Prison breaks! Kindergarten cops! Angelina Jolie! These action sequels came, punched, but definitely did not conquer at the box office.
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00:00Prison Breaks, Kindergarten Cops, Angelina Jolie — these action sequels came, punched,
00:06but definitely did not conquer at the box office.
00:10When Roadhouse 2 Last Call was released in 2006, it went straight to video, and probably
00:15straight into a lot of bargain bins in the process.
00:18The sequel deserves credit, however, for at least trying to be some semblance of a continuation
00:23of the 1989 original.
00:25Last Call centers around Shane Tanner, the son of Patrick Swayze's James Dalton from
00:30the first flick.
00:31He puts up his dukes to protect his Uncle Nate's bar, the Black Pelican, from dangerous
00:36goons led by a couple guys named Wild Bill and Victor Cross.
00:40Meanwhile, Shane is also on a quest for vengeance as he tries to solve the mystery of who killed
00:45his legendary father.
00:47Roadhouse 2 never quite reaches the action-packed heights of its predecessor, but it at least
00:52makes a valiant attempt to expand the lore.
00:56Released in 1988, the original Bloodsport featured Jean-Claude Van Damme as Frank Dukes
01:00screaming like a madman as he competed in a kumite tournament and punched his adversaries
01:06in the family jewels.
01:07Eight years later, a sequel materialized, entitled Bloodsport 2, The Next Kumite.
01:13Van Damme didn't return, as this follow-up instead revolves around a new protagonist,
01:18a thief named Alex played by Daniel Bernhardt.
01:21He becomes imprisoned for stealing an ancient sword, receives training from a martial arts
01:26master, and enters an underground kumite tournament.
01:30The film also features the talents of Pat Morita of Karate Kid fame, as well as legendary
01:35character actor James Hong.
01:38Bloodsport 2 doesn't exactly have the best script in the world, as it telegraphs its
01:42every move and is about as predictable as a dog at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
01:47However, there's an unmistakable charm to being nothing more than that, and that's largely
01:52thanks to Bernhardt's committed performance and martial arts ability.
01:55"...and so Alex won the kumite and gave me the sword."
02:01Jean-Claude Van Damme experienced his own version of Back to the Future in 1994's Time
02:07Cop, which cleaned up nicely at the global box office, securing over $100 million worldwide
02:12from a $28 million budget.
02:15With such a juicy profit, it wasn't a surprise when a sequel came out in the form of 2003's
02:20direct-to-video Time Cop 2, The Berlin Decision.
02:24The follow-up takes place nearly two decades after the original, as Time Enforcement Commission
02:29agent Ryan Chang needs to stop Society for Historical Authenticity leader Brandon Miller
02:35from traveling back in time and altering history by killing Adolf Hitler.
02:39With that set-up, this movie essentially turns into a debate about how messing with important
02:44historical events can have widespread and unintentional consequences.
02:48Despite touching on a classic thought experiment, Time Cop 2 isn't likely to make anyone deeply
02:54ponder the meaning of life any time soon.
02:56But if you want to watch a B-movie time travel adventure where fists and kicks fly at a rapid
03:01pace, then you can go ahead and inject this one straight into your veins.
03:06In the John Woo-directed 1993 film Hard Target, a gloriously mulleted Jean-Claude Van Damme
03:12stars as Chance Boudreau, a snake-punching merchant who finds himself pulled into a grim
03:18plot that involves rich people hunting others for sport.
03:21What are you doing?
03:23I'm leaving a surprise for my friends.
03:26A sequel arrived 23 years later.
03:29Hard Target 2 follows the same premise and could technically be considered a reboot as
03:34well.
03:35It stars Scott Adkins as Wes Baylor, an MMA fighter tricked into thinking he's about to
03:39have a big-money fight in Myanmar when he's actually the target of a deadly hunt.
03:44This direct-to-video release didn't receive a lot of love from fans, although it did earn
03:48some praise for not trying to fool anyone into thinking it would be anything more than
03:52what its trailer promised.
