What's in the Box:
Happy Friday everyone!! So this week inside the box I will be sharing my personal Top 10 movie sequels. I will go into a bit more detail in a moment but I'm just talking about second installments in the franchises, so Return of the King and the later Harry Potter films don't qualify for this list. Other than that there might be a spoiler or two but I'll try not to give to much away. So lift the flaps and take a look inside the box.
Movie Box:
So as I said above I'm focusing on direct sequels so no part 3s or number 5s. There is an exception to this rule however. As Star Wars has a set of two trilogies episodes 2 and 5 are direct sequels. With this being said I wont delay any longer. Here is my list for the Top 10 Sequels:
10. Kill Bill: Vol. 2: Coming in at number 10 is the only sequel in Quentin Tarantino's film catalog. Now I might be a little bias with this one because Tarantino is my favorite director but I do like how this film is almost a full 180 degrees from what KB vol 1 was. Where volume 1 focuses more on The Bride (Uma Thurman) getting here revenge on the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, Volume 2 delivers more of the back story of The Bride. I will say the end does fall a little short, I was hoping for a bit more of a battle between The Bride and Bill but I did still like the end because Tarantino choose to go with more of an "Oh snap!" ending than a badass fight sequence.
9. Captain America: The Winter Soldier: The Winter Soldier is kind of like The First Avenger except for the fact that it takes place in present day and is pretty much better in every way. It takes place after the Avengers and we discover that S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't as on top of things as they seem to be. We also find out that someone from Cap's past has also made his presence known in present day.
8. Back to the Future: Part 2: Well they missed the mark on flying cars, skateboards, and Jaws 19 but there is still a chance that the Cubs could win the World Series in 2015. If so this movie might move up on my list because that would be an epic "walk off" prediction. This movie goes in the Future, an alternate dystopian style 1985, and the Past. This movie also kind of re-shows all of the most important scenes from the first movie so in a backwards way you are watching Part 1 and 2 in this movie.
7. The Bourne Supremacy: You take all of the awesome action from the first movie and add Karl Urban as a Russian assassin who is trying to take out Bourne and you get The Bourne Supremacy. I'm still torn whether I like this one or The Bourne Ultimatum better but as a a whole The Bourne Trilogy is a must watch.
6. Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan: I am and always will always be a Star Wars guy, but more recently I've ventured into the mythos that is Star Trek. I've watched all of the Original series as well as the movies that feature the original cast. The Wrath of Khan is by far the best of the six movies and it's strongly based on the performance of Ricardo Montalban (Fantasy Island) who plays Khan. This became the first time a movie would be made as a sequel to a specific television show episode. This movie also has a pretty shocking ending.
5. The Lord of the Rings- The Two Towers: In my opinion this is the weakest of the Rings Trilogy but the Battle of Helm's Deep is freaking epic. We are also introduced to the entire blonde nation of Rohan as well as Treebeard and Gandalf comes back to life as a white wizard.
4. The Dark Knight: Nolan's Batman at it's best is what we where given with The Dark Knight. With all of the origin story out of the way we were exposed to an even darker tale than the last outing. The Joker pushes Batman to the limits of what is right and wrong just to stop him and in the end it costs him more than he is ready to lose. Heath Ledger steals the show as the Joker and Aaron Eckhart also delivers a solid performance as Harvey Dent.
3. Terminator 2: Judgment Day: The tagline for this one should've been "This time Arnold's the good guy." The first of two James Cameron movies on my list, T2 is easily one of the best sequels of all time. This movie continues Skynet's attempt to erase John Conner from existence, this time by trying to kill preteen John Conner. Robert Patrick as the T-1000 is one of the most intense villains in cinema history.
2. Aliens: "Game Over Man! Game Over!" James Cameron followed up Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror film Alien with Aliens. Aliens is completely different from it's predecessor as it is a full out sci-fi action film. More weapons, more swearing, and way more aliens. Frankly I think Aliens, Terminator 2, and my number 1 film are all interchangeable.
1. Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back: This movie features one of the most mind blowing twists of all time and honestly I still find the reveal a bit shocking each time I watch the movie. Empire is a much darker film than A New Hope and our heroes never really seemed to be in a good situation.
Final Thoughts:
I hope all of you enjoy this week's edition of ITB. As always if you have any questions of ideas for future topics you can reach me by the following methods:
Have A Great Weekend!!
