I recently heard someone say that a movie spin-off or continuation of a TV show never works. It works as a bit of nostalgia maybe, but it’s usually a bad film. So, is it true?
Specifically I’m thinking movies that are set in the same universe or canon as the TV series that came before it. So something like Mission Impossible wouldn’t count since the show and the films are different universes.
Also sometimes a film comes out during a TV series run, that’s fine, it doesn’t need to be after the series is over. I can also think of at least one example of a film kicking off a TV series, so that counts too.
(Also if there are absolutely terrible ones, let’s talk about those too.)
Certainly NOT Dead Like Me. Still salty about that one.
Serenity and Star Trek as others have said are proabbly my actual favorites. The original Naked Gun movies were based on the short-lived Police Squad show and are as close to maintaining continuity as anything ZAZ could be. Then, the original Transformers animated movie gets more credit than it deserves due to nostalgia and not being a Michael Bay mess, but it had no business being even as good as it was.
Strong agree on Dead Like Me! I’ve rarely met anyone else who’s seen the show. It’s not perfect, but some moments were absolutely adorable. The plot of the movie wasn’t bad, but the recasting was awful, because Mandy Patikin was half of the heart of the show.
I definitely watched and enjoyed Dead Like Me the series. I definitely watched the film but have no memory of it, except that Mandy Patinkin wasn’t in it. So yeah, it was probably terrible, but I’ve wiped it away.