Was watching Jaws (again) - one of my favourite ever movies and you have to admit, the sequel isn't half bad. But then we get to Jaws 3 (@Mel O'Drama - no explanation required) and Jaws the Revenge. Dear God, I wanted the shark to eat me, although I do enjoy watching Michael Caine in the Revenge and to be honest it is better than Jaws 3. Friday the 13th and Nightmare On Elm Street are another couple of good examples of movies that start out really good, maybe have one or two good sequels and then go mad. Scream is one of my favourite ever franchises, but again, the 3rd one makes me want to offer myself to Ghostface and his knife. The second is good as is the 4th. Poltergeist is a classic and the sequel does scare very well with Reverend Kane but the 3rd one is dreadful. Jeepers Creepers - very good, 2nd one okay, 3rd one - help us and let the Creeper claim us. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Jurassic Park, Taken (how many times can she be Taken?!), The Exorcist...the list goes on. What do you rank as the WORST sequels of all time?
Yes, though I think Heather O'Rourke dying before they finished it I loved the first 45 minutes of the first movie and was totally freaked out by that demon and then they did the unthinkable by revealing what it was. I never liked the second movie and have no idea what the third is about. Some films I couldn't get to grips with on their second movie. Home Alone - A brilliant Christmas film filled with all kinda of humour and then they wanted to do it again and again. I totally lost all interest. Dumb and Dumberer - Really? The Hangover II - Again? Speed 2: Cruise Control - Though, I'm not sure I ever finished that one. The Evil Dead 2 - No thank you and what the hell was the third one about? Psycho - It didn't need a return.
From an artistic point of view I'd say all those movies that want to fix or explain the original story. But these aren't always the least entertaining movies because in essence there's nothing that stops you from making a good movie. Movies that shouldn't have been done: The Exorcist Hannibal Aliens But Aliens, albeit without the noirish sci-fi tone of the 1979 movie, is still mildly entertaining pulp. The Exorcist II was awful on all accounts, it has absolutely nothing to offer (apart from an explanation I didn't want). The Diary Of Ellen Rimbauer (the prequel to Rose Red) wasn't so bad on its own merits, but it totally killed the story's most important aspect: the house. It's almost as if they think the audience can't handle the mystique of evil, especially the non-human kind. God forbid they would ever sequel Picnic At Hanging Rock. The sequels that look like new adventures rather than a continuation are usually the best e.g. Die Hard, National Lampoon's, Final Destination, Ice Age, Batman etc. All they have to do is be as good as/better than the original, there's no artistic obstacle whatsoever. The slasher is an oddity because it's the least challenging genre to do, but without the mystery and whodunit from the orginal movie (Friday 13th, Halloween) I find them a bit mind-numbing. The Disney sequels have a different target audience (i.e. very young children only) so I guess it doesn't make sense to rate them.
I read a really old article (well, from four years ago) today saying how great it was that yer woman didn't want to make a sequel to Bridesmaids. It said that if she had, the original would have stopped being a film and instead become a pilot. I know this wasn't the question, but Terminator 2, The Godfather Part II and Aliens were all brilliant sequels.
Brilliant @Willie Oleson - Silence of the Lambs is my favourite movie and Hannibal really shouldn’t have happened. Please don’t eat me Doctor Lecter.
Silence of the Lambs is kinda/sorta a sequel to Manhunter. Both excellent, but very different. Then there's Hannibal the TV series, which takes elements of all three films and the books and turns them into something brilliant and new. I wasn't crazy about Hannibal the movie when I saw it, but having seen Hannibal the TV series, I'd be interested in revisiting it.
Murder In Peyton Place is probably the worst sequel movie I've ever seen. OK, it's not a sequel to a movie, but still... Actually I never finished it because it was so totally utterly unwatchable. But now I still don't know what happened, hmm...and it's been 9 months since I've watched the last episode, maybe it won't hurt so much anymore? No, no, no! This time I'm going to ignore my curiosity! Or...I could watch it as a did-not-happen-movie, like Dallas' dream season (and Linda Gray is in it too!). Yes, I could perceive it as a so bad, it's good and didn't happen anyway movie. No I can't do it, it's going to huuuuuuuurt!
The worst sequels are not only terrible in their own right but also undermine the story in the original film. Terminator 3 is a good example of this. In Terminator 2, all the technology that lead to the creation of the machines and artificial intelligence that initiated nuclear holocaust was destroyed and Judgement Day was averted which was a great and satisfying conclusion to that film. However, in Terminator 3, the machines were still creating havoc so presumably they didn't destroy the technology at the end of T2 after all. Another sequel that changed your memory of the original was Beyond The Poseidon Adventure, the sequel to The Poseidon Adventure. The original film gave the impression that the only survivors of the ship capsizing was the small band of passengers that went with the priest against the advice of the ship's officers and were eventually rescued. However, in the sequel, many more survivors seemed to have materialised on the ship which devalued the efforts of the few determined passengers that survived the disaster in the original film.
I did like "Psycho II" even being a big fan of the original one. It was highly entertaining, up to the final gory charade, of course. Too many Mrs. Bates...The recent TV show was masterful in every sense (aside from the drug-dealing subplot, of course) and a great showcase for the talents of Ms. Farmiga and Mr. Highmore...Part III of the cinematic "Psycho" was rather terrible though, but you can´t miss anything with Christina Crawford (Diana Scarwid) in it... IMO, some of the worst sequels belong to the 80´s and 90´s: the two last Reeve Superman´s, the Schumacher Batman´s, or any Muppet movie that hardly shows Miss Piggy... Here are a few more hideous sequels: http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/05/worst-movie-sequels-ever/the-crow-city-of-angels
The Grease movie (1978) with John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John is my favorite movie of all times. But Grease 2 (1982) the sequel movie from was really awful, except for a few nice songs, but the story was very bad.
Although RETURN TO PEYTON PLACE, though mediocre and in possession of an Allison MacKenzie more cocky and entitled than the wistful one we met in the first film, offers us Mary Astor (who gives the most archetypal Scorpio Rising character this side of Joan Crawford in the otherwise equally mediocre QUEEN BEE) who, if anything, needed more screen time if this sequel was ever gonna work. Burt Reynolds admitted he pressured Sally Field into doing this in order to destroy her career momentum after her Oscar win for NORMA RAE. "Cool Rider" was GREASE 2. Well, one assumes that was your point. And indeed THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACKs are few and far between -- as are the TERMINATOR 2s, THE GODFATHER Part IIs, and the ALIENSes.
I am forever flip-flopping between Grease and Grease II to which is my favourite. I've enjoyed both movies over the last 30 odd years.
I'm glad that you enjoy both Grease films @Ome, all although Grease has become a real classic, and Grease 2 has become more of a cult movie.
Yes! I also remember going to see the second one at the cinema and thinking it was fantastic. back then you could cheat your way in to watch a movie twice by never leaving the cinema and that's what we did. There has always been hype with the first movie and while I agree it's a true classic, it suffered too much airplay over the years and that's always when I prefer the second film. Like I said earlier, I'm always swapping between the two as to which I enjoy the most.