Top 10 Sequels Null and Void Standards

Null and Voids Criteria:

Yes we know your movie isn’t on our list, but basically these are what Null and Void deem worthy. I looked at movies and their ability to stop me in whatever I'm doing and can sit down and watch them, anytime.

10. Rocky IV  

Special K - There are many theories why Communism collapsed, after much research I have determined it was Rocky IV.  After against all odds he stands up to Drago and beats him and earns the respect of the Russian people they realize that you can’t fuck with America so just embrace it.  

And Rocky’s speech was the true reason the Berlin wall came down, check it out.  In addition we just the tragic end of Apollo creed which shocked everyone.  I would place this as the 2nd best Rocky overall.  Plus with lines like this “If he dies, he dies”(Thick Russian Accent) you just can’t lose.

High-C - USA ! USA ! USA ! You can’t  ignore the cold war undertones in possibly the best Rocky movie ever. USA versus Russia in the ultimate showdown. Can you say training montage !! The ultimate underdog story gets better with yet another david versus goliath story.

9. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Special K - Dare I say anything more with James Bond and Han Solo banging the same chick. Plus we found out he was named after the dog. Oh and Fuck the Nazis.

High-C - While I liked temple of doom, and many thought it to be on the hokey side, there are no arguments when the Last Crusade came out.  It had the perfect blending of mythos and adventure that makes the Indiana Jones series so great.

8. Spiderman 2

Special K - My favorite superhero movie until the Dark Knight cleaned its clock.  No mopey Peter Parker origin story everyone was sick of that.  We wanted web slinging and we got it.  Plus out of all the actors that played villains in the spiderman movies Alfred Molina(Doc Oct) is probably the most sympathetic and understandable.  

Parker comes to terms with who he is, a hero, and realizes he needs to man up with Mary Jane, I would too if they chose a hotter actress, and he became the hero we deserved at the time.  Plus that train scene where her fights Doc Oc and saves the people is sweet and sadly Spiderman has been downhill since.

High-C - SPIDA-MAN ! Let me say that Doctor Octopus was done so well, it put my initial skepticism at ease. Superhero special effects where at its pinnacle with this movie. Coherent story, great villain, awesome action and superb special effects made this the  Spiderman 1 showed us a good spiderman movie could be made. Spiderman 2 perfected it.

7. Casino Royale

Special K - Let us not forget the scene where he comes out of the water in his bathing suit which was turned into an ice cream. I have never seen High-C lick something that fast.

High-C - After Goldeneye the Bond series was on the decline, getting stale. While prior there were many great bond sequels to chose from, I picked casino royale since it went with such a turn in the series. A Blonde bond ? How can this be ?  Another factor was that I was also much younger to really appreciate the other Bonds prior to Pierce Bronson. Not to say I don’t appreciate them, (Sean connery, may be considered still the best bond)  

Casino Royal starts with a bang and keeps going.  Daniel Craig delivers and makes me believe he is a badass all the way through. Even the lull portion of the film (well possible lull) the card game, is still filled with suspense and intensity. And Eva Green is dirty hot with big knockers.

          If you never have had a vesper, they are actually really good. 

6.  Borne Ultimatum

Special K - Well if you like fast shaky cam action and a convoluted story then you love the Bourne movies. I am not really a fan of this series since they seem like the same movie all over again just with new secrets and a new old white person trying to cover up shit. Out of all the Bourne movies this one is the shakiest and most convoluted so this is naturally the winner of these movies.

High-C - How can you not like the American James Bond ? There is a reason this series is on TV all the time.. its great. The action and precision that Bourne takes was refreshing and reinvigorated the whole spy genre. Yes some of the shaky cam gets annoying, but when you can actually see the fights, they are hardcore and fully believable. Plus the car chases are awesome.

5.  Die Hard with a Vengeance

Special K - Simon says that this movie was much more of a light hearted Die Hard than the first 2. Interracial Cop Buddy Comedy's are always more easy going. Plus that classic weight sensitive water bomb has been on numerous high school math tests since. Also having two more awfully bad movies with a possible future one in motion make this movie look that much better.

High-C - Sam Jackson, and Bruce Willi ! While die hard 2 didn’t totally suck, it wasn’t the sequel we deserved. What we needed was some black/white comedy action ! Casting Sam Jackson here made this movie an instant hit.  

