Latest news with #ABCFamily
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Étoile' Review: Amy Sherman-Palladino's Amazon Ballet Dramedy Pirouettes Gracefully Before Stumbling in the Final Act
Amazon's The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has the Emmys and The WB's Gilmore Girls has the two decades of snowballing affection, but if I'm feeling contrary — and I'm usually feeling contrary — I'll say that my favorite Amy Sherman-Palladino show is Bunheads. Because Bunheads only consists of 18 episodes, it's all potential. It started bumpy, found its voice completely and then ABC Family canceled it, so I can eternally believe it never would have been marred by Sherman-Palladino's inevitable flirtations with tweeness or her insatiable appetite for ramming her characters into narrative brick walls. It's pure, delightful, perfectly cast Sherman-Palladino goodness. More from The Hollywood Reporter For Luke Kirby, 'Étoile' Was a History Lesson 'The Amateur' Star Rachel Brosnahan Insists She Still Feels Like an Amateur Amy Sherman-Palladino Recalls "Weird" Network Notes For 'Gilmore Girls': "Why Isn't Rory Having Sex?" Bunheads was also a show about potential. Its key characters were budding ballet dancers, which allowed the show to avoid the challenges of depicting excellence — pressures that Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino struggled with when it came to Midge Maisel and her comedy — and concentrate, rather, on youthful enthusiasm. Sherman-Palladino and Palladino return to the world of ballet with their new Amazon dramedy Étoile, which, for me, triggered some initial concerns of self-seriousness with its title and focus on, well, excellence in an international context. I was more than prepared to write a 'It's no Bunheads' review, but it's a relief to report that, at least initially, Étoile doesn't take itself too seriously. As a result, for six or seven episodes, the hour-long series is likably light-on-its-feet, infused with its creators' love and admiration for this world and boasting strong lead performances from Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg as well as a knockout English-language debut from co-star Lou de Laâge. A season-concluding downward spiral follows, one that will be familiar to even the most devoted and forgiving of Sherman-Palladino fans — that thing where characters behave in unjustifiable ways just to set things up tantalizingly for the next run of episodes. Some of the things that happen in the Étoile homestretch are so pointlessly dumb they soured me on a show that I'd mostly been enjoying. Kirby plays Jack, executive director for the Metropolitan Ballet Theater in New York City, while Gainsbourg is Genevieve, interim director of Le Ballet National in Paris. Their respective institutions are struggling and if their new seasons flop, ballet could die forever. Or something. Genevieve offers a solution: They'll swap companies, or at least parts of companies, as somebody puts it, 'to give Paris a jolt of New York City energy and New York City a splash of Parisian style.' To help with the process, eccentric billionaire and possible war criminal Crispin Shamblee (Simon Callow, devouring scenery) agrees to pay. Jack is wary. Jack and Genevieve, who have a romantic past and a flirting present, select members of the other's company to filch for this one-year experiment. Genevieve snags the Metropolitan's brilliant-but-odd star choreographer Tobias (Gideon Glick) and French dancer Mishi (Taïs Vinolo), who was cut from the Parisian company years earlier. Jack drafts Paris' étoile, the no-bullshit Cheyenne (de Laâge), who is introduced as an environmental warrior and then, by the end of the first season, is flying back and forth from Paris to NYC at a moment's notice because lots of characters on this show are introduced with core characteristics that eventually fizzle away. 'Etoile' means 'star' in this context, but don't worry about a necessary learning curve. Étoile is fueled by a love of ballet, its movement and its music — Jack and Genevieve are introduced debating Tchaikovsky vs. Aaron Copland — but this is not a piece of extreme immersion packed with intimidating ballet terminology or references. Nor does Étoile aspire to be some sort of gritty examination of ballet's dark underbelly. There's a show to be made about ballet's crushing physical toll and institutional restrictions, centered on rampant drug use, screwing and abuses of power. I know this, because I watched Starz's Flesh and Bone and found it properly harrowing, if not particularly good. Étoile features jokes about dancers being overworked and about their messed-up feet and whatnot, but acknowledging elements of this world that could be interpreted as physical and psychological exploitation through a different prism is not on the agenda. Instead, it's a Sherman-Palladino-friendly combination of fast-talking whimsy and graceful direction — Amy and Daniel wrote and directed much of the season, though there's a midseason pause for other scribes and director Scott Ellis — in the service of what is, more than anything, a fish-out-of-water workplace comedy about people devoted to an elite