dee.reid
Joined Oct 2000
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If there is one thing that "Next Friday," the sequel to the popular F. Gary Gray-directed cult-classic urban stoner comedy "Friday" (1995), proves, it's that a lot can and still does go down between Thursday and Saturday.
While it has a slightly bigger budget than the first film, this 2000 sequel is also missing several key players from "Friday," including most notably its director and (especially) Chris Tucker's bug-eyed, nasal-pitched, fast-talking stoner Smokey, who declined to reprise his role here after becoming a born-again Christian in 1997, and wanted to do less obscene films like the blockbuster "Rush Hour" series (which paired him up with Chinese martial arts superstar Jackie Chan for three movies released between 1998 and 2007).
"Next Friday" was one of the first movies that I ever saw at Hoyts (later Regal Cinemas) - which had just opened the previous summer in my Virginia hometown, and sadly closed just this past winter - with my late mother, my late aunt, and my late cousin. My, how time flies and I realize that I am the only person left alive 25 years after first seeing it in the movie theater...
Directed by yet another music video director making the gigantic leap to feature films, Steve Carr (in his directorial debut), "Next Friday" sees former N. W. A. (legends) rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube, also the film's screenwriter and producer, returning as Craig Jones, who is whisked away by his father Mr. Jones (the late John Witherspoon) from the dangerous South Central "'hood" to the relative safety and comfort of the Rancho Cucamonga suburbs, after learning that neighborhood bully Deebo (the late Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr.) has just escaped from prison with his younger brother Tyrone (Onyx lead rapper Sticky Fingaz, credited here by his legal name Kirk Jones) to get revenge on Craig for beating him up at the climax of "Friday."
Once in the suburbs, Craig is reunited with his harried cousin Day-Day (comedian Mike Epps) and sex-crazed Uncle Elroy (comedian Don "D. C." Curry) and Uncle Elroy's new, voluptuous, equally sex-crazed girlfriend Suga (Kym E. Whitley). And of course, new threats come along, too, including the next-door neighbors, the Joker Brothers, and new friends, as well, including Day-Day's white skateboarding friend and co-worker Roach (the late Justin Pierce, who tragically committed suicide six months after the film's release and is seen here fulfilling a role that in another movie would be reserved for a person of color).
"Next Friday" doesn't have much of a plot, and it relies a lot more on vulgarity and toilet humor (there's a running gag with dog poop that also somehow involves Craig's dad Mr. Jones), than it does the breezy stoner comedy with an urban twist and underlying social themes about black unemployment from the first "Friday." (The latter gave the first film a degree of social consciousness that elevated it slightly above its genre trappings.) Furthermore, the repeating of several key plot devices from the first movie, and the lack of major players from the original "Friday" also brings down the overall experience, as well, and their absence is sadly felt. The movie is not a total disappointment, however; it does have its bright spots (Kym E. Whitley's super-seductive Suga, for one; the Joker Brothers and their lovely younger sister Karla, played by Lisa Rodriguez, who also catches Craig's eye), and a hilarious sequence involving Pinky (Clifton Powell), Day-Day and Roach's greasy-haired boss at a record store.
"Next Friday" was followed by a second sequel, "Friday After Next," in 2002.
6/10.
While it has a slightly bigger budget than the first film, this 2000 sequel is also missing several key players from "Friday," including most notably its director and (especially) Chris Tucker's bug-eyed, nasal-pitched, fast-talking stoner Smokey, who declined to reprise his role here after becoming a born-again Christian in 1997, and wanted to do less obscene films like the blockbuster "Rush Hour" series (which paired him up with Chinese martial arts superstar Jackie Chan for three movies released between 1998 and 2007).
"Next Friday" was one of the first movies that I ever saw at Hoyts (later Regal Cinemas) - which had just opened the previous summer in my Virginia hometown, and sadly closed just this past winter - with my late mother, my late aunt, and my late cousin. My, how time flies and I realize that I am the only person left alive 25 years after first seeing it in the movie theater...
Directed by yet another music video director making the gigantic leap to feature films, Steve Carr (in his directorial debut), "Next Friday" sees former N. W. A. (legends) rapper-turned-actor Ice Cube, also the film's screenwriter and producer, returning as Craig Jones, who is whisked away by his father Mr. Jones (the late John Witherspoon) from the dangerous South Central "'hood" to the relative safety and comfort of the Rancho Cucamonga suburbs, after learning that neighborhood bully Deebo (the late Tommy "Tiny" Lister, Jr.) has just escaped from prison with his younger brother Tyrone (Onyx lead rapper Sticky Fingaz, credited here by his legal name Kirk Jones) to get revenge on Craig for beating him up at the climax of "Friday."
