Working the Weekend with Luke-Sequels! Sequels! Sequels!

I know so many of you that were brokenhearted last weekend when you came to Binge Media and didn’t see your normal Sunday edition of Working the Weekend with Luke. Blame Comcast for that. But not to worry. I promised you five November columns, so in addition to this special Saturday edition, I’ll be back tomorrow as well. But for today, I give you what I was going to write about last weekend. Sequels, sequels, and more sequels.

DUMB AND DUMBER TO

I’ll start with Dumb & Dumber To, only because it was released yesterday. I’ll be the first to admit that I was a fan of the original. I had become a fan of Jim Carrey over the years, mainly due to his work on In Living Color. I loved Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and I was fifteen years old. I thought he was awesome. He was funny and charismatic and really got your attention when he was onscreen. I wasn’t sure how the Jeff Daniels pairing would work out, but they really seemed to have a good chemistry and the movie just worked. Lauren Holly was pretty hot at the time (remember when she was in movies) and there was a good supporting cast to boot. There were a ton of hysterical moments, ones that actually made you laugh out loud.  But over the last twenty years, how many times have you actually wished for a sequel? In my opinion, the story had wrapped itself up nicely and I’ve never thought that the movie necessitated one. But after a lackluster decade, I guess the Farrelly brothers thought differently. I’m not saying I won’t ever watch it, but I certainly won’t be rushing to the theater to give them any money, especially after the trailer left me less than impressed.

JOE DIRT 2

Again, is this really necessary? I enjoyed the original. The role fit David Spade nicely and even more so than Dumb & Dumber, the supporting cast was crazy strong here. You had Dennis Miller, Kid Rock, Jaime Pressly, Fred Ward, Brittany Daniel, and of course, Christopher Walken. I can’t say I was blown away the first time I saw Joe Dirt, but over the years I’ve come to really enjoy it. It’s got a lot of funny moments, but also actually has more heart to it than you might think. But once again, the story had wrapped up and I’ve never felt that I needed more Joe Dirt in my life. But word came down recently that the sequel is just about ready to go and will be produced by Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison production company. Seeing as this movie may never actually make it to the theatre, but instead only to Crackle, basically an online TV station, I won’t feel too bad about not spending money to see this one either.

SUPER TROOPERS 2

The boys at Broken Lizard are basically the M. Night Shyamalan of comedy. You come out of the gate with an amazing piece of work and continue to decline as you go forward. Outside of Beerfest, there hasn’t been anything in the past thirteen years that Broken Lizard has put out that I’ve liked, except for Bill Paxton in Club Dread. Come on, you know “PinaColadaburg” was hysterical. So I’m not quite sure how to feel about the fact that Super Troopers 2 is a go. There’s no doubting that the original is great. I will admit that I’ve wanted a sequel to be done, because there actually is somewhere to go with these characters, especially with the way that the first one ended. Who wouldn’t want more of this?

FURIOUS 7

When The Fast and the Furious franchise started thirteen years ago, I really wasn’t as excited as some people were. I don’t pretend to know a damn thing about cars, and a movie with Paul Walker and Vin Diesel as the headliners didn’t do anything at all for me. To me, Vin Diesel was basically a robot and with all due respect, it’s not like Paul Walker was ever going to win an Oscar. So I avoided the franchise for years. But I specifically remember one Sunday afternoon being hungover like crazy with nothing of substance on television and seeing that the first two movies were playing back to back. With a “what the hell, I’ll give it a shot” attitude, I sat and watched fast cars and bad acting and the under-appreciated on the hot girl scale Jordana Brewster and I was hooked. Hell, I’ll admit that it just watched 2 Fast 2 Furious just this morning on Spike. The movies kept coming and while the third wasn’t that great, the franchise has grown into this crazy phenomenon. With all the people they’ve added to the movies, such as “The Rock” (I won’t call him Dwayne) and Gal Gadot and others, I’ve loved each and every sequel since they got the original crew back together. They’re movies that you can just sit back for two hours and enjoy. You don’t have to think or over-analyze anything. You can just enjoy some fast-paced action flicks and move on with your day. Add Jason Statham as the villain for Furious 7 and Kurt Russell as well and I’m in for what will probably be the last entry in this extremely fun franchise.

TOY STORY 4

Honestly, I don’t quite know how to feel about Toy Story 4. If you’re familiar with my recent trilogy countdown, then you know exactly how much I enjoy the current trilogy. If you haven’t read it, click HERE to check it out and then come back.

Welcome back…see what I mean. I love the Toy Story franchise. They’re not just good animated movies. They’re just damn good movies. The writing is absolutely brilliant and in my opinion, the movies improved each time. While Toy Story was great, Toy Story 2 was amazing, and Toy Story 3 is arguably one of the best movies ever made. So it stands to reason that Toy Story 4 will be better than the previous three. But I just don’t know how that’s possible. The ending of Toy Story 3 is one of the best endings to a franchise and in my humble opinion should just be left alone. But who am I to tell anyone not to go ahead and make a billion dollars? Because that’s what the next movie will do. Whether you like it or not, this movie is happening. We can only hope that the legacy isn’t tarnished. But don’t worry. We’ve got three more years to argue about it.

That will do it for the special Saturday edition of Working the Weekend with Luke. I’ll be back tomorrow for another entry, so until then, feel free to give me your thoughts on all of these sequels. How many will you be watching? Comment below or follow me on Twitter @THElukenorris. And to show you that not all sequels are a good idea, here’s a clip from the insanely awful 90210 that the CW attempted.