There's a reason some car flicks don't have sequels, or the ones that do fail....

Some people were asking me why some classic action / car chase movies didn't have sequels. ( Some did, but they suck ). One reason is sometimes the actors and producers aren't interested. "Bullitt" the grandaddy of them all that's still thrilling 50 years later was a huge hit. I loved the catch-phrase from the poster. "There are good cops and there are bad cops." "And then there's Bullitt". For whatever reason, Steve McQueen wasn't interested in continuing the adventures of Frank Bullitt, or doing another similar character.  A lot of people don't know it-but Clint Eastwood wasn't the 1st choice for "Dirty Harry".  John Wayne was, and he turned it down, and regretted it when it became a huge hit. It was then offered to Frank Sinatra who turned it down and to Steve McQueen-who said it was "Frank Bullitt" with a different name and he didn't want to do two cop pictures back to back. Eastwood was cast and the rest is history. Seeing the monumental success of "Dirty Harry" John Wayne decided to take a break from westerns and do a couple of modern police thrillers.  Wayne made an excellent "Dirty Harry" type movie in 1974-"McQ"-he played a Seattle detective and he drove a Brewster Green 73 Trans-Am in it. However it came out about the same time "Magnum Force" the "Harry" sequel did-and they had similar plots-dirty cops after the hero. "Magnum Force" was a smash; "McQ" got critical acclaim but didn't do much at the box office, which was why there wasn't a follow-up. Everyone loved "White Lightning". Burt Reynolds was never cooler than Robert "Gator" McLuskey who negotiates his way out of prison to seek revenge on the corrupt sheriff who killed his younger brother. The dialogue was crisp, the action exciting-and Jennifer Billingsley just oozed sex as "Shake-a-Puddin"-spending the entire movie barefoot in tight mini-sundress, her dark brown roots showing in her bleach-blond hair, while she drove Burt and the audience wild. She totally nailed the southern slut that men die and kill for. Others have tried it-Kim Basinger in "No Mercy", Teri Hatcher in "Heavens Prisoners" and most recently Reese Witherspoon in "Mud". Those were noble efforts, but none could top Billingsley for raw sensuality. Gator does kill the sheriff-the Feds take him and Billingsley away at his funeral. People say there should have been a sequel. There was, and it was awful. Made in 1976 Burt Reynolds starred and directed. It was his first time directing, and I think he couldn't decide if he wanted to make a badass revenge flick like the first one, or a dipshit comedy.  Jerry Reed did alright as a sawed-off shotgun toting redneck crime lord. However there were too many characters and subplots. Gator has a teenage daughter?  Where did that come from? In the first movie there's no mention of an ex-wife or kids. And him and the daughter live in a swamp with his dad? In the first movie his dad wasn't speaking to him because Gator was turning "liquor people" in to the Feds. And what happened to the family farm and his mother? There's no mention of her dying or the farm being foreclosed on!!  Gator's handler is an incompetent fat slob named Irving Greenfield who I guess is supposed to be funny, and there's a crazy cat lady that gets involved. The love interest is Lauren Hutton who's acting career peaked years earlier when she spent a lot of time naked in "Little Fauss" and Big Halsey". Since Reynolds was 40 and she was 33 when the movie was made-her "plucky girl reporter" / Nancy Drew act is just annoying, as is their "meet cute" and ill-fated romance. While Burt and Jennifer Bilingsley seemed to have actual heat between them-him and Hutton had no chemistry at all. And it's never explained why "Gator" and "Bama" McCall-Jerry Reed's character have such mutual respect for each other even though their on opposite sides of the law. Did they go to high school together? Serve in the army together? Do time in the same prison?  Their relationship is never explained, so I can't be that invested in it. I usually like Burt Reynolds, but this one's just a mess. Burt had a megamash the following year-"Smokey and the Bandit" out-grossed everything but "Star Wars" in 1977. It was funny, had good car-chase action and sold about a million T/A's for Pontiac in the ensuing years. In 1980 they tried a sequel, and it was awful. If you remember at the end of "Smokey and the Bandit" Big Enos Burdette bets them double or nothing that they can't make a run to Boston for some Clam Chowder. They should have stuck with that, and with Jackie Gleason's maniacal lawman chasing them. Instead they get off on some weird plot about transporting a pregnant elephant, and surprise-Jackie Gleason is a triplet- and his two brothers are cops too! It was just awful with none of the charm of the original. I honestly don't think I laughed once. Another one was one of Quentin Tarantino's favorites-"The Driver" starring Ryan O; Neal as a getaway driver and Bruce Dern as a cop obsessed with catching him. I loved the movie for 90 minutes and then hated the end-O'Neal is chasing a '76 T/A in a '76 Chevy Pickup!!  If the truck was a 454 it might have been a match in a drag race-but around corners?  The T/A would leave it in 3 blocks. And Ironically-earlier in the film-O'Neal was driving a '77 Firebird!!  Why wasn't he chasing the T/A in that?  That would have been believable. Anyhow O'Neal gets away clean and Dern goes to jail. The movie made money, and certainly a follow-up with Dern out of jail and out for vengenace would have been good. I don't know why-maybe O'Neal and Dern weren't interested-but there was never a sequel.  "Drive Angry" was a surprise hit in 2011. Nicolas Cage gives a wonderfully over-the-top performance as a "badass motherfucker" who escaped from hell to save his granddaughter from a Satanic cult. The baddies can't kill him, because he's already dead! Amber Heard is smokin' hot as a woman he hooks ups with-she also has a sinister black 440 powered '69 Charger. William Fitchner is hilarious as the Devil's Bounty Hunter who's trying to bring Cage back to hell. The mayhem is non-stop, and Amber agrees to care for his granddaughter and Cage willingly goes back to hell with Fitchner in an awesome '57 Chevy. Plenty of room for a sequel, and a lot of people have asked. It made a pile of money-so I don't know why the original producers or someone hasn't stepped up. I know Cage desperately needs a hit-he's been doing straight-to-video stuff lately, Amber Heard hasn't done anything noteworthy except divorce Johnny Depp and briefly date Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Come on guys-we'd much rather see "Drive Angry 2"  Than "Fast&Furious" 12 or wherever they are!!  Mastermind