Desperado is more of a hit than El Mariachi. In fact, a lot of people don't realize that Desperado is a sequel.

A lot of critics liked The Fast and The Furious: Tokyo Drift just as much as the first film.

Well I'm not quite sure if Predator 2 was successful at the Box Office or not but I know that critics didn't care for the movie much. Personally I thought the movie was entertaining. I'm not saying it was a classic or anything but it does have that "early 90's comfort feel" too it. Danny Glover is good in just about anything anyways. Gary Busey wasn't horrible either.

I don't think making a sequel without the original actors is a bad thing, it's just that the studios take a bigger risk because alot of people don't take to well to a different actor in a franchise. James Bond & some of the Horror franchises are the only exeptions.

Just don't give Steve Carell a continuing franchise with a $175 million dollar budget.

I suppose the Hammer Draculas and Frankenstein movies were sequels, weren't they? And yet Chris Lee wasn't in Brides of Dracula and Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires! And Peter Cushing wasn't in Horror of Frankenstein!

Guess they'd read the scripts!