If movies can have sequels, why can’t songs? After all, the film industry stole the idea of remakes from the music world (this is pure speculation). And Aerosmith did create a song trilogy (Amazin’, Cryin’, and Crazy).
I don’t know who’s to blame for the concept of reboots…
Anywhoistoblameforsampling, here are a few songs that are follow-ups – see if you can guess the originals:
1) The Limousines’ Internet Killed the Video Star
2) Veruca Salt’s Volcano Girls
3) Rihanna and Eminem’s Love the Way You Lie (Part II)
4) Third Eye Blind’s Semi-Charmed Life
5) Peter Schilling’s Major Tom (Coming Home)
(As usual, answers – and some explaining – after the jump.)Read More
I’m ashamed to admit that I have a copy of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Stadium Arcadium and… I’ve never listened to it. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that they had a song called Especially in Michigan:
Apparently, lead singer Anthony Kiedis is from Grand Rapids, hence the tune’s existence. Albeit the ditty could have existed without him coming from here. (Filmmaker Paul Schrader is also from Grand Rapids, and he set half of Hardcore there. But that’s neither here nor there. Well, I guess it is here… moving on…)
What I’m equally surprised by is that nothing locally ever uses it for promotion. I suppose it doesn’t contain the most uplifting lyrics in the world, with gems like this:
Lions and Tigers come running just to steal your luck…
I guess the moral of the story is I’d rather listen to anything other than more Rebecca Black…
I’ve only recently begun to be a Detroit Lions fan. It wasn’t that I’m of the fair-weathered ilk. It was just that I didn’t follow football until I started getting season tickets five or so years ago. Now I’m officially hooked… and on the team that holds the most worst records!
But that’s neither here nor there. What this is about is preventing the Madden Curse from effecting our breakout star – Ndamukong Suh. If you’re not familiar with the curse (or curses in general), here’s the gist of it:
Players that appear on the cover of any Madden game have bad luck.
Where you play a part, faithful readers, is in the online vote. A bracket hosted by ESPN can be accessed by clicking here. Vote for Green Bay’s Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Aaron Rodgers… not our defensive Wunderkind, Suh. Don’t make him come to your house…
I love having Netflix. You set into place a stream of consciousness, and you await your next surprise. Sometimes the arrivals are pleasant; sometimes they’re downright awful. Hence today’s Awful Battle.
If I didn’t (or at least attempt to) watch these back-to-back, I wouldn’t have let you know that I had Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend in my queue. Here’s the breakdown of the plot (via Netflix):
While on a safari in Africa, a zoologist and her husband (Sean Young and William Katt) stumble on a family of dinosaurs. They want to share their remarkable discovery with the world but their attempt to bring back evidence is thwarted by a rival scientist (Patrick McGoohan). Danger and adventure await the couple, who only want to help these long-lost animals survive even longer and prevent their exploitation.
It’s a kid-movie I saw once as a kid and now as an adult. Here’s a taste:
Again, I wouldn’t have much to say if I didn’t try to watch Exterminator City after it. Here’s Netflix’s breakdown:
A robot detective tracks an inhuman killing machine in this action-packed story set in the near future. It’s the year 2027, and Astro City is being terrorized by a robot pest-controller moonlighting as a serial killer. With the list of victims growing longer each day, a steely robot homicide detective and an evil robot psychiatrist track the heartless killer on a path that leads them into a sinister world of technological horrors.
Sounds like it could be good-bad, right? I initially entered it into my queue after seeing this video a long ways back:
Looks like it could be good-bad, right?
Wrong. Exterminator City is quite possibly the most unwatchable thing I’ve ever – EVER! (the caps mean I’m serious, not yelling) – witnessed.
It’s essentially a booby flick. Not a soft-core sci-fi film, mind you. A booby flick. All I saw as I fast-forwarded through was topless woman after topless woman, with robot shit like the above sword fight in between, and squished bugs. I didn’t even make it to that sword fight, fast-forward or otherwise. The DVD stayed in my player 15 minutes, tops.
But after witnessing that horror, it made me take note of three similarities between Baby and Exterminator City.
