It takes a strong person to admit they don’t smile – at least a little – when they hear the name “Focker.”
It’s one reason the Ben Stiller/Robert De Niro comedy “Meet the Parents” cracked the movie zeitgeist.
But the 2004 sequel “Meet the Fockers” proved to be a big letdown, and the signature gag from the upcoming “Little Fockers” involves a Viagra bit. That was stale a decade ago.
So, as we await the Dec. 22 release of Stiller’s new comedy here are five other sequels we could equally live without.
- “Men in Black III” – In a word – depressing. Will Smith is the biggest movie star on the planet. Why, o why, would he feel the need to revisit a franchise that clearly soaked up every ounce of goodwill in the second installment?
- “Beverly Hills Cop 4” – It’s an on-again, off-again project, but just the thought of Eddie Murphy attempting to resuscitate his once great career by returning to Los Angeles smacks of a singular desperation.
- “Bourne 4” - A classic case of a franchise belonging to an actor – Matt Damon – and a directorial style suited to the gritty material. Shake up both and you’re left with a brand diminished, nothing more.
- “Mission: Impossible 4” – Just sad. Tom Cruise’s previous three “M:I” installments were utterly forgettable – can anyone remember the plots of any of the trio? Now, Cruise is back and allegedly handing off the franchise to the great Jeremy Renner. Feh.
- “Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides” – So, so so over Jack Sparrow, and the last two chapters were as incomprehensible as “Transformers” viewed in reverse.
(Photo: Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible” franchise is gearing up for its fourth installment.)
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
In regards to POTC 4, they are jettisoning Knightley and Bloom, keeping Rush, and adding Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane. I like the cast swap and Rush was awesome as Barbossa. Add that to Ian McShane playing Blackbeard and I am REALLY looking forward to this.
I agree though, Jack Sparrow is kind of overdone at this point. I trust Depp as an actor though, I think he will add some new wrinkles to the character.
Mission Impossible 4 is gonna bomb. People are tired of seeing Cruise running around and shooting stuff.
I would actually like to see Eddie Murphy get a hit again. Outside of Donkey in the Shrek films there hasn’t been much. If they remember why the third film sucked and focus on what made the first two films work. (i.e. the 80’s style realism, interaction between Murphy and the ESTABLISHED characters) I think it could work. But sadly I think it will be made a la Transformers and will be horrible as well.
Ditto on the MI movies. I liked the first one despite it’s flaws, but the others were forgettable. I didn’t hate the other Pirates films but I can understand why others did. Making Jack Sparrow the main character instead of part of the ensamble didn’t work. Still I like the lineup for the next film.
As far as Bourne goes, who cares? and while I don’t mind the notion of a third MIB I’m not sure I like to concept. Any time Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are both on screen it works. Taking one of them back in time with someone else will stink.
I’m surprised you didn’t place the rumored Ghostbusters sequel on this list.
Brad Bird being involved with the next MI is enough to make it worthy of taking a look.
I thought Eddie Murphy successfully revived his career in the brilliant Steve Martin film “Bowfinger”. Apparently, I am the only one who thinks so.
“…can anyone remember the plots of any of the (MI) trio?”
Why, yes! Someone within the MI organization goes bad. (Apparently, there are no external bad guys which makes one wonder why it was formed in the first place) Mischief and mayhem ensue.
I’m sure the new one will be different. /sarc
Mike B – Bowfinger came out like over ten years ago. I would hardly think he can hang his hat on this film as something even close to a career revitalization! As for Shrek……..when they only want your voice, you ain’t back……..sorry!
Before writing off “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”, keep in mind that it’s based on Tim Powers’ first-class novel of the same title. (Which may well have served as the inspiration for the entire franchise, IMO.) If they stick with the Powers storyline, they may come out with something worth seeing. Not real likely, I know.
Well when you have a Hollyweird with no talented writers and even if they have them they are so bound up with PC the movies they write are BORING. My God one innocent Gay joke had the Gay community in a hissy fit for weeks. The industry is dead. Glad I can rent decades of old movies on Netflix. Cagney, Bogart, Stewart, Peck, Wayne, Connery, Heston etc. The current crop of effeminate leading men are a pimple on the behinds of those greats.
