1990: The Greatest Sequels Year Ever

Another 48 Hrs, Back To The Future: Part III, RoboCop 2, Gremlins 2, Die Hard 2, Delta Force 2, The Exorcist 3, Rocky V, Predator 2, The Godfather 3… 1990 was the greatest year for sequels ever. And not just because there were so many of them – that can be a bad thing – but because it is the greatest assembly of manly sequels ever within one year.  Follow ups to some of the manliest movies ever.  Not only that, but nearly all of them savagely underrated, just because they happen to be sequels. When we say the greatest sequel year ‘of all time, it isn’t an exageration. It’s 100% certain never to be repeated, statistically and considering how the stars alligned that year. So, fuck the critics. And in order of appearance,  the sequels of 1990…

Another 48 Hrs (June 8th)

The summer had already gotten off to a good start with Back To The Future: Part III, but that was only the beginning.  Buddy Cop wizard Walter Hill got things really rolling with the supremely fucking manly Another 48 Hrs. Not to mention genuinely funny.  Nolte’s beaten up old Caddy? Murphy being… fucking Murphy?  The biker gang out for revenge, all using desert eagles?  Even the names of the characters are slick: ‘The Iceman’… come on, if we’d only get something as good as this once per year now, we’d be happy.  In fact, we got Bullet To The Head this year, and we’re happy.  Thank you, Walter Hill.

RoboCop 2 (June 22nd)

If May was good, June didn’t wanna slack off.  Following Gremlins 2: The New Batch, came RoboCop 2.  RoboCop 2 is not as good as RoboCop.  But it’s the first sequel in 1990 to not look totally pathetic next to its really legendary predecessor.  Nowadays when you get a sequel to these types of movies, you expect it to be shit.  In 1990, we were enjoying better times – we expected such sequels to be worthy – we usually got what we wanted.  And while its story and style is inferior to RoboCop, this is nonetheless ‘worthy’ in all regards.  In fact, it is even more violent than the original.

Die Hard 2: Die Harder (July 4th)

Now we’re talking business.  How do you follow up the greatest action movie of all time and not completely fuck it up? Step one, hire John McTiernan.  Not available? Then hire Renny Harlin. Step two, make sure you make it before 1996, when liberalist rot began to encroach the earth.  Now this really is one the best sequels of all time and, somehow, something that lives up to the name ‘Die Hard’.  Inferior to the original?  Obviously, but superior to the 10-20 Die Hard Clones that followed.

Rocky V (November 19th)

In August came The Exorcist 3, a very underrated and dark sequel and then, that same month, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection.  Then in November came Child’s Play 2.  Not to be left out of the sequel party was Sylvester Stallone, who came with the universally panned Rocky V.  Although I’d have to concede that it is a pretty poor Balboa movie, it has grown on me in recent years.  As in not hated and found passable, mainly because the final fight is pretty damned competent in retrospect, especially in the days of shaking spaz-cam.  It’s probably even equal to Rocky Balboa.

Predator 2 (November 21st)

Towards the end of the year came what is probably the most underrated sequel ever, in Predator 2, released on November 21st.  The movie was poorly received, not just among critics but among many fanboys too, such as those unhappy that Arnie didn’t return.  But they are wrong, because this is the real Predator sequel.  Forget the AVP movies or Predators, Predator 2 is worthy to hang with the Predator movie as a competent sequel.  It looks like a Predator movie, it feels like one.  It has a plot that is logically the next step (The FBI wanting to bag one of the beasts for themselves) and Danny Glover is more than passable.  It even has Bill Paxton and Gary Busey.  Classic.  Oh, and for 1990 there was one more sequel.  And true to form, it was underrated and hated on.  On Christmas Day, 1990, The Godfather: Part III was released.  As good as the other Godather movies?  Of course not.  Deserving of the hate it received?  No, not at all.