art form. The creators' general enjoyment, rather than eagle-eyed interrogation, of the milieu carries over to how Étoile handles dance itself. Several members of the cast have extensive ballet experience, including Vinolo and David Alvarez (West Side Story), who plays the only American dancer strong enough to partner with Cheyenne. But most do not, and there's enough doubling in the dance numbers that those with only a casual interest in the art form probably won't notice who actually is doing their own dancing and when (attentive viewers surely will). Étoile is very selective when it comes to how much dance it actually shows. After the first episode, there's a long stretch in which we only get fleeting rehearsal footage, before a fourth episode with six featured performances, then another gap before a dance-heavy finale. Either way, it's a show that more frequently than not asks you to take the dialogue at its word that certain performances are exceptional or certain creative forces are brilliant. The dance sequences are generally simply shot, lots of full-body and full-stage framings, very few sweaty close-ups — all fitting for a show that aspires to a little distance rather than uncomfortable intimacy. Everything is photographed with a handsome fluidity; it's the rare series that gives the Steadicam operator a prominent position in the credits. Kirby, an Emmy winner as a somewhat excessively lovable Lenny Bruce in Mrs. Maisel, steps into the lead role here and it's no surprise that he vibes completely with Jack's stream-of-consciousness irritation — which, one could argue, he treats as performatively as some other characters treat their dance moves. Gainsbourg matches Kirby's nervous energy, and they have a chemistry that justifies their steady flirtation. It hurts Gainsbourg and the show a tiny bit that in dividing the narrative between New York and Paris — a largely landmark-free version of Paris, complete with a joke mocking Emily in Paris for the ubiquity of the Eiffel Tower — the Paris company gets the socially uncomfortable Mishi and the highly withdrawn Tobias, and therefore lacks the energy of the New York chapters, driven by the animated de Laâge. De Laâge is a well-established French screen presence with a pair of Cesar nominations to her credit, but this is her first English-language TV role. Jumping into English-language television with an Amy Sherman-Paladino show is like walking in a snow flurry for the first time and then deciding to heli-ski down the Matterhorn. And this is not a light Amy Sherman-Palladino role. Cheyenne is a storyteller and the writers are sticking these long monologues in de Laâge's mouth and saying, 'Sell this!' And she does. More than half the laughs I got came from moments like de Laâge's dolphin impression or a lecture she gives to Jack's groin, while the most effective emotional arc of the season is probably between Cheyenne and SuSu (LaMay Zhang), a young girl whom Cheyenne steers into ballet classes. That Étoile largely fails Cheyenne by the end of the season takes nothing away from de Laâge's breakout performance. Favoring levity here, the broadly comic supporting performances work best for me, especially Callow, whose Crispin exists in a far wackier and wilder series, and David Haig as the Metropolitan's artistic director, who has early hilarious moments and definitely gets let down in the season's climax. The show never figures out what to do with Alvarez's Gael, leaving a bland center to several more of those twists in the last episode. The writers are much more confident with getting brief value out of a handful of Sherman-Palladino regulars, including Yanic Truesdale and Kelly Bishop, who show up and steal a scene or two, unsaddled with any of the concluding missteps. I've watched and loved enough Amy Sherman-Palladino shows that I should know that questionable seasonal cliffhangers are part of her storytelling vernacular, and I should know better than to be this disappointed by the end of a season that I mostly enjoyed. Maybe that's why I like Bunheads as much as I do. Sure, it ends badly, but I can blame ABC Family for that. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise 'Yellowstone' and the Sprawling Dutton Family Tree, Explained
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
'Gilmore Girls' creators revisit world of ballet in new series 'Etoile'
"Gilmore Girls" creators Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino are taking on the world of dance with their new show, " Étoile." The new series follows a New York City ballet company and a Paris ballet company who swap their most talented stars in an effort to save their storied institutions. "Étoile" follows the creative duo's Emmy Award-winning series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," which concluded in May 2023. It is also their second time exploring the world of dance in a TV series after their 2012 show "Bunheads," which starred Sutton Foster, Kelly Bishop and more. It ran on ABC Family for one season. "This was a different take on it," Palladino told "Good Morning America." "'Bunheads' really was focusing on teenage girls in this dance school in this small