03:54As Alex Paul of The Action Elite put it,
03:57"...you would be hard-pressed to name another actor with the on-screen charisma and true
04:01martial arts skills that Adkins brings to the role."
04:05When it comes right down to it, Hard Target 2 is here for a good time, not a long time.
04:102002's Half Past Dead isn't Steven Seagal's most famous or successful movie, but it's
04:16still a barrel of fun that's packed with enjoyably awful dialogue.
04:20Its 2007 sequel follows Twitch, a supporting character from the first film played by rapper
04:26Corrupt who strikes up a friendship with brawny prisoner William Burke, played by wrestling
04:31legend Bill Goldberg.
04:33The plot features a neat callback to the original, as Twitch seeks the infamous gold bricks hidden
04:38by another inmate, while he must also team up with Burke when events spiral out of control
04:43in the prison.
04:44Here's the funny thing about Half Past Dead 2.
04:46Despite less star power and an obvious lower budget, it holds a higher audience score than
04:51its predecessor on Rotten Tomatoes.
04:53It's not exactly an era-defining classic or anything like that, but it has its moments
04:58and more or less delivers on its potential.
05:00"...Now keep that nose clean.
05:02And don't worry about me."
05:05The greatest challenge of Arnold Schwarzenegger's entire career might have been rounding up
05:09a bunch of unruly kids in 1990's Kindergarten Cop.
05:13That mixture of laughs and muscle-bound action still stands the test of time three decades
05:18later.
05:19It also made serious cash at the box office, raking in over $200 million worldwide.
05:24"...It's not a tumor."
05:27Despite the money on the table, Schwarzenegger never returned for a follow-up, although a
05:30sequel did arrive without him in 2016.
05:33Kindergarten Cop 2 starred Dolph Lundgren as FBI agent Zach Reed, who goes undercover
05:39as a teacher to find a flash drive containing critical information while dealing with the
05:43rowdy children.
05:44It basically follows the same beats as the original, just with new gags and new cast
05:49members.
05:50Kindergarten Cop 2 didn't receive a lot of love from critics, although there was some
05:54praise for its star's performance, with Flickering Myth writing,
05:58"...Lundgren has fun here.
05:59He's not nearly as awkward in the wrong way as the trailer suggested.
06:03He's got the charisma to make the film watchable."
06:05"...Well, good to eat some real chocolate once in a while, huh?"
06:102009's Tekken may not have been the biggest box office bomb based on a video game, but
06:15it's not exactly fondly remembered, either.
06:17So the franchise was offered a chance at redemption in 2014 with the release of Tekken 2, Kazuya's
06:23Revenge.
06:24This is actually a prequel, as it follows the story of the young Kazuya Mishima, who
06:29is the father of the protagonist from the first film.
06:33It also features a few returning characters from the original, while the plot of an amnesiac
06:37Kazuya being turned into a killing machine only serves as a minor inconvenience in between
06:43the various fight scenes.
06:44Fans and critics weren't exactly convinced, though, seeing this as yet another Tekken
06:48film that forgets the source material it's based on.
06:52We've got yet another sequel to a Jean-Claude Van Damme action classic.
06:57Interestingly enough, 1989's Cyborg only came about because Canon Films' Spider-Man adaptation
07:02and Master of the Universe sequel didn't come to fruition, so the props and costumes
07:06were recycled to shoot an original film instead.
07:10Four years later, Cyborg 2 Glass Shadow offered fans the opportunity to step back into this
07:15universe.
07:16It features Van Damme's character and archival footage, but this story is set in the future
07:20and features Angelina Jolie as a new cyborg named Cash Reeves, who defies her creator's
07:26orders and falls in love with her trainer, played by Elias Koteas.
07:31Despite looking cheaper than a three-week-old hot dog, Cyborg 2 contains a formidable cast,
07:36which also includes Jack Palance and Billy Drago.
07:40Ultimately, Cyborg 2 falls comfortably into the category of so bad it's good.
07:45It may not be the type of movie that's winning any Oscars, but it's certainly better than
07:49Cyborg 3 The Recycler, which is the cinematic equivalent of Purgatory for the eyes and the
07:55soul.
