it geographically moved the film miles away, it was conceptually the same as the first one.
- Rush Hour 2
The first film in the buddy cop series saw Jackie Chan (“Police Story”) come to L.A. and finds himself teaming up with loudmouth Chris Tucker (“The Fifth Element”). Lots of the gags were about Chan’s character being the outsider and not understanding American customs and culture. The sequel saw the duo head to Hong Kong where Chris Tucker was the outsider. It’s all the same jokes about not understanding what’s going on but now it’s Tucker in Hong Kong.
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
When it comes to being lazy with the gags, arguably no franchise was lazier than “Austin Powers”. These movies recycled so many jokes that you may as well have just watched the first movie on repeat. Every rude and crude gag from the first one gets repeated such as stuff in the foreground barely covering the nudity. It’s unbelievable that Mike Myers (“Shrek”) was able to get away with doing so little to change up the material.