"Niggardly" is another perfectly good word that one can no longer safely use due to PC worries.

Fvckin why?!

And what the hell is this about:

Can't speak for Gremlins (or Gremlins 2), but in what universe is Bogus Journey an improvement on the original?!?!?!

Gremlins 2 was definitely no improvement, but I think I liked Bogus Journey better than Excellent Adventure (but I've seen neither since shortly after they were available on VHS),

My list would include Star Trek II, Toy Story 2 (not that the first was bad), Before Sunset (Before Sunrise didn't do anything for me), Aliens, Terminator 2, The Empire Strikes Back, Shrek 2, Evil Dead 2. From the Jackie Chan oeuvre many of his sequels made after he had full control were better tahn the originals (Drunken Master, Project A, Operation Condor, Super Cop).

We watched Wild Hogs over the weekend. It wasn't as bad I was expecting.

I watched The Reef last night expecting a bad B-movie Skiffy shark attack movie. It was actually good, very suspenseful in a JAWS sort of way.

I liked The Reef quite a bit. (More than the similar Deep Water) If you look up the true story on which this one is based, you'll find that the similarity is not even skin deep. There's little in common between the actual and screen events. So, you can really treat The Reef as utter fiction.

I went to see Shark Night 3D a couple of days ago. The good news - it was actually shot in 3D. And a couple of the sharks are actual palpable animatronics. The bad news: The majority of the sharks are the usual lame CGI. The movie is about as unambitious as any I've ever seen. You can almost hear the writer/director and the cast and crew saying "Hey, we've filled the minimum requirements for what you came to this film expecting, we're done. Bye-bye." Then, following the credits, the fore-mentioned cast and crew stage an astoundingly amateurish on-set rap video. It's like a big group-shrug of "what the hell were you expecting, huh?"

But, I got a couple of sharks jumping right in my face, so, I guess I got what I wanted.

I'm totally stoked for Bait 3D!

Comparing Gremlins and Gremlins 2 is apples and oranges. The original Gremlins, while it had funny moments, was more of a horror film, whereas Gremlins 2 was straight-up slapstick. I admit a certain fondness for the moment when they mount a musical number, but then again, I've never exactly been accused of having great taste ;)

That's like saying comparing Alien and Aliens is like apples and oranges, which it is. One was a straight-up horror movie and the other a straight-up action flick with one horror scene. I think both were great - and it's one of the few sequels I give high marks to ... not least for switching genres completely and not simply trying to remake or hit the same marks and tone as its predecessor.

But apples or not, it's always legitimate to compare a sequel to the original. Anything which aims to capitalize off a predecessor film must also be prepared to be compared to that predecessor film.

Well, here's where I would consider Gremlins and Gremlins 2 to be equals:

Gremlins is a horror movie that isn't scary to a point that it is funny.
Gremlins 2 is a comedy movie that isn't funny to the point that it is scary.

That first condition is fine, the second condition is bad.

Comparing Debbie Does Dallas I to Debbie Does Dallas II is definitely comparing apples to apples