Once in the suburbs, Craig is reunited with his harried cousin Day-Day (comedian Mike Epps) and sex-crazed Uncle Elroy (comedian Don "D. C." Curry) and Uncle Elroy's new, voluptuous, equally sex-crazed girlfriend Suga (Kym E. Whitley). And of course, new threats come along, too, including the next-door neighbors, the Joker Brothers, and new friends, as well, including Day-Day's white skateboarding friend and co-worker Roach (the late Justin Pierce, who tragically committed suicide six months after the film's release and is seen here fulfilling a role that in another movie would be reserved for a person of color).
"Next Friday" doesn't have much of a plot, and it relies a lot more on vulgarity and toilet humor (there's a running gag with dog poop that also somehow involves Craig's dad Mr. Jones), than it does the breezy stoner comedy with an urban twist and underlying social themes about black unemployment from the first "Friday." (The latter gave the first film a degree of social consciousness that elevated it slightly above its genre trappings.) Furthermore, the repeating of several key plot devices from the first movie, and the lack of major players from the original "Friday" also brings down the overall experience, as well, and their absence is sadly felt. The movie is not a total disappointment, however; it does have its bright spots (Kym E. Whitley's super-seductive Suga, for one; the Joker Brothers and their lovely younger sister Karla, played by Lisa Rodriguez, who also catches Craig's eye), and a hilarious sequence involving Pinky (Clifton Powell), Day-Day and Roach's greasy-haired boss at a record store.
"Next Friday" was followed by a second sequel, "Friday After Next," in 2002.
6/10.
1995's "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" was the mandatory sequel to "Under Siege" (1992), which is one of the greatest action movies of the 1990s.
"Under Siege" also happened to be the best and greatest film - both critically and commercially - of its star, then-sixth-degree Aikido black belt Steven Seagal. It was inevitable that the success of "Under Siege" in 1992 would spawn a sequel, which was the formulaic, much-less-interesting, Geoff Murphy-directed "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory."
In "Under Siege," Seagal played ex-U. S. Navy SEAL-turned-cook Casey Ryback, who must stop a crack team of nuclear-armed terrorists who had seized control of a recently decommissioned U. S. Navy battleship in the Pacific Ocean. It was fun, action-packed, electrifying, slyly humorous and it didn't take itself all that seriously, but it showed Seagal at his peak because he was under the direction of a skilled director (Andrew Davis, who also directed Seagal's sensational 1988 debut "Above the Law") and he was sharing the screen with two deliciously over-the-top villains (played by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey).
"Under Siege 2: Dark Territory," unfortunately (and perhaps inevitably), repeats the scenario from the first film, and so many other so-called "Die Hard" knock-offs from the era. Seagal returns as Casey Ryback, and this time he is accompanying his recently orphaned teenage niece Sarah Ryback (pre-fame Katherine Heigl) onboard a Grand Continental locomotive on a cross-country train ride from Denver to Los Angeles. No sooner do the two reconcile their differences that the train is hijacked by a highly skilled team of mercenary terrorists led by crazed ex-government computer genius Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian, "Talk Radio," television's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"), and his right-hand man and leader of the mercenaries Marcus Penn (Everett McGill).
Dane, who had successfully faked his own death after having been fired by his superiors at a government/military defense agency due to his mental instability and who now wants revenge, plans to seize control of Grazer One, an orbiting, top-secret military satellite, and then threaten Washington, D. C. with nuclear annihilation. Because the train obscures any wireless computer transmissions between Dane's laptop and Grazer One while it is in motion, it's pretty much impossible to detect their location. Meanwhile, Ryback, who had escaped the initial takeover by hiding in the kitchen car's walk-in freezer - quite coincidentally, just as he had done in the first film - must now fight the mercenaries along with reluctant train porter Bobby Zachs (Morris Chestnut, "Boyz N the Hood") and save Sarah and the rest of the hostages, who have all been herded into the train's last two passenger cars.
