15 Laziest Movie Sequels Of All Time

10. Escape From L.A. (1996)

Paramount

John Carpenter's cult B-movie Escape from New York is one of the director's best works, a thinly-disguised Western that offered both action and satire, as well as introducing audiences to Kurt Russell's iconic Snake Plissken. A minor commercial hit in 1981, it was a full 15 years before the sequel arrived, but unfortunately, it wasn't a patch on the original.

The basic plot of Escape from New York saw the island of Manhattan as a maximum-security prison, with Snake sent in to rescue the President whose plane had crashed in the danger zone. The sequel - as you can probably guess from the title - sees the character sent into the island of Los Angeles to acquire a MacGuffin that has the power to shut down the world's electronic technology. It seems strange that the sequel had spent over a decade in development when you consider it has almost exactly the same plot, albeit with a few changes.

Whereas the first movie cost just $6m, Escape from L.A. was given a $50m budget, a move that backfired spectacularly when it tanked at the box office and earned just $25.4m. Rehashing the first movie and offering little in the way of originality, the sequel pales in comparison to its narratively-similar and all-round better predecessor.

Contributor

I don't do social media, so like or follow me in person but please maintain a safe distance or the authorities will be notified. Don't snap me though, I'll probably break. I was once labelled a misogynist on this very site in a twenty paragraph-long rant for daring to speak ill of the Twilight franchise. I stand by what I said, it's crap.