There are five ways for film franchises to grow. One of them is for sequels, remakes, reboots
and all that stuff to be put out theatrically.
Another is to continue into direct-to-video installments. Video-on-demand is on the rise, so that
brought about a third avenue. Television
films are a fourth. The final way is to
have a mixture. The franchise could
begin theatrically with the first few and go into direct-to-video later
on. In the case of a few franchises,
such as the American Pie series, the franchise might make the jump back
to theatrical. That’s very rare, though.
Direct-to-video has been a major source of cheap sequels for
franchises since the 1990s. Maybe even
before that. They became more popular in
the 1990s, though, with the rise in popularity of home video systems like VCRs
and DVD players. Many franchises thrived
in the direct-to-video route. Leprechaun
turned to that release method for the third movie and never looked back. Following Seed of Chucky, the Child’s
Play franchise also went into direct-to-video territory. Death Race, The Marine, and Beverly
Hills Chihuahua all became direct-to-video franchises after their first
films were released theatrically.
A strange trend that has been happening recently is that
family-oriented films of the 1990s have been getting direct-to-video sequels in
the past few years. Kindergarten Cop
got a sequel with Dolph Lundgren taking on the lead role. Jingle All the Way had Larry the Cable
Guy bringing the franchise to a new generation.
Cop and a Half also got a direct-to-video sequel with Lou Diamond
Phillips taking the starring position.
Why is this trend happening?
The main reason is probably the same reason that mockbusters
are churned out. Seeing familiar titles
gets people’s attention. The familiar
title being a sequel to something they loved from the 1990s turns their
attention to interest. They want to
check it out from pure curiosity. Sure,
it’s been twenty-something years since the original, but that’s
twenty-something years where nostalgia could build. If there is one recognizable actor, then the
movie generates some attention. The
actor doesn’t even need to be a current star.
Their power grabs people.
Cop and ½ was
a 1993 family-oriented action movie. And
by the 1990s standards, that means that the bad guys were actually a threat
instead of bumbling thieves. Devon
Butler (Norman D. Golden II) was a child who wanted nothing more than to be a
cop. Every aspect of his life had him
acting like a police officer. When he witnessed
a murder committed by Vinnie Fountain (Ray Sharkey) and his gang, Devon was
paired with Nick McKenna (Burt Reynolds), a police officer with an
attitude. The pair would track down the
bad guys and try to stop their drug ring.
Cop and a ½ blended a family comedy with an adult action
movie. The relationship between Nick
McKenna and Devon Butler was the relationship of the tough guy cop opening up
to the child with him. He was softened
because being the tough, take no shit kind of police officer isn’t everything
it’s cracked up to be. The bad guys were
a real threat. They killed a guy at the
beginning. They went to Devon’s home to
test how much he knew about their goings-on.
They kidnapped him at one point, too.
For a family-oriented movie, things got kind of dark. It was a grounded story with real stakes.
This was commonplace in the 1990s. Kindergarten Cop was another example of
this. The movie was about a tough police
officer going undercover at a school and capturing a bad guy through his
budding friendship with the children he was teaching. There were comedic bits for kids like the
class pet, the “Who is your daddy and what does he do?” sequence, and the tumor
bit. But it still had a bad guy who
seemed like he was going to violently kill people at any point. The threat felt real.
The basic thing that made these movies have the lasting
impact they did on the people who saw them was that the 1990s movies had
stakes. Real stakes that felt like they
mattered. There was danger
involved. The kids were put in harm’s
way and the adults had to keep them safe.
The bad guys were violent. They
wanted to kill people. Adults and kids
were both in danger because the villains threatened their lives. It wasn’t fun and games. The direct-to-video sequels that came twenty
years later felt more like fun and games.
Cop and a Half: New Recruit was a 2017 sequel that
had Detective Simmons (Lou Diamond Phillips) tracking down a prankster that was
terrorizing the city. Karina Foley (Lulu
Wilson) spotted Detective Simmons on a stakeout and decided to bring her
expertise into the investigation. She
forced Detective Simmons to partner up with her and they took down a vandal who
had silly stringed a library, made laser-shooting drones, and exploded a bunch
of toilets.
There were many differences between Cop and ½ and Cop
and a Half: New Recruit. The most
notable was the change in how dangerous the stakes were. The first movie was realistic in its
presentation of danger. The sequel made
things more cartoonish and tamer for modern children. Instead of dealing drugs and murder, the bad
guy was pulling pranks on the town. The
police characters were goofier than the hard-nosed police officers of the first
film. Even the lead felt different. Devon Butler was a child obsessed with being
a police officer. He still felt like an
average child though. Karina Foley was
more the jokey Nickelodeon or Disney type, making smart remarks and acting more
intelligent than the adults.
