Nothing new from Hollywood - so sick of Sequels

yaddayadda

Is anyone else out there sick and tired of all the rehashed movies and versions 1,2,3,4 etc coming out of Hollywood lately. I can't recall ever seeing such a lack of anything new and interesting from movie makers.

Pirates of the Carribbean 3
Shrek 3
Rocky 5
Spiderman 3
Diehard 4
Bourne 3
etc,etc....

YAWN! It's so frikken boring!! And when we don't have constant sequels it's just juvenile romantic comedy or mindless formulaic violent pulp. The most pathetic thing is that the public seems to love it. They flock to this crap no questions asked.

I've practically given up going to the movies.

Gopher

It depends on the quality of the sequel. If a sequel manages to differentiate itself enough and has some inventiveness, it can actually be good. A few sequels are actually better than their predecessors. And in some cases (like Star Wars), the sequels are actually needed to round out the story and were planned for. (As opposed to Look Who's Talking Too).

The market drives the creation of Hollywood sequels. Here's a recent news story about it: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/325454_sequelcrazy28.html

Sequels are the heroes of Hollywood
There's no such thing as too many these days
By JAKE COYLE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

As this summer's slate of sequels marches on, Hollywood is planning even more installments of their biggest franchises.
With an indefinite number of future "Spider-Man" movies on tap and an 11th "Star Trek" coming next year, how many sequels are enough?
"The marketplace decides," says Tom Ortenberg, president of theatrical films at Lionsgate, which will release "Saw IV" in October and bring back Sylvester Stallone next year in "John Rambo." "If the marketplace is there to support it, you find a way to get it done."
"In such a crowded marketplace, being able to break through the clutter is half the battle," he says. "Sequels, already branded, make it that much easier to break through that clutter with a title that is already familiar to consumers."
By the end of August, 14 sequels will have passed through movie theaters, many of them exiting with bags of money in tow. "Spider-Man 3" has grossed more than $335 million, "Shrek the Third" $318 million and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" $304 million. All three have combined for more than $1.5 billion overseas.
Since the days of Aristotle, the number 3 has been considered the most perfect figure in dramatic arts. But studios still find it hard to decline potential fortunes for the sake of a trilogy's neat narrative structure.
A fourth "Shrek" film is scheduled for 2010. Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief executive of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., recently said a fifth will follow.
There are no plans for another "Pirates" film, but Johnny Depp has indicated he's open to it. Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios have said with certainty that "Spider-Man" will be back, but writer-director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst have voiced reluctance to continue.
"I know there'll be a 'Spider-Man 4, 5 and 6,' " Raimi said earlier this year. "I just won't be the guy that'll probably write the story, because I've got to clear my head."
Instead, Raimi has been linked to "The Hobbit," a film based on J.R.R. Tolkien's prelude to the "Lord of the Rings" series. Peter Jackson, who directed the well-planned "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, is suing New Line Cinema over profits from "Rings," complicating plans for "The Hobbit."
It wasn't always like this.
" 'Sequel' was a dirty word," says Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "They were seen as an exploitive way to capitalize on a brand name recognition of a popular movie by making the same movie and putting a '2' behind it."
Dergarabedian recalls feeling a shift when 1999's "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" made more money in its first weekend than the original made in its entire theatrical run. Now, sequels don't ride the coattails of the original so much as they gain momentum, swelling into larger and larger behemoths with each progressive installment.
But how long will audiences keep paying to see the same franchise? Part of the trick is to make the old seem new again.
"John Rambo" carefully avoids what would be an unappealing "IV." Stallone did the same earlier this year with "Rocky Balboa," the sixth "Rocky" film.
Both are part of what might be called nostalgic sequels. Included in the trend is the recently released "Live Free or Die Hard," the fourth installment in the "Die Hard" series, a dozen years after its last. There's even a planned sequel to "Alien vs. Predator," which itself was based on old franchises. "Alien vs. Predator 2" is scheduled for release this Christmas.
The most anticipated of nostalgic sequels is the as-yet-to-be-titled fourth "Indiana Jones." Currently shooting, the new "Indiana Jones" struggled for years to line up everything before beginning production with Harrison Ford starring and Steven Spielberg directing. Sean Connery declined to participate.
There have even been rumblings of a fourth "Ocean's" movie following this summer's "Ocean's Thirteen." Opening next Friday is "The Bourne Ultimatum," and while it's based on Robert Ludlum's third and final "Bourne" novel, author Eric Van Lustbader recently picked up the series, writing two more "Bourne" books.
A spokesman for NBC Universal said that "Ultimatum" concludes the questions posed by the first chapter of Jason Bourne's adventures, "with the potential for continuation remaining open."
"Transformers," which was based on the '80s toys and animated TV show, has grossed over $263 million in three weeks and seems destined for at least one sequel. Martin Levy, a marketing executive at DreamWorks (which co-produced the movie with Paramount), says: "It's a very logical thing to think that we can look forward to another one."
Whether the source material is serialized or not is an important part of the sequel craze. "Harry Potter" came tailor-made for a seven-part franchise, with a film based on each book. The fifth movie, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," has made over $208 million since opening in mid-July.
Kevin Feige, president of production at Marvel Studios, believes the recent popularity of sequels is because many are based on "ongoing sagas." Marvel, which holds the rights to many of the most popular comic book characters, is well situated to draw from its extensive library for franchise sequels.
Feige says another "X-Men" film is possible and that spinoffs for Wolverine and Magneto are in the works. A third "Fantastic Four" following this summer's "Rise of the Silver Surfer" edition is also possible, and Feige says a Silver Surfer stand-alone script has been "moved to the forefront" of discussions.
"There's always stuff that ends up in our back pocket or that we put to the side in our if-we-should-be-so-lucky-next-time folder," says Feige of Marvel's comic book source material. "It's not difficult finding which story lines or characters we're going to use in one of our films. It's difficult deciding which ones not to use."

lola28

You could always read a book.

Lola

nvrgnbk

Always enjoy your insightful posts, yaddayadda.

FadingAway

Oh come on!!! Horny Housewives 1, 2 and 3 were brilliant!

drew sagan

Yep, a bunch of washed up movies.

That's why I'm going to see a movie this weekend that is two hours and forty minutes about monks. I can't wait!

Into Great Silence

Finally-Free

I haven't been to the movies in 3 years. It's too expensive now for what you get. When I was a teenager you'd get 2 movies for the admission fee, and cartoons before they started. Now you pay a lot more to get in for only one movie, and you get commercials where the cartoons used to be. Popcorn and coke cost more than some restaurants charge for a real lunch, and half the time the butter they put on the popcorn is rancid.

By waiting a little while I can buy the DVD for less money, and if it sucks I can sell it.

W

jaguarbass

Im 55, I figured out by the time I was 28 that I had seen all of the movies and variations on a theme that men can come up with. Any more I only rent movies, and more often than not I am dissapointed. So I wouldnt hold my breathe waiting for Hollywood to come out with something new. They cant.

The best you can hope for is the retelling of an old story with new actors, or different actors.

Gopher

The best you can hope for is the retelling of an old story with new actors, or different actors.

HEY -- I thought of an entirely original plot. See how you like it:

1. Boy meets and falls in love with girl.

2. Boy loses girl.

3. Boy gets girl back.

I wonder if this idea would sell.

brinjen

Hollywood's calling Gopher!

Nothing new from Hollywood - so sick of Sequels

Sequels are the heroes of Hollywood

There's no such thing as too many these days

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