Not as flawed

 

The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988)

Directed by Lee H. Katzin this television film sequel stars Telly Savalas, Ernest Borgnine, Jeff Conaway and Heather Thomas. The Major and his team head off to stop high ranking Nazis escaping to the Middle East.

Of the three television sequels I think this is likely the best one, it has the least objectionable parts although like the others it does suffer from the shorter run time. The addition of an Alistair McLean style hidden traitor does add something a little fresh to the set up. Fairly decent for what it is.

2/5

Finally over

 

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reconing (2025)

Written & directed by Christopher McQuarrie this sequel stars Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell and Simon Pegg. Our heroes have to stop an AI from destroying the world.

Too much exposition and scenes where characters look meaningfully at each other with out much weight behind them weigh the film down far too much. The stunts are fine but everything else is too much of a slog. By this point there is just so much back story that I did not care about or had forgotten.

2/5

Marginally better

 

The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (1987)

Directed by Lee H. Katzin this made for television sequel stars Telly Savalas and Ernest Borgnine. A squad of convicted soldiers is sent to rescue scientists and destroy the gas that the Nazis have them working on.

Better than the previous film this second sequel does still not live up to the original. My main complaint is that the film tries to redeem a character that does not deserve it at all at the end. Suffers from the same problem of not having the run time to carry off the concept really.

2/5

They should have refused this mission

 

The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985)

Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen this made for television sequel stars Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine. Major Reisman takes a team to assassinate a German General.

Oh dear, this is just terrible with plot holes all over the place. The television run time means that even if the Dozen had any character depth there is no time to explore it. Compared to the original the writing is just dire.

1/5

Wakanda the beach episode

 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Directed by Ryan Coogler this sequel stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira and Tnoch Heurta Mejia. Wakanda faces the death of T'Challa and the emergence of another vibranium power.

There are bits and pieces of this film I liked, other parts I thought were missed opportunities. Towards the end neither of the focus nations takes any time to reflect on how they are starting to act like the paternalistic colonial powers they hate which is a big miss, I also did not like how Riri Williams gets sidelined towards the end without any agency. Really tough to follow up the first film after the death of Chadwick Boseman.

3/5

Silly Spaceman

 

Time Trap (2014)

Written & directed by Michael Shanks this short film stars Mark Taylor. A bumbling spaceman finds himself on a desolate Earth with the ability to wind back time in small pockets of space.

I suppose this is pretty fun if not that deep. The effects hold up well for the budget and era of the film. Not a huge amount to this one.

3/5

Familiar

 

Payasam And Other Careful Processes (2023)

Directed by Akshay Ravi this is a short film. A young man digs himself a hole by not telling his family the young lady he has invited over is his girlfriend.

Covers some common ground from the cross cultural dating arena. Fine for what it is even if it provides nothing particularly new. Fairly well done.

3/5