Harley……..how right you are. Sitting through the disaster that was Skyline is a clear cut testimonial to just how lazy and unimaginative today’s screenwriters have become. Too bad……..that could have been a pretty decent movie if someone with brains was involved.
Markin
I was watching the Treasure Of The Sierra Madre the other day. In the beginning the down and out Bogart is standing there and someone flicks a half smoked cigarette on the street. He looks at it ready to pick it up. Before he can get it a young Mexican boy looked about 9 runs over picks it up and starts puffing away. I thought damn there would probably 10 government and another 20 private agencies going ballistic if that was in a movie today.. Sad.
Harley…….LOL………so very true. Hell, it’s getting to the point where even the adults are being chastised for lighting up on screen. In this day and age, what do you think would be the reaction to Mel Brooks and his best ever production, Blazing Saddles? Sucker would have an NC-17 rating at the very least!!!
Markin
One thing about Mel he insults everyone. But the “N” word was used a lot LOL. Cleavon Little holding the gun to his own head in the bar. Back of or the shoot the “N” Brahahahah. Even Karras knocking out the horse. Peta would be running around naked in front of his house crying. People are just nuts today. No sense of humor…
Will Smith the biggest movie star on the planet? Was this article written ten years ago?
Damon has to do a new Bourne film because his anti-American films bombed. It is ironic that his biggest success comes from an un-PC character.
Matt Damon = I’m not a conservative, but I play one on TV. He’s such a schmuck and a poser. Why don’t actors like him just keep their idiotic mouths shut when not in front of the camera?
The only movie I might watch would be POTC, and if the talk is good then BHC, but Men in Black is dead to me after the crap fest 2 turned into and Will “I must save the world in every film” Smith being involved.
A “sequel” that’s in the works, a film adaptation of the cult hit ’60s series, the Man from U.N.C.L.E. has been purportedly in the works since the ’80s. Earlier this year I was horrified to read that the writers/directors from the Wedding Crasher were set to take the helm of this project.. the series crashed on the rocks when the PTB injected camp into it, and I’d rather such a film not happen, than make a mockery of a series I loved as a kid.
A few weeks back, I read that Steven Soderbergh was now to be the director, and new writers were assigned. George Clooney’s interested in portraying Napoleon Solo, and while he’s a good actor, he’s a bit too long in the tooth for the role. Soderbergh’s idea is to base the story in the ’60s, and at the time in the series setting, Solo was in his early 30s, not the 50-ish Clooney is. What’s more, knowing how idiotic Hollywood is, I dread them deciding to take liberties, like turning the character, Illya Kuryakin into a female love interest for Clooney, Or reducing it to some left wing propaganda piece, filled with the usual anti-American garbage that have been shown to be utter failures in action films over the past few years. No one wants to plunk down money to be indoctrinated by fascist leftist ideology.
I’d love to see the story and characters presented as what they were in the first 2 seasons, which is why MFU was a hit series, and across all the demographic groups, from kids, to teenagers, and all adult age groups.
I remember MI-1 it starred Jon Voight and Jean Reno.
don’t know who Tommy is
I am so over with and sick and tired of “Re-Makes” and idiot “Sequels” of dead whales on the beach movies and the weak actors that star in them.
Is this the best Hollywood can gin out, what happened to all that “Artistic Imagination” Hollywood loves to pat themselves on the back with every chance they get.
Have they never heard the phrase “Garbage in, produces Garbage Out.” What a waste of time and money.
No wonder Hollywood earnings are way down. The last Recession/Depression Hollywood made a boatloed of money so don’t blame it on the Recession, Today, it’s the GARBAGE Hollywood is trying market that people are not buying.
I am so over with and sick and tired of “Re-Makes” and idiot “Sequels” of dead whales on the beach movies and the weak actors that star in them.
Is this the best Hollywood can gin out, what happened to all that “Artistic Imagination” Hollywood loves to pat themselves on the back with every chance they get.
Have they never heard the phrase “Garbage in, produces Garbage Out.” What a waste of time and money.
No wonder Hollywood earnings are way down. The last Recession/Depression Hollywood made a boatload of money so don’t blame it on the Recession, Today, it’s the low imagination GARBAGE scripts and over reliance on eye candy special effects, Hollywood is trying market that people are not buying.
Mark’s law of movie sequels: “Any movie that doesn’t deserve a sequel will get one.”