As stated before, "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" (which derives its subtitle from the real-world term used by the American railroad industry to refer to areas of the U. S. where there are no train signals or radio communications), is basically a carbon-copy of the first film, with some pretty top-notch production values - even though there are some fairly obvious flaws IN that production. Seagal is again in top form, doing his usual shoot-outs, foot chases, bomb-making, and Aikido martial arts mastery against the bad guys - who, again, tend to out-class the film's star; although the villains are not as interesting as Tommy Lee Jones or Gary Busey from the first "Under Siege," Eric Bogosian brings a gleefully unhinged menace and uniquely sharp sense of comic timing to his role that makes him the most fun character in the whole movie.
"Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" is definitely an inferior sequel, one that shows that its aging star was certainly on a career decline following an amazing start with "Above the Law" and high point with 1992's "Under Siege." Seagal would finish out the decade with the following year's "The Glimmer Man" (1996) and 1997's "Fire Down Below," and would make a brief comeback with the second post-"Matrix" "rap-fu" entry "Exit Wounds" (2001).
5/10.
"Under Siege" also happened to be the best and greatest film - both critically and commercially - of its star, then-sixth-degree Aikido black belt Steven Seagal. It was inevitable that the success of "Under Siege" in 1992 would spawn a sequel, which was the formulaic, much-less-interesting, Geoff Murphy-directed "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory."
In "Under Siege," Seagal played ex-U. S. Navy SEAL-turned-cook Casey Ryback, who must stop a crack team of nuclear-armed terrorists who had seized control of a recently decommissioned U. S. Navy battleship in the Pacific Ocean. It was fun, action-packed, electrifying, slyly humorous and it didn't take itself all that seriously, but it showed Seagal at his peak because he was under the direction of a skilled director (Andrew Davis, who also directed Seagal's sensational 1988 debut "Above the Law") and he was sharing the screen with two deliciously over-the-top villains (played by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey).
"Under Siege 2: Dark Territory," unfortunately (and perhaps inevitably), repeats the scenario from the first film, and so many other so-called "Die Hard" knock-offs from the era. Seagal returns as Casey Ryback, and this time he is accompanying his recently orphaned teenage niece Sarah Ryback (pre-fame Katherine Heigl) onboard a Grand Continental locomotive on a cross-country train ride from Denver to Los Angeles. No sooner do the two reconcile their differences that the train is hijacked by a highly skilled team of mercenary terrorists led by crazed ex-government computer genius Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian, "Talk Radio," television's "Law & Order: Criminal Intent"), and his right-hand man and leader of the mercenaries Marcus Penn (Everett McGill).
Dane, who had successfully faked his own death after having been fired by his superiors at a government/military defense agency due to his mental instability and who now wants revenge, plans to seize control of Grazer One, an orbiting, top-secret military satellite, and then threaten Washington, D. C. with nuclear annihilation. Because the train obscures any wireless computer transmissions between Dane's laptop and Grazer One while it is in motion, it's pretty much impossible to detect their location. Meanwhile, Ryback, who had escaped the initial takeover by hiding in the kitchen car's walk-in freezer - quite coincidentally, just as he had done in the first film - must now fight the mercenaries along with reluctant train porter Bobby Zachs (Morris Chestnut, "Boyz N the Hood") and save Sarah and the rest of the hostages, who have all been herded into the train's last two passenger cars.
As stated before, "Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" (which derives its subtitle from the real-world term used by the American railroad industry to refer to areas of the U. S. where there are no train signals or radio communications), is basically a carbon-copy of the first film, with some pretty top-notch production values - even though there are some fairly obvious flaws IN that production. Seagal is again in top form, doing his usual shoot-outs, foot chases, bomb-making, and Aikido martial arts mastery against the bad guys - who, again, tend to out-class the film's star; although the villains are not as interesting as Tommy Lee Jones or Gary Busey from the first "Under Siege," Eric Bogosian brings a gleefully unhinged menace and uniquely sharp sense of comic timing to his role that makes him the most fun character in the whole movie.
"Under Siege 2: Dark Territory" is definitely an inferior sequel, one that shows that its aging star was certainly on a career decline following an amazing start with "Above the Law" and high point with 1992's "Under Siege." Seagal would finish out the decade with the following year's "The Glimmer Man" (1996) and 1997's "Fire Down Below," and would make a brief comeback with the second post-"Matrix" "rap-fu" entry "Exit Wounds" (2001).
5/10.