Good grief you lot have some shocking taste in films
. Mrs Beard and I used to visit the 'pictures' on average twice a week, proper film buffs.
With a few exceptions, any film with a '2' or 'II' following it is generally shat, a follow up to a good idea that the film industry is milking for all its worth
. A few examples of this are the Rocky films, Rambo, Saw, Matrix, Mad Max, Die Hard, and many , many others.
Exceptions to this are Back to the Future, Bourne, The '28' pair of films, Lethal Weapon (got a soft spot for these), The 'Man With No Name' films, and the 'Dirty Harry' series with Clint, with a few others as well, but not many. Clint's Dirty Harry films are magnificent, with the exception of Sudden Impact with his ex wife Sondra Locke playing the lead female role, an actress so wooden you could make a pallet out of her :slap: .
Also any remake is usually the same, again there are a few exceptions but they are a rarity. I think the industry has run out of ideas so remaking films with more up to date effects seems to have become the norm.
War Of The Worlds, The Day The Earth Stood Still, I Am Legend (a remake of a film called 'The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston-1978 [itself a remake of The Last Man On Earth starring Vincent Price 1946]) The Hulk, Mean Machine, Casino Royale (I'm not a Bond fan but always thought they were sacred), Titanic (remake of A Night To Remember) and many others.
Mad Max '2' is actually a remake of the original, therefore falls into the catergory of being a better remake but part of a shat series of follow ups. Pale Rider starring Clint is a magnificent remake of a film called 'Shane' (1953) starring Alan Ladd.
I've watched 1000s of films over the years, to pick out 5 is really difficult, but here's my attempt (in no particular order) with some others you should watch.
Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood 1971) + the follow ups (bar one!)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Clint Eastwood 1966) + the prequels
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
The Shawshank Redemption (Tim Robbins 1994)
The Full Monty (Robert Carlyle 1997)
PLUS Jacobs Ladder (Tim Robbins 1990) the only film to ever make me cry.
28 weeks later (Robert Carlyle 2007) 28 days Later is good as well
The Day The Earth Stood Still (Michael Rennie 1953- won an Oscar for special effects)
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (Jason Statham 1998)
Snatch ( Brad Pitt, Jason Statham 2000)
Good Morning Vietnam (Robin Williams 1987)
Theres only One Jimmy Grimble ( Ray Winstone, Robert Carlyle 2000) Footy film, brilliant.
Lethal Weapon (Mel Gibson, Danny Glover 1987) + follow ups.
This Sporting Life (Richard Harris 1963)
+ many more which I cant think of at the moment.
There are numerous others I could name, these are just my choices, obviously people will have a different view. As you can see there are no chick flicks mentioned as they aren't my cup of tea.
Also any film that 'stars' Hugh Grant, Tom Cruise (Rain Man excepted), Steven Seagal (a man so wooden I could build a shed out of him) avoid like the plague! :no:
In my opinion only one film has ever been followed up by a realistic and believable sequel that was worth making. That was
Hitchcocks Psycho (1960) starring Antony Perkins. Psycho II (made in 1983) also stars Perkins as the psycopath now released from a mental home after more than 20 years . No make up needed as obviously Perkins was actually more than 20 years old. Brilliant.
