Guns (1990) and Sequels That Lose What Made the Original Special

The idea of a sequel can be daunting to a creative team. How much of the sequel should be recycled ideas from the original film? There should be some sort of consistency. The audience connected to the original because of the story that was told and the spectacle of what they saw. There was a formula to the original that clicked. Some of that formula should be present if the creative team expects the audience to return for another outing.

During the process of making the sequel, a decision must be made about what direction to take the franchise. What made the original movie click must be taken into consideration. That magic feeling that only movies can create must be replicated. However, it isn’t always that easy. The creative team could pull the wrong thing. They could make a sequel that feels like they didn’t understand what made the other movie work. That’s where we get into the subject movie of this post.

Guns was a 1990 sequel within the Triple B movie series. If you’re reading this far into Sunday “Bad” Movies, you must already be familiar with the Triple B series. This isn’t my first rodeo with it. Malibu Express kicked it off. Hard Ticket to Hawaii took it to new heights. Picasso Trigger broadened the locations, and Savage Beach… Well, that one was a movie. Now I’ve gotten to the fifth film and my only real thought about it was that it lost what made the rest of the movies special.

Maybe I should get into the story a little bit. Donna (Dona Speir) and her new partner, Nicole (Roberta Vasquez), were hot on the trail of Juan Degas (Erik Estrada), a gun-runner who attempted to assassinate Nicole. They teamed up with Shane Abilene (Michael J. Shane), Edy (Cynthia Brimhall), Bruce (Bruce Penhall), and a few other secret agents to stop the weapons smuggling and Juan. It was as action-packed and sexy as any Triple B movie so far.

Yet, there was something Guns was missing. There was a reason I thought it didn’t understand what made the other movies in the Triple B series special. There was sex in the Triple B movies before this. That’s for sure. There was action. Andy Sidaris, the director, loved his babes, bombs, and bullets. The other movies also had a weird sense of humour that didn’t seem as apparent in this fifth film. Where was the humour?

Let’s go back to the beginning of the franchise to see where the humour was throughout it. One of the biggest running gags in the Triple B films was the inept gunslinging of the Abilene family. None of them could properly shoot a gun. I believe it was specifically moving targets that they couldn’t hit. Cody was bad during target practice in Malibu Express and had to be bailed out in the field by Beverly. In Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Rowdy could only hit moving targets with a rocket launcher. Travis Abilene, the member of the family from Picasso Trigger, couldn’t shoot anyone during the boat chase and had to have Pantera save his butt. Shane wasn’t a big enough part of Savage Beach to really have an impact. The Abilene family were a bunch of bumbling idiots when it came to firearms. I don’t remember that being the case in Guns.

There were also the wacky storylines that Andy Sidaris put into the first four Triple B movies. Malibu Express had Cody getting into street races with a hillbilly family. Every race was goofy. And then there was June Khnockers trying to hook up with Cody while he outran a helicopter. Hard Ticket to Hawaii had the cancer snake and the sports interviews. Picasso Trigger had Taryn shooting off a bunch of funny dialogue and bad guys who were bumbling and fumbling around. Then there was Savage Beach with the Japanese soldier. I’m not going to sit here and write that it was great comedy. I just appreciate that it lightened the mood.

Guns didn’t have that comedic side to it. Everything was serious or melodramatic. A franchise that had four movies that tried to be fun and funny dropped the funny. The action was still fun. The interactions between the characters no longer had that same energy, though. The comedy was taken out of the writing, with Guns not having a side story or side character to lighten the mood. The comedy was taken out of the performances, with Guns not having Hope Marie Carlton. Or even Harold Diamond, who last showed up in Picasso Trigger. Guns missed out on that one integral part of the earlier movies, feeling like it missed out on what made the rest of the Triple B movies feel special.

There have been other examples of sequels that didn’t understand why previous movies worked. Earlier this year, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera was released. It was a fine enough movie with a thrilling heist near the end. Yet, it completely changed the formula for the franchise. The first movie had been a cat-and-mouse style heist movie about a group of dirty cops going after a group of bank robbers. That cat-and-mouse story was what really drove Den of Thieves forward. Rather than continue the cat-and-mouse of it all, the sequel put the leader of the dirty cops with the survivor of the robbers to create a sort of super team. Sure, it worked and was entertaining. It also wasn’t what made the original work.

You could also look at Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle for a more Sunday “Bad” Movies centric example. When Birdemic: Shock and Terror came out, there was one thing that really stood out about it. The team behind it put effort into it. Sure, it was terrible. The effects were bad. The acting might have been worse. The attempt at a romantic storyline fell flatter than a Tom Brady football in the NFL playoffs (cue Family Guy cutaway gag). But there was effort put into it. They tried to make something decent. They just happened to fail. Some people felt like Birdemic 2: The Resurrection didn’t recapture the magic because they were trying to make a bad movie. That doesn’t matter to me. They tried. That was the important thing in the franchise. What the third movie failed to do was try. Just from a plain filmmaking standpoint. Doubles who looked nothing like the actors. Shots that varied in exposure from one to the next. The filmmaking was leagues worse than the already bad filmmaking because they stopped trying. That was where Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle lost sight of what made the other movies work. They made a no effort sequel and it showed.

