Vin Diesel in 'Fast & Furious' Fast & Furious: They didn't spend too much time coming up with that title, did they? Perhaps it will become a trend. Universal Pictures
 

by Linda Holmes

Now that The People have spoken with their enormous wads of cash, it's clear that making a sequel to The Fast And The Furious — and calling it something really inventive, like, um, Fast & Furious — is no barrier to success.

Before this, of course, there had already been two follow-ups to The Fast And The Furious: 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast And the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Neither of those is a particularly snappy title, but for sheer lack of effort, they cannot match the approach of, "What if we take out the small words and leave just the important words? That's a different title, right?"

And that got us thinking that in some cases, removing the little words might not only be workable; it might support the development of entirely new sequel concepts.

The Original: The Sting
The Sequel: Sting

In this follow-up to the Newman-Redford Best Picture winner, the popular ex-frontman of The Police conceives a scheme in which it turns out that his new "Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting" beard hides a map to the location of a stash of diamonds.

Classics and a special theatrical bonus, after the jump...

The Original: Return Of The Jedi
The Sequel: Return The Jedi

The fourth Star Wars movie might have been altogether different if had focused on Luke Skywalker hiding under a bed before being dragged away by criminals and later rescued by Liam Neeson.

The Original: The Grapes Of Wrath
The Sequel: Grapes' Wrath

Like Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes, but with grapes.

The Original: A Few Good Men
The Sequel: Few Good Men

You know how it ended for Colonel Jessep, but what about sassy Joanne Galloway? Join her as she and her friends hit Manhattan and go shoe-shopping, hunting for love, hope, and the ability to finally handle the truth.

The Original: The Quick And The Dead
The Sequel: Quick And Dead

The only good thing about zombies is that they are forced to lumber toward you in that arms-out fashion. It gives you time to get away. This is the story of the terrifying day the zombies got roller skates.

SPECIAL THEATRICAL BONUS

The Original: David Mamet's Speed-The-Plow
The Sequel: David Mamet's Speed-Plow

The town of Bemidji, Minnesota has been a docile place, but when the mysterious town recluse spends months in his garage welding, they all come to realize he is building a weapon of destruction that will come for them all, and that they are in big trouble if his pickup ever gets a jump.


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categories: Movies

9:53 - April 10, 2009

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