This poster is the US one-sheet for the largely forgotten sequel to Chinatown.  

Chinatown is one of my all-time favourite movies. It is a fabulous evocation of a place and era, with a terrific twisty storyline, wonderful performances all round and a real sting in the tail. Chinatown wasn’t exactly crying out for a sequel. But 16 years later star Jack Nicholson decided that was exactly what the world needed, and for some reason he also decided to direct it.

I saw The Two Jakes in the cinema when it came out and I honestly cannot remember a thing about it, other than that it was boring. It flopped badly and disappeared overnight, of course. The poster image is a nice evocative, pulpy illustration, but the confusing (and long) tag-line.does not help much. “They say money makes the world go around.  But sex was invented before money.” (???) Bizarrely, it does not even mention Chinatown in its marketing, which might have helped put a few more bums on seats, one would think. 

For some reason I never bought the rather cool poster for Chinatown itself, although I had plenty of opportunities over the years to do so. (Although more recently I did purchase a copy on a T-shirt from Red Bubble, which I am wearing in the above photo. You can check out another of my movie poster T-shirts on my homepage and here). 

Is The Two Jakes the most disappointing belated sequel to a great film in history I wonder….? (The Godfather Part III might run it close, I think, but that at least had its moments). Can anyone think of any ‘better’ contenders?