town. ['Étoile'] is the elite core of dancers, these athletes that have made it and they're working at a level that is highly competitive, very risky." He continued, "You twist an ankle, you hurt your knee, you could be out forever. So, exploring the professional world was different for us and then it gave us an opportunity to do a workplace comedy like 'The Office,' but ... behind the scenes of a ballet, so with pointe shoes, and then the behind-the-scenes at both Paris and New York, the friction, the camaraderie between the two companies." For Sherman-Palladino, who grew up dancing as a child, revisiting the world of ballet was a personal venture. "It all comes rushing back, but it's always you remember how much dancers never stop moving," she said. "They just never stop moving." She continued, "If they're not dancing, they're stretching, if they're not stretching, they're TheraGunning, they're doing push-ups." "It's just a constant whirlwind of like -- it's just not stillness, it's just that movement, that constant movement. It's just sort of an energy being expended," she added. Taïs Vinolo, who plays ballet dancer Mishi Duplessis and who was a former ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada and a graduate of the American Ballet Theatre School, said the world of ballet was accurately depicted in "Étoile" and paralleled her own journey as a dancer. "I really love the way that Amy and Dan represent the ballet world in a very truthful way, as we don't really see that much on TV -- and also, they bring so much fun to it," she said. Ivan du Pontavice, who portrays Gabin Roux in the show but is not a professional dancer like Vinolo, said that after learning the artform from other dancers and immersing himself in dance, he saw how authentic the creators' reflection of ballet was. "I was amazed at how accurate [it is], not only in the writing, but in the directing and in the knowledge that the Palladinos have about ballet," he said. "You know, it's a true, true reflection of the reality of this discipline." While "Étoile" focuses on a new world in the Palladino/Sherman-Palladino universe, fans of "Gilmore Girls," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Bunheads" will notice the creators' unique style featured throughout the show from their quirky cast of characters to the fast-paced dialogue. Lou de Laâge, who portrays the free-spirited ballerina Cheyenne Toussaint, mentioned at PaleyFest in early April that she didn't speak English fluently before "Étoile," so learning the script and the creators' iconic dialogue style "wasn't easy." "I had to learn English to speak Amy's dialogue," she said. "So that wasn't easy, because there is a lot of fantasy and rapidity and tempo and humor and everything in the dialogue." She added, "It was just work and repetitions, and because the more you repeat the text, the more you do it, the more you find freedom." Du Pontavice, who is also new to the Palladino/Sherman-Palladino universe, said that joining their world was a "roller coaster." "I was terrified and nervous at first, because I felt like I was going from zero to 100 all of a sudden," he said. "It was a big production, and I knew of the Palladinos, I knew of their specific rhythm. So it felt challenging, but at the same [time], it felt coherent." "Étoile" also includes three stars fans might recognize from Sherman-Palladino and Palladino's previous shows: Yanic Truesdale, Gideon Glick and Luke Kirby, who portrayed comedian Lenny Bruce in "Mrs. Maisel" and in the new series plays Jack McMillan, the executive director of the Metropolitan Ballet Theater. Truesdale, who previously portrayed Michel Gerard, the sarcastic and lovable concierge in "Gilmore Girls," said he was "excited" to work with Sherman-Palladino and Palladino again, playing Raphaël Marchand in their new series. "It's just reuniting with brilliant writing," Truesdale said. "At the end of the day, for an actor, everything comes down to the writing, and their world is so creative, so rich, that I got immediately excited to just be with them." He added that the "cherry on the cake is to be in Paris," saying it was "very hard not to be thrilled about every aspect of this reunion." Glick, whom fans may remember as Alfie in "Mrs. Maisel," called the creators "the greatest people to work with." For her part, Sherman-Palladino said she and her husband hope that "Étoile" does more than entertain and sparks conversation about the art world, its legacies and the constant changes it faces. "I hope it speaks to the importance of the arts and the fact that they're under siege right now," she said. "It would be really sad if people don't have these things in their lives anymore, because art is kind of everything. It's the way humanity evolves forward." Charlotte Gainsbourg, who stars in the series as Geneviève Lavigne, the interim general director of l'Opera Francais and Le Ballet National, added, "I think the arts are in danger. So the more we can get something authentic and that grabs an audience and makes people aware that that kind of art form is very fragile, [the better]." Also starring in the new series are David Haig, Simon Callow and David Alvarez.