The buddy movie set in NYC made this action packed story thrill the audiences and have the relation with the common man. What made the first movie so good is you had an unsuspecting action hero. What made this one so good, is you added an unsuspecting but perfect partner.

4.  Aliens

Special K - People of a certain age prefer Alien, its a slower and more methodical almost Hitchcockian space horror movie, not bad mind you, but for people who love a little more action Aliens is the movie for you.  Wall to wall Aliens compared to the one of the first movie.  Space marines vs Aliens the ultimate showdown.  

It has exploding aliens, face melting marines, chest bursting, an alien queen, a creepy little kid, plus it has a tough ass Latina which is a staple of the 80’s movie.  Last but not least John Connor’s dad(Michael Biehn) is there, one of the few men who have fought a terminator and an alien and survived neither.  

High-C -  While there is no Ripley galavanting in her panties, Aliens took the the series down a slightly different  path in an awesome action packed horror movie.  It expanded on the creatures themselves and left me shitting my pants as a kid.  It was neat to see how the pace was drastically changed and still manages to satisfy.

3.  Dark Knight

Special k- I personally was not that big a fan of Batman Begins, High-C loved it, me not so much. Sure it was gritty and dark and much better than the Schumacher ones, but it just felt meh to me. From poor casting to a bad guy switcheroo, I really wasn't expecting much going into the Dark Knight. Then I saw that 10 minute trailer and I was hooked. Honestly I might be as brazen to say this but they really should name this movie The Joker. He really steals the show and led the action around for the whole movie. Sadly we will never know if Ledger could follow up his performance since he passed away before the movie even premiered

High-C - Greatest superhero movie ever ? Quite possibly so ! Batman Begins gave us a taste what a serious Batman movie could be like. (Go to hell joel schumacher) Then with the Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan blew our pants off with a movie that had one of the best performances by a villain that i can remember. Heath Ledger’s Joker was unparalleled. Yes there has been other portrayals, but his performance alone as the Joker, I believe is unmatched.  

The overall gritty tone, great action and Nolan's take on expanding the Batman universe left us with wanting even more ! This was the Batman Fans Sequel that they needed and deserved.

Even though I never fully got the whole seeing through walls with cell phones ?

2.  Empire Strikes Back

Special K - The Holy Trilogy, the one that inspired a generation, out of the three one stands alone.  The Empire Strikes Back in my mind is greatest of all sequels.  After a decisive victory in A New Hope things things were looking peachy for the rebel alliance, oh boy were they wrong.  Some of the things that make Empire so good in order: Darth Vader is Luke’s father, Han in Carbonite, Luke loses his hand, and the baddest mofo in the galaxy LANDDDOOO.  

The greatest thing about a trilogy is that the 2nd one can end in a depressingly gloomy way, which in my opinion is a breath of fresh air.  Empire also included one of the most famous characters in all of the movies, Yoda.  That green bastard, that baddest Jedi in the galaxy, is like 2 feet tall and he didn’t even swing a lightsaber but in my mind there would be no Mr. Miyagi if there was no Yoda.

High-C -  I am your father.... what else do you want to say here ? The darkest star wars and possibly the best. What a twist ! Still shocks people to this day.

Kids love it too....

1. Terminator 2

Special k - There is not much to say about Terminator 2 that High-C hasn’t mentioned.  Given Arnold's $15-million salary and his total of 700 words of dialog, he was paid $21,429 per word, but those words are possibly the most memorable

High-C - Not only is this the best sequel on our list, this also possibly has spawned the best swede known to man. Swede Definition - The summarized recreation of popular pop-culture films using limited budgets and a camcorder.

But back to the movie, not often do you see a movie surpass the original, but with T2, I don’t think you have a finer sequel.  Getting to see Arnold semi naked again was all I needed to get going once more!

This movie had it all, huge actor, great story, good twists, homages to the original, and big time special effects, which kind of still holds up today. At the time there was no movie more expensive and so grandiose, but this managed to corral all the hype and delivered with some of the best one liners in Arnold’s Career. (No problemo .. Dick wad) Albeit, “I’ll be back” from the original is still probably the greatest of all time.

I could probably write about this movie for days, but to keep it to the point, this is a fan favorite and the Null and Void team quote this movie enough for our listeners to know it would be our top spot.