American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002)

American Psycho wasn't ever a movie that I thought needed a sequel. It was a self-contained slice of cinema gold. But such a thought has never occurred to film executives before so why should it occur now?

After an opening sequence that pretty much pisses all over the greatness of the ending of the first movie, this film then moves on to establish its own identity as we follow the latest psycho on the block (played by Mila Kunis), a young woman determined to be the best in her class so that she gets to follow the path she has chosen for herself all the way to the FBI training facility at Quantico. If she can't achieve her goals simply by being the best in her class and working hard then she has no qualms about getting rid of anything (or, more specifically, anyone) in her way.

Directed by Morgan J. Freeman, this is an example in many ways of how to create a bad sequel. It creates a tenuous connection to the first movie that feels quite disrespectful, for want of a better word, and it simply moves from one ridiculous moment to the next after that.

Luckily, the cast help make this rubbish entertaining. Mila Kunis isn't all that believable in the lead role but she's always a welcome presence onscreen and has fun delivering some of the dialogue. William Shatner is also good fun to watch (when is "The Shat" never entertaining?), Lindy Booth and Kim Poirier lift things with their small roles and Geraint Wyn Davies is amusingly perplexed as the psychiatrist who doesn't make much professional headway with the leading lady. Robin Dunne and Keith Lawson also do fine with their roles.

While it's far removed from the sly, dark humour of the first film, American Psycho 2 does bring along a camp, over the top tone that makes things fitfully amusing. The script by Alex Sanger and Karen Craig seems to know from the very beginning that the very idea of a sequel following on from the first movie is a ridiculous notion and so it starts piling on the absurdities one after the other until we get to a grand finale that is as laughable (both intentionally and unintentionally) as it is unbelievable.

You could certainly wring some entertainment from this movie, as I did, but it's not one I'd recommend and it's certainly not one that you're likely to be won over by if you were as big a fan of the first film as I was.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Psycho-II-All-Girl/dp/B00005UWP4

Decoys 2: Alien Seduction (2007)

Making a satisfactory sequel for any decent movie can be a tricky prospect. Making a satisfactory sequel to a surprisingly enjoyable movie that went direct to the rental market can be even trickier. The fact that Decoys 2: Alien Seduction succeeds is due to the way it admirably sticks to the most well-known symptoms of sequelitis. Normally constrictive and damaging, these standard tenets (more of the same, extra nudity, a few slightly famous names to help promote the thing) actually work in the film's favour and this is a sequel that almost equals its predecessor.

Is it a great movie? No, but neither was the first film. It is, however, undemanding and entertaining fare that makes the most of a ridiculous but fun central premise (sexy alien babes freezing Earth males while they try to get jiggy with it) and zips along from start to finish with snappy pacing and good humour.

Jeffery Scott Lando directs the action this time around, with a script written by Miguel Tejada-Flores, but the change of names offscreen doesn't show onscreen at all. There are a couple of actors also returning to their roles (Corey Sevier and the gorgeous Kim Poirier), a number of new actors who all come across as likeable enough and more eye candy for the guys in the shape of ladies like Michelle Molineux (aka Heather Graham MK II) and Lindsay Maxwell. And then we have Dina Meyer and Tobin Bell being the more famous names getting involved for some limited screentime.

Effects aren't top notch, there are more than one or two gaping plot holes and there's no tension whatsoever. Pretty much like the first movie anyway. Thankfully, it focuses on the fun to be had with sexy alien women getting nekkid to seduce their prey - this time around they also reveal a talent for being able to transform into whichever kind of girl the male victim has fantasised about.

An uncomplicated sequel that will be appreciated by those who saw the greatness at the core of the rough diamond that was the first movie. Okay, okay, another good film to watch if you like sexy femaliens getting naked. And who doesn't?

5/10.

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Decoys (2004)

Decoys is a fun movie that's well worth checking out if you've never heard of it before. It's like a cross between The Faculty and Species. In fact, it's REALLY like a cross between those two movies. The school setting, and the fact that one of the male leads looks so much like Elijah Wood that they mention it in the script, and the aliens trying to secretly take over people will remind you of the former while the fact that the aliens are really cute girls who don't seem to have an aversion to nudity will remind all red-blooded males of the greatness of the latter.

The plot is really simplicity itself. A young man (Luke, played by Corey Sevier) wonders just what he is seeing when he spies a couple of gorgeous young women (Stefanie von Pfetten and Kim Poirier) revealing themselves to be something more than your standard human being. They are, in fact, aliens who just love to keep themselves in tip top condition by enjoying cold temperatures and warm potential mates. Luke fails to convince anyone else of this (including his good friend Roger, played by Elias Toufexis AKA the guy that looks like Elijah Wood) and just seems to get himself in trouble while he keeps trying to alert everyone to the situation. Meanwhile, young men keep disappearing and the woman look like they have new men in their sights, including Roger. Just how long can any hetero male defend himself against such obvious charms?

Decoys suffers slightly because of the unoriginality factor but it compensates for this with a sense of fun and some nicely unexpected moments that try to balance out the jump scares and more obvious plot twists. Matthew Hastings directs, and co-wrote the movie with Tom Berry, and he gets a lot of things just right. Night Of The Creeps would certainly seem to be another influence, no bad thing, and this is at the forefront when we see the friendship between Luke and Roger and also when we see Luke being treated like a murder suspect by Detective Francis Kirk (Richard Burgi). There's a mix of humour throughout that doesn't always work but improves when the film gets into the second half and picks up a gear.

The cast aren't the greatest actors ever but Corey Sevier, Elias Toufexis, Richard Burgi, Meghan Ohry, Ennis Esmer and Nicole Eggert all do well enough while Stefanie von Pfetten and Kim Poirier easily portray alien females so sexy that they could find a number of men willing to be led away to isolated locations. Krista Morin, Carrie Colak, Marc Trottier and Sarah Smyth all provide decent support.

It's no modern classic, and it doesn't measure up to any of the other titles mentioned within this review, but Decoys is enjoyable enough and actually a lot better than 1001 other titles that have been given the DTD* treatment.

(*Is it Direct To Disc now that videos aren't the standard rental format?? Or maybe Straight To Disc could let us label them all as STDs)

6/10.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Decoys-DVD/dp/B00061RZNI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1330899632&sr=8-2