Now, the one thing I want to mention about this idea of a sequel not understanding what came before is that it’s not necessarily the story being changed up. It’s more of a feeling. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift might seem like a movie that didn’t understand what made the franchise special. The two movies previous had been about a driver going undercover in a criminal organization on behalf of a police force. Tokyo Drift wasn’t that. But it still captured the essence of The Fast and the Furious in its own way. It took the idea that the original was a movie that people loved, rewritten into a car movie. The Fast and the Furious was essentially Point Break with cars. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift was essentially The Karate Kid with cars. It also involved the underground racing scene and some criminal activity. As much as it might seem out of place on the surface, it actually fit within the franchise perfectly.

Franchises can be a difficult thing for filmmakers and studios to figure out. Sure, it might be easy to churn out another movie and call it the continuation of what came before. However, it might be difficult to figure out the right things to bring over into the sequel. This lack of awareness could lead to the audience feeling alienated. The sequel might feel like a hollow imitation of the previous movie they connected with. A replacement actor who tries to replicate an actor’s performance and can’t quite get it. A key structural piece that isn’t in the new story. A soundtrack that doesn’t play into the movie the way the original integrated the music. There are any number of things.

On the other hand, a sequel can’t be too much of the same or people will get bored of the repetition. There’s a fine line that must be ridden to have a successful sequel. Take the pieces that people enjoyed. Add new connective tissue. Blend it all together to create something that feels as good, but also fresh. Make it so that it feels familiar without feeling repetitive and without taking away what made the previous movie so successful. Yeah, that would be a struggle to even figure out, and I think that’s why we end up in situations like Guns, Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, and Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle. There might still be good in them. Hell, you might end up with an overall good film, like the Den of Thieves sequel. But they’ll always feel like they’re missing something, because they are.

This post won’t be missing the notes, though. Here they are:

• I’m just going to link to Birdemic: Shock and Terror, Birdemic 2: The Resurrection, and Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle right here.
• Andy Sidaris directed Guns. He also directed Malibu Express, Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Picasso Trigger, and Savage Beach.
• Rodrigo Obregón and Dona Speir have each been in Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Picasso Trigger, Savage Beach, and Guns.
• Rustam Branaman and Cynthia Brimhall were both in Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Picasso Trigger, and Guns.
• John Brown appeared in Malibu Express, Picasso Trigger, and Guns.
• Christian Drew Sidaris was in Hard Ticket to Hawaii, Savage Beach, and Guns.
• David Hadder and Bruce Penhall each had roles in Picasso Trigger, Savage Beach, and Guns.
• Picasso Trigger and Guns each featured Liv Lindeland and Roberta Vasquez.
• Rounding out Triple B actors, we have Eric Chen and Michael J. Shane, who appeared in Savage Beach and Guns.
• Now we get onto the actors who have been in Sunday “Bad” Movies in more movies than just Triple B movies. Danny Trejo was the most notable. Guns was his ninth Sunday “Bad” Movies appearance. He was also in Death Race 2, Death Race: Inferno, Rise of the Zombies, Anaconda, 3-Headed Shark Attack, Death Race: Beyond Anarchy, TheRidiculous 6, and Maniac Cop 2.
• Lisa London was in Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance, Road to Revenge, Savage Beach, and Guns.
• Kym Malin might have been in Picasso Trigger and Guns, but they were also in Road House.
• James Lew sandwiched an appearance in Martial Law between appearances in Savage Beach and Guns.
• Devin DeVasquez returned to Sunday “Bad” Movies in Guns after previously appearing in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV.
• Chuck McCann had roles in both Hamburger: The Motion Picture and Guns.
• Guns brought Phyllis Davis back to Sunday “Bad” Movie. She had already shown up in Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.
• Finally, George Cheung was in Guns. He was also in Godzilla.
• Have you seen Guns? The movie, not the weapon. What did you think? Are there any sequels that you think didn’t understand what made the previous movie(s) special? Let me know in the comments, on Bluesky, or on Threads.
• If you have an idea for a movie that I should watch for a future Sunday “Bad” Movies post, let me know. I check the comments, and I listen to suggestions from Bluesky and Threads, too.
• Okie dokie. We’re at the part where I give updates on what’s coming up. The next post, which won’t be too far behind this one, will be about the four Amityville movies that came out in 2017. I’ve been planning that one for a while now. The two posts after that were unexpected. I wasn’t even considering them when I finished the previous post. I checked out a little movie called 2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus. Then I saw He’s All That. Both seem like they fit for Sunday “Bad” Movies, so I’m going to write about each. That’s what you have to look forward to. I’ll see you soon with the Amityville post.