This comedic bent is frequent in direct-to-video sequels to
theatrical children’s films. For some
reason, a theatrical release can be a family film played straight, or blended
with a different genre, and it works.
Much like Cop and ½, the Air Bud series took the same sort
of turn. The first movie was a boy and
his dog story with a sports twist, and it was played straight. The boy could lose his dog to the abusive
clown who simply wanted to make money from the dog’s talent. The dog could jump and shoot a basketball
with its nose. By the time the fifth
movie came around, there were some bumbling bad guys trying to kidnap Air Bud
so he could steal a diamond for them, and Air Bud was playing volleyball with
ridiculous, fake paw moves. Things had
gone from being realistic to being a cartoon about a sports playing dog.
The weird thing is that the cartoonish nature seemed to make
Cop and a Half: New Recruit a little better than the movie it was a
sequel to. Perhaps it was because Lulu
Wilson and Lou Diamond Phillips seemed to be trying in their comedic
roles. They were putting in half decent
performances and had a solid chemistry together. In the original, Burt Reynolds felt like he
was going through the motions. He didn’t
have much chemistry with Norman D. Golden II, and everything fell flat because
of it. I had more fun watching the
direct-to-video sequel, which makes this one of the few times (The Marine
is another one) where the direct-to-video route may have been the right choice.
Direct-to-video has been an interesting outlet to see
franchises use to continue. The format
has had a bad reputation since it started becoming a big thing. There were thoughts that the only reason it
existed was because the product wasn’t good enough to make it into theatres. In many cases, that was true. It has gotten better in recent years as
theatrical release becomes less the pinnacle of release structures and more
just one of the many ways to release a film.
Direct-to-video sequels have been getting better overall, though there
are still many bad ones. But there are
some fun little things to pick up after seeing so many direct-to-video
sequels. That’s why they’re worth
watching. They can change a
franchise. They can find a franchise
where there wasn’t a franchise before.
They can be good, even when they’re assumed to be bad.
These notes could be good or bad, you decide:
- The Marine was mentioned in this post. I’ve covered the first three movies in The Marine franchise (week 30), The Marine 4: Moving Target (week 154), The Marine 5: Battleground (week 237), and The Marine 6: Close Quarters (week 327).
- Air Bud was also mentioned. The first three movies in the Buddies spin-off franchise (week 270) have been covered.
- Death Race was mentioned. I’ve covered the first three movies in the Death Race franchise (week 9), as well as Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy (week 311).
- I brought up Leprechaun. I watched Leprechaun in the Hood (week 120) and Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood (week 120).
- Beverly Hills Chihuahua was also mentioned. I watched all three movies (week 70).
- Jingle All the Way (week 160) and Jingle All the Way 2 (week 160) were mentioned as well.
- The director of Cop and a Half: New Recruit was Jonathan A. Rosenbaum, who directed a movie called Holiday Spin (week 317).
- Wallace Shawn became a four-timer this week with Cop and a Half: New Recruit. He was previously seen in Furry Vengeance (week 162), Mom and Dad Save the World (week 186), and Air Buddies (week 270).
- Cop and a ½ as the third appearance of Burt Reynolds in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. His other appearances were in Delgo (week 148) and In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (week 220).
- Another three-timer this week was Reese Alexander, who was in The Marine 3: Homefront (week 30), In the Name of the King: Two Worlds (week 220), and now Cop and a Half: New Recruit.
- Ruby Dee was in Cop and ½. She was also in Baby Geniuses (week 50).
- The police chief in Cop and ½ was played by Holland Taylor, who was in D.E.B.S. (week 111).
- Maria Canals-Barrera made a return to the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Cop and ½. She already showed up in God’s Not Dead 2 (week 230).
- Marc Macauley was in Cop and ½ and From Justin to Kelly (week 325).
- Finally, Jordyn Ashley Olson made a quick second appearance in the Sunday “Bad” Movies after recently popping up for a few seconds in The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (week 337).
- Have you seen either Cop and a Half movie? What did you think? What do you think about direct-to-video sequels? Let me know your thoughts on Twitter or in the comments.
- The comments and Twitter are also a good place to let be know what movies I should be checking out for future installments of the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
- There’s an Instagram account for the Sunday “Bad”Movies. Check that out.
- Now let’s talk about next week. I’m going to be checking out a movie I’ve seen a couple times before. I reviewed it for a different website back in the day. I enjoy it, but I understand that it might not be the best movie ever. It’s a throwback to 80s horror like so many other recent horror movies. It’s called Rabid Love. I’ll get a post ready for you and you’ll be able to see it next Sunday. See you then.
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