A Map of Movie Sequels
Posted on January 7, 2011 at 3:55 pm
What’s the worst movie sequel you ever saw? I’d have to say the sequels to “Grease,” “Men in Black,” “Get Shorty,” and “The Whole Nine Yards” are tied for last place.
Many thanks to my dear friend and fellow critic Brandon Fibbs for sharing this excellent graph showing how well movie sequels hold up to the original films.
Nell–
I had to write. I am among the cult group of fans who LOVE Grease 2. Please check out my review of it. It’s one of those movies I could watch over and over. And yes, I think it’s superior to the original.
One of my favourite bloggers, Ken Begg, argued that the worst sequel was Jaws: The Revenge because it’s the absolute widest gulf between any two films in one series, although he admitted that Rocky and Rocky IV were close.
This is a pretty good graph, but Mr. Fibbs has made one big mistake: what is Silence of the Lambs doing on there? It is not in continuity with Manhunter, proven by the existence of Red Dragon, and was made independently of it anyway.
Also I don’t think comparing Star Trek: The Motion Picture with The Wrath of Khan is totally fair, because if Wrath of Khan is a sequel to anything, it’s the 1967 episode Space Seed.
I have by no means seen all these, but I would vote “Meet the Fockers” (a sequel that made me long for the time-killing mediocrrity of “Meet the Parents”) and “Pirates of the Caribbean 2” as among the most offensively bad. I’m not sure it is fair to call a movie that is part of a trilogy or a series (ie. LOTR or “Harry Potter”) a sequel. I think of sequels as those that were inspired by the desire to repeat the success of the first movie. I recently saw the “Back to the Future” series, and while there were clever elements to the 2nd and 3rd movies, they couldn’t match the cleverness of the first.
Nell,
Hands down, worst sequel of all-time: Caddyshack 2
http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-baltimore/top-10-worst-movie-sequels-of-all-time
Toby, the late comedian Richard Jeni had a stand-up routine about the “Jaws” sequels that is one of the funniest things I have ever heard.
Don’t blame Brandon Fibbs for the error about “Manhunter” — he showed me the graph but did not create it. I can see it both ways — the movie is based on a sequel book, but it has a different cast.