The puppets look horrible. I do lament the days before CGI, but the T-rex and raptors in Jurassic Park were animatronics most times, and they looked great… only 8 years after Baby.
The plots are nonsense. Exterminator City doesn’t even stand a chance here. But in Baby, as the married heroes are trying to keep their hatchling safe, what do they do? Basically, they fuck in the middle of the jungle and lose track of Baby! This is what gives the movie its “story”! A kid’s movie!
There are naked boobies and a murder in the first five minutes. Again, no-brainer for one. Very strange for a kid’s film! (The boobies belong to African dancers, but still…)
Motion capture is one of the laziest inventions in cinema ever. It’s advanced rotoscoping for all intents and purposes. (You can click on the links if you don’t know what any of that means.)
AnyCGI, I had a weird dream that Steven Spielberg was working with Oprah Winfrey to make a film version of her life story. The catch? She’d play herself throughout using motion capture. This is my (Not So) Artistic Representation of how she would look as a child:
She appears more alien than child. Whoops. Which should work for Spielberg...
Let’s get right into business, since this is overdone overdue.
Charlie Sheen and Jon Cryer’s Shared History
Two and a Half Men wasn’t Sheen and Cryer’s first shindig together. That would have been 1991’s Hot Shots!
Everyone's thinking - "You were in that movie?"
Charlie Sheen and Angus T. Jones’ Shared History
Sheen and young co-star Jones each appeared in two different movies with the same title. Can you guess? No peeking below–too late.
The answer is... "The Rookie"
Charlie Sheen and Michael J. Fox’s Shared History
Everybody already knows that Sheen replaced Fox on ABC’s Spin City. But did you know that Fox had it in his contract that should he leave the show, he’d still get paid? And did you know that Sheen had this same “Michael J. Fox Clause” in his own contract? You did? Okay. Then did you realize that Sheen’s character in the Wall Street films was named Bud Fox? Is that enough of a Coinkydink or Coinkydonk for ya?
(SIDENOTE: There are no songs about Thursday, so I had to go with the band. I think Ms. Black really missed an opportunity here. She could have had the only song about Thursday – even though Thursday’s aren’t as fun-fun-fun – and then the last day of the week could have been left to The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love.)
With The Hangover 2 soon being downloaded on your home computer arriving at your local cinema, I started thinking about other films that have only had one sequel.
Blame it on public desire; blame it on the cast a crew’s fondness for one another; blame it on studio greed; Blame It on Rio. When certain movies do so surprisingly well sequels are an inevitability. But most times, two is one too many.
Let’s take a look at films from the 80’s (and late 70’s and early 90’s) where sequelling stopped at two. These got out of the game while the getting was still good, probably because the sequels were… not that good:
Airplane! / Airplane II: The Sequel
American Graffiti / More American Graffiti
An American Werewolf in London / An American Werewolf in Paris
Arthur / Arthur 2: On the Rocks
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure / Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey
The Blue Lagoon / Return to the Blue Lagoon
Breakin’ / Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo
Caddyshack / Caddyshack II
Cocoon / Cocoon: The Return
Creepshow / Creepshow 2
Fletch / Fletch Lives
The Fly / The Fly II
48 Hours / Another 48 Hours
Fright Night / Fright Night Part II
F/X / F/X 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion
Grease / Grease 2
Gremlins / Gremlins 2: The New Batch
Ghostbusters / Ghostbusters 2
Mannequin / Mannequin 2: On the Move
Romancing the Stone / Jewel of the Nile
Saturday Night Fever / Staying Alive
Saturday the 14th / Saturday the 14th Strikes Back
Short Circuit / Short Circuit 2
Stakeout / Another Stakeout
The Sting / The Sting II
Teen Wolf / Teen Wolf Too
Three Men and a Baby / Three Men and a Little Lady
Weekend at Bernie’s / Weekend at Bernie’s II
Wayne’s World / Wayne’s World 2
Young Guns / Young Guns 2
Zapped! / Zapped Again!
Beyond that time period, it doesn’t seem there were a lot of other movies that stopped at two movies. Or were there?
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