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen to bring 10 Things I Hate About You to Broadway
Nearly 30 years after it cemented 1999 as a watershed year for teen movies, 10 Things I Hate About You is headed to Broadway, led by Lena Dunham and Carly Rae Jepsen. Dunham, the creator of another coming-of-age touchstone with HBO's Girls, will co-write the adaptation with playwright Jessica Huang. Pop singer-songwriter Jepsen will write the score with Ethan Gruska, with whom she worked on her most recent album, 2023's The Loveliest Time. The musical, first reported by Billboard, rounds out its creative team with Tony-winning director and choreographer Christopher Wheeldon, who most recently provided music and lyrics for Almost Famous: The Musical; and producer Mike Bosner, who helped shepherd Shucked and Beautiful – The Carole King Musical to Broadway. Based on Shakespeare's 1594 play The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You was a box office hit in 1999 that gained cult-favorite status in the years since, launching the careers of Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles. Written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith and directed by Gil Junger, the romantic comedy followed the travails of the Stratford sisters in the 1990s Seattle suburbs, as they're subjected to their father's strict rules on dating and wooed by fellow students. The film was later adapted into a TV sitcom by ABC Family, which ran for 20 episodes starting in 2009. Dunham's latest project, the rom-com series Too Much, will be released by Netflix later this year. The show stars Megan Stalter as Jessica, a New Yorker who starts over in London after a breakup and connects with Will Sharpe's Felix. She is also writing a film on disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, of FTX collapse fame, for Apple and A24, as well as the upcoming rom-com Good Sex, starring Natalie Portman. Jepsen, the Canadian songwriter behind such hits as Call Me Maybe and Run Away With Me, took over the title role in the Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella in 2014, and played Frenchy in Fox's Emmy-winning Grease: Live. The adaptation will be her first opportunity to work behind the scenes as a musical contributor. An opening date and theater for the 10 Things I Hate About You musical is yet to be announced.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Amy Sherman-Palladino's Ballet Comedy ‘Étoile' First Trailer Sees Two Acclaimed Theaters Trying to Save the Art Form
Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino's ballet comedy 'Étoile' marks the duo's first series since the Emmy Award-winning 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.' Ballet dancers from New York City and Paris graced the screen in the first trailer for the dance drama. In order to save their struggling ballet companies, two artistic heads of acclaimed ballet companies come up with a plan to trade their top talent to New York and Paris, respectively. Luke Kirby and Charlotte Gainsbourg argue with their principal dancers, convincing them to switch companies to save their world-renowned ballet companies from failing. Lou de Laâge plays Cheyenne, a hardened Parisian principal dancer, or an étoile, who struggles to acclimate to the New York company. When certain dancers don't quite adjust to the culture shock, the heads of the ballet companies must manage egos and mastermind a plan for how to save their art form and win over audiences. Watch the trailer here: The comedy series features 'Gilmore Girls' fan-favorite Yanic Truesdale as a recurring guest star. New York City Ballet principal dancer Tiler Peck also makes a cameo in the trailer, leading an ensemble of dancers in a Swan Lake tutu. Gideon Glick, David Alvarez, Ivan du Pontavice, Taïs Vinolo, David Haig LaMay Zhang, and Simon Callow also fill out the rest of the original series. This is not the Palladinos' first ballet series. The duo led the ABC Family dance drama 'Bunheads,' which starred Sutton Foster. 'Étoile' brings a comedic twist to the straight-laced dance style. The Amazon MGM Studios series is executive produced by Sherman-Palladino, Palladino and Dhana Rivera Gilbert. Scott Ellis will serve as co-executive producer. 'Étoile' has already been greenlit for two seasons at the streamer.'Well, guess that plan for early retirement will have to wait. Instead, we've decided to embark on an international journey with an unbelievable group of players and the most talented ballet dancers in the world,' Sherman-Palladino and Palladino said in a statement. 'We will sleep when we're dead.' The post Amy Sherman-Palladino's Ballet Comedy 'Étoile' First Trailer Sees Two Acclaimed Theaters Trying to Save the Art Form appeared first on TheWrap.
