Day 2 of the Round-Up: Worst Sequel of the 90's, Best Sequel of the 90's, Most 90's Movie.

Worst Sequel of the 90’s (CRITERIA - crushing lack of originality, high expectations from source movie, series/career killing):
NOMINEES:
* City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold. The legend was that more Jack Palance would make this movie better than the first...even though he died in the last movie. The reality - I crap bigger than this movie dreams.
* Honey, I Blew Up The Kids. Of course, at least there was no other direction to go. "Honey, I made the kids 2D"? Of, perhaps the more appropriate, "Honey, I made the kids morbidly obese."
* The Lost World: Jurassic Park 2. Take the first film, remove any sense of wonder, have one suspenseful scene (the car window cracking while they're over the cliff), farm the rest out to the interns. This world was best left virgin territory.
* Speed 2: Cruise Control. It's never a good sign when one of the stars won't sign on for round 2. Even Keanu was smart enough to see this coming. But then, to give it a subtitle that a) points out a gaping plot hole (why not just set it to cruise control) and b) suggests your action movie is proceeding at a leisurely pace...well, let's just hope Sandra Bullock needed the money.
* Wayne’s World 2. This was one of those 'grown up' moment movies where I realized that sometimes, it wasn't enough to just be at the theater. Maybe it's because I watched this on VCR. I literally was astounded at how un-funny this movie was. I was a pretty serious kid.
WINNER: Wayne's World 2. If I told you that Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Christopher Walken, and Chris Farley had top billing in a comedy with a cameo by Aerosmith and Charleton Heston, plus Tia Carrere, Heather Locklear, Kim Basinger, Drew Barrymore, and the funniest guy from Scurbs, you'd have high expectations. Wayne's World was funny. This movie was not. It's as though they forgot to film the funny scenes and just left the set-up in. This movie destroyed Dana Carvey's career and nearly ended Mike Myers' as well. Wow.

BEST SEQUEL OF THE 90's (CRITERIA - Good stand alone movie, better than the original):
NOMINEES:
Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Die Hard With A Vengeance (The Samuel L/Jeremy Irons one)
Scream 2
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Toy Story 2
WINNER: Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Not a contest. I will say that I think you can argue that Toy Story 2 is better than the first, and that it's very easy to argue that Austin Powers 2 was better than the first (Mini-me). And Die Hard gets 'best series of the 90's' status by default. But Terminator 2 is the quintessential sequel. It takes everything from the first movie, turns it on its head, and makes it better. The first movie was a B-movie Iliad. This movie was an epic Cyber-Odyssey.

MOST 90'S MOVIE (CRITERIA - Reflects attitudes prevalent only in the 90's, audience would only be 90's audience, plot devices only relevant to 90's, has that 90's feel):
NOMINEES:
American Beauty - The standard 'non-standard' thought of the 90's.
Clueless - If historians called the 90's the 'Clueless Decade'...would you argue?
Dangerous Minds - Ah, the heroic teacher in the inner city epic. A generation inspired to spend 2 years in Teach for America before beating a hasty retreat to suburbia.
Space Jam - You might not know this, but Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny used to be big. Like i-phone big.
You’ve Got Mail - Perhaps never has a rom-com been so prisoner to a company and technology so swiftly irrelevant. A sad comment on the demise of AOL that the "You've Got Mail" notification's era was about as lengthy as the relatability of a film about e-mail being unfamiliar. The Coen Brothers should redo this movie as a send-up of the 90's. Then you're have something.
WINNER: Clueless. Smack dab in the middle of the decade, the film hits right at the notion that the 90's became the decade in which adolescence led the culture. Technically, we learn 'that there's more to life than clothes and popularity,'...but not much. In the end, it's better err on the side of pretty and blonde. This movie is less of an anachronism than its competitors, but it just seems more right. And, by teeny-bopper standards of our time, it's hopelessly innocent.