07:56Make it or leave it
07:58Escape Plan was a pretty big deal for action fans when it came out in 2013, as it brought
08:03the legendary Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger together.
08:07They starred as security hotshot Ray Breslin and prison inmate Emil Rottmeier, respectively,
08:13who must combine their powers to break out of a prison.
08:16It got mixed reviews and did so-so at the box office, which was enough to lead to a
08:20horrendous direct-to-video sequel that came out in 2018 called Escape Plan 2 Hades.
08:27Most fans probably believed that the franchise died right then and there.
08:31However, Stallone actually received another shot at righting the wrongs of that first
08:35follow-up with 2019's Escape Plan The Extractors, which also stars Dave Bautista, Devin Sawa,
08:43and Janie King.
08:44The Extractors is unquestionably an improvement over the second film, though that's not saying
08:48much, as a rock with two drawn-on eyes and a smile would be better than that abomination.
08:53Regardless, the Escape Plan series feels a little like the Taken franchise by the third
08:59entry.
09:00If the security business keeps giving someone headaches and endangering their lives, maybe
09:04it's time for Ray Breslin to do something else with his life.
09:08Dwayne Johnson shines in 2004's Walking Tall, a remake of the 1973 vigilante flick of the
09:14same name.
09:15It was still early days in the wrestler-turned-actor's big-screen career, but his natural charisma
09:21oozes in every scene as an army vet who takes on the criminal elements of his hometown.
09:25The film ends fairly conclusively and works as a one-off story, but it actually received
09:30two sequels that both came out in 2007.
09:33The first is the Western-inspired Walking Tall The Payback, which follows Kevin Sorbo
09:39as ex-military man Nick Prescott, who uses his fists as a metaphorical broom to clean
09:44up his hometown.
09:46Much like its predecessor, The Payback didn't earn particularly glowing reviews from critics
09:51or viewers, though it was far from a disaster.
09:54Just a few months later, Walking Tall Lone Justice was released, with Sorbo returning
09:58as Nick.
09:59Now that his town is safe, he moves to another place, where he must once again get his knuckles
10:04bruised and bloody to knock some sense into people.
10:07You are clearly a bad influence."
10:10Is it a necessary sequel?
10:12Absolutely not.
10:13But hey, it exists.
10:15Starring Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell, 2003's SWAT was only loosely based on the
10:2170s TV show of the same name.
10:24The 2011 direct-to-video sequel, SWAT Firefight, holds no real connection to what came before
10:29it, choosing to focus on a new set of recruits who are trained by expert SWAT officer Paul
10:34Cutler.
10:36After a hostage dies during a mission, Cutler and his team's metal are tested, as they must
10:40learn how to function better as a unit while dealing with a looming threat.
10:45While Firefight isn't anything to write home about, it did receive a few positive reviews,
10:50and some viewers enjoyed its clichéd but comforting approach.
10:54And the franchise didn't end there, either, as a third film, SWAT Under Siege, was released
10:59in 2017, though it's also a separate story from the previous two movies.
11:04That same year, SWAT also returned to the small screen as a rebooted TV show on CBS,
11:10with its eighth season set to arrive in the fall of 2024.
11:152007's Stone Cold Steve Austin starring The Condemned wasn't exactly a huge hit, although
11:21its Hunger Games but with convicts premise found its audience among B-movie action lovers.
11:26That said, this wasn't really the kind of movie that begs for a sequel.
11:30Nonetheless, it received one in 2015, when The Condemned 2 came out.
11:36Much like the first film, the plot centers around a group of people thrown together in
11:39a singular location who are forced to fight to the death.
11:43In the lead role is WWE superstar Randy Orton, who plays the tough-as-nails Will Tanner.
11:49He's joined by other notable actors like Eric Roberts and Wes Studi.
11:54While The Condemned overcomes its narrative weaknesses through brainless fun and explosive
11:58action sequences, the sequel struggles to be as entertaining or even mildly memorable.
12:03Ultimately, this one is probably just for completists who want to watch every action
12:08movie starring wrestling legends.