Buzz Feed
23-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
18 Sequels To Very Iconic Movies That You Probably Don't Even Know Exist
From timeless classics like The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back to modern hits like Paddington 2 and Inside Out 2, these films prove that sequels can sometimes be as good as their predecessors and recapture the magic of the original — and, in some cases, even surpass it. However, in many cases, sequels to iconic movies are just plain bad and feel like a lazy cash grab. I think millennials everywhere remember the collective eye-roll we did when it was announced that Mean Girls 2 would be premiering on ABC Family. While there are a lot of bad sequels, there are also some sequels that are so bad or so forgettable that people don't even realize they were made. So below, I rounded up 18 movie sequels that you might not even know existed: 1. My Summer Story/ It Runs in the Family (1994) is the sequel to A Christmas Story (1983) My Summer Story (originally released as It Runs in the Family) was directed by Bob Clark (who directed A Christmas Story) and was written and narrated by Jean Shepherd (who co-wrote and narrated A Christmas Story). The film follows Ralphie Parker (played by Kieran Culkin) and his family during the summer of 1941 after the events of the original film. 2. The Sandlot 2 (2005) is the sequel to The Sandlot (1993) The Sandlot isn't just a beloved '90s film but has also become a beloved movie among younger generations. The direct-to-DVD sequel is set in 1972, 10 years after the original. The story centers around Johnnie Smalls, the younger brother of Scott Smalls from the first movie, and a new team of misfit players who take over the legendary sandlot for their own baseball adventure. Like the original, the kids must face off against "The Great Fear," a monstrous dog guarding a neighbor's backyard. 3. American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002) is the sequel to American Psycho (2000) The movie is a very loose direct-to-video sequel to American Psycho. The film starts in 1988 when a 12-year-old Rachael Newman accompanies her babysitter on a date. Unbeknownst to them is that the man she was on a date with was Patrick Bateman, who kills the babysitter — Rachel then kills Patrick with an ice pick, which sparks her own obsession with murder. Five years later, Rachael (played by Mina Kunis) is now a college student competing for a coveted teaching assistant position under Professor Robert Starkman (William Shatner), a former FBI profiler. Rachael begins killing all the students competing for that spot. 4. Scarlett (1994) is the sequel to Gone with the Wind (1939) For many decades following its release, there had been attempts to make a film sequel to Gone with the Wind. After the 1939 release of GWTW, the author of the book on which the film was based, Margaret Mitchell, refused to write a sequel or allow a movie one to be made. However, Mitchell died in 1949, and her husband a few years later in 1952. Without any children, her estate went to her brother, Stephens Mitchell, who honored her wishes and did not allow any sequels to be made. By the '70s, control of the estate went to Stephens' children, who were open to having a sequel written — reportedly to protect the copyright, which would expire in 2011. Eventually, in the late '80s, the estate selected Alexandra Ripley, who had written many novels set in the Old South, to pen the sequel. With a sequel novel being written, the bidding then started for the movie rights to it. Flash forward to 1994, and Scarlett premiered on CBS as a four-part miniseries that was poorly received (but hey, so was the book it was based on). The miniseries departed a lot from the Scarlett novel, featured more sex and rape, and gave an overall unsatisfactory conclusion to a story people had been waiting 55 years to see. 5. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000) is the sequel to The Blair Witch Project (1999) Unlike its found-footage predecessor, Book of Shadows took a traditional narrative approach and follows a group of obsessed The Blair Witch Project fans, who embark on a tour of the infamous Black Hills Forest in Burkittsville, Maryland, where the original film was set. 6. The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) is the sequel to Carrie (1976) Essentially, this was just a retelling of the original Carrie film. In this movie, Rachel Lang is a socially outcast high school student like Carrie White — who she doesn't know is her half-sister, as they both share the same father. Similar to Carrie, Rachel reaches her breaking point at a party meant to humiliate her. She lets her telekinetic rage explode and begins massacring her fellow students. 7. Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976) is the sequel to Rosemary's Baby (1968) Paramount Television/ Everett Collection / Everett Collection Rosemary's Baby is considered one of the greatest horror films of all time, and since its release, there has been a 2014 miniseries remake on NBC starring Zoe Saldaña, and a 2024 Paramount+ prequel series, Apartment 7A, starring Julia Garner. However, Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby is the only direct sequel to the original movie, and it also featured Ruth Gordon (the only original cast member to return) in her Oscar-winning role as Minnie Castevet. The movie starts with Rosemary, now played by Patty Duke (replacing the great Mia Farrow), as she and her son Adrian run away from their NY apartment building to hide from the satanic cult led by husband-and-wife Roman and Minnie. Eventually, while they are fleeing, they are helped by Marjean (who is secretly a follower of Roman and Minnie), who kidnaps Adrian after getting Rosemary onto a possessed bus. The film time jumps; Marjean has raised Adrian, telling him his parents died in a car crash. Later, we see Adrian's birthday party, where Roman, Minnie, and the coven drug Adrian and begin the satanic ritual that will turn him into the Anti-Christ. Things don't go as planned, and the rest gets even more campy. It ends with Roman and Minnie's granddaughter, Ellen, giving birth to Rosemary's grandchild (Adrian's child), and there was a whole amnesia plotline that got us here. Needless to say, this was a mess that was an unworthy sequel (and I mean, I don't know what you would expect from a TV movie made in 1976). 8. Cruel Intentions 2 (2000) is the prequel to Cruel Intentions (1999) Cruel Intentions is a classic, stylish, campy, and extremely horny late '90s teen movie, and if you've seen it, you know there isn't much room for a sequel based on how it ends. So, instead, Fox ordered a prequel series called Manchester Prep, starring Amy Adams as Kathryn Merteuil and Robin Dunne as Sebastian Valmont. Only the pilot and one episode were made as it was canceled before airing, and the footage was re-edited into this direct-to-video prequel. 9. Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction (2006) is the sequel to Basic Instinct (1992) Mgm / ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection For years, there were talks of making a sequel to Basic Instinct, but nothing came of it. In 2006, we finally got one, and the film followed the seductive and manipulative crime novelist Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone reprising the role) as she becomes embroiled in another murder investigation — this time in London instead of San Francisco. The movie failed to live up to its iconic predecessor and has a score of 6% on Rotten Tomatoes. 10. Son of Mask (2005) is the sequel to The Mask (1994) New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection The movie follows Tim Avery (Jamie Kennedy), a struggling cartoonist who unknowingly comes into possession of the magical mask created by Loki, the God of Mischief. And, by just looking at the photo, I know that it was NOT a good movie. 11. The Legend of Zorro (2005) is the sequel to The Mask of Zorro (1998) Unlike most of the sequels on this list, both stars of the original film (Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones) reprised their roles in this sequel. Alejandro de la Vega (Banderas) struggles to balance his life as Zorro and his role as a husband and father, causing problems in his marriage with Elena (Zeta-Jones). After being forced to separate from his family, he discovers a sinister plot by a secret society to use a powerful explosive to sabotage California's statehood — with Elena being coerced into spying for them. Eventually, he defeats the villains and reunites with his family. Now, I put this movie on this list because I have ZERO memory of this coming out, but I do remember how wildly popular and big the first Zorro film was. So, am I the only one who has no memory of this? 12. The Jungle Book 2 (2003) is the sequel to The Jungle Book (1967) Now, as any millennial will tell you, Disney went ham in the '90s and '00s and released so many direct-to-video prequel/sequels that it was sorta the joke that you knew they were going to be bad. While there were A LOT of sequels, The Jungle Book 2 is one that I truly don't remember, and it actually got released in theaters. The movie follows Mowgli (voiced by Haley Joel Osment), who tries to adjust to living in the Man-Village and eventually decides to move back into the jungle to be with Baloo (voiced by John Goodman). However, Shere Khan, who is still alive, looks to get his revenge on Mowgli and kill him. Eventually, with the help of Baloo, Mowgli kills Shere Khan and realizes his life is in the Man-Village (and I bet you guessed that entire plot when you looked at the title of the movie). 13. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016) is the sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Weinstein Company / ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection The Netflix sequel follows legendary warrior Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), who emerges from seclusion to protect the powerful Green Destiny Sword from falling into the wrong hands. The movie holds a 23% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has this blistering review in Critics Consensus: Sword of Destiny is a lazy sequel that never justifies its own cynical existence. 14. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) is the sequel to Speed (1994) / ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection The first Speed film was a huge and unexpected hit, so a sequel being green-lit was a no-brainer. Famously, Keanu Reeves turned down reprising his role in a sequel, later saying he did not like the script, and by all accounts, this was the right call. The film follows Annie (Sandra Bullock reprising her role) and her new boyfriend, Alex (Jason Patric), aboard a luxury cruise on a romantic getaway, unaware that a vengeful cyber-terrorist, Geiger, has hijacked the ship's computer systems. Basically, this was Speed, but instead of a bus, it was a cruise ship. Many consider it one of the worst sequels ever made, and I think we have mostly forgotten that it even exists. 15. U.S. Marshals (1998) is the sequel to The Fugitive (1993) Nowadays, we don't talk much about Harrison Ford in The Fugitive, which is truly one of his BEST films and just a fantastic movie overall. Part of the reason the movie was so great is because of Tommy Lee Jones's performance as Deputy US Marshal Sam Gerard (he would go on to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for it). However, this sequel muddies that performance as it follows Gerard as he hunts down another innocent man, this time played by Wesley Snipes. 16. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003) is the prequel to Dumb and Dumber (2004) New Line Cinema / ©New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection Surprisingly, this was not a direct-to-DVD prequel. The film followed the teenage versions of Harry Dunne and Lloyd Christmas as they meet in high school. The movie was nominated for three Razzie Awards: Worst Remake or Sequel, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Screen Couple. 17. Staying Alive (1983) is the sequel to Saturday Night Fever (1977) Paramount / ©Paramount/Courtesy Everett Collection Yes, one of the most iconic and defining movies of the '70s has a sequel! And it was directed by Sylvester Stallone, who also co-wrote the screenplay!!! The movie was set six years after Saturday Night Fever, and it was about Tony Manero as he struggled to make it as a professional dancer in Manhattan. Now, this was a hit movie — grossing over $64 million (that was a lot of money for a movie in 1983) at the box office — despite the fact that it was a stinker that holds a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. 18. And lastly, Shock Treatment (1981) is the sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) 20thcentfox / ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection TBH, I had no idea that Rocky Horror had a sequel, and apparently, fans of the film disown the sequel. Now, you're probably asking yourself, "Why would they make a sequel?" Well, after Rocky Horror became a cult classic that was shown at midnight screenings all across the country, its creator, Richard O'Brien, decided to write a sequel. However, Tim Curry had no interest in returning as Frank N. Furter (who would also have to be brought back from the dead), so O'Brien then decided to focus on Brad and Janet. Most of the original characters returned, including Brad and Janet, but they were all played by different actors. The movie was set in a small town in the US, where Brad and Janet now live. The town is owned by a fast-food magnate, which also converted into a giant reality TV show. The rest of the plot I can't seem to figure out because it sounds weird and confusing even by camp movie standards.
