10 Movies You Totally Forgot Had Sequels

You won't know it just by reading the title but The Evening Star is in fact a sequel to the award winning dramedy Terms of Endearment. Yes, you read that right.

Terms of Endearment swept the Oscars winning nearly all the major awards, including Best Picture and also Shirley MacLaine’s first ever Oscar for best actress, having previously being nominated four times for the title but never claiming it. It’s not really the typical ‘epic’ kind of Best Picture winner but instead is a more personal look into the mother-daughter relationship between Aurora and Emma, featuring Jack Nicholson who steals the show as usual. If you’re familiar with Terms of Endearment, you’ll know that the ending iss what puts it directly in the category for weepy movies.

The Follow-up, called The Evening Star, is utterly pointless and really adds nothing to the original. It is surprising that they managed to get both Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson to return for a sequel (the latter is just a cameo appearance, granted) and as you may have guessed, Shirley’s performance carries the entire movie along. It focuses on Aurora Greenway and her relationship with her troublesome grandchildren.

James L. Brooks’ lack of involvement is evident as the writing is underdeveloped. The story tries to have the same level of heart and emotion as the original but ends up coming across as sappy and manipulative. I do concede that the ending is genuinely quite moving but it's only because Maclaine is doing all the work.