Best & Worst Movie Sequels

I’m watching the movie “Major League: Back to the Minors” the other night and thinking this has to be one of the worst sequels ever made.  It was actually the third of a series with the original “Major League” in 1989 a really neat movie about a bad baseball team that turns it around.  

Good cast with Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, Corbin Bernsen and Rene Russo.  The movie did pretty well at the box office so 5 years later they were back with “Major League II” with many of the top names returning.  It was okay but not nearly as good as the original and the box office numbers backed that up.  For some reason they couldn’t stop at two so they tried again and the trilogy ended badly.  Scott Bakula managing a minor league team that beats the major league Minnesota Twins. Just terrible.

It did get me thinking about sequels because already this year we’ve had The Amazing Spiderman and Men in Black III and still to come is The Dark Knight Rides Again, The Bourne Legacy, Total Recall and The Expendables 2.  Let’s face it Hollywood does not hesitate to take something that worked and try it again.  So what are the best and worst sequels of all time?  Of course that’s a matter of opinion and as the saying goes….everyone has one.  Actually the saying is a bit different but you get the picture.

It seems the general consensus is The Godfather II is the best of all time and like the original won the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Among the others that rate high on many lists when it comes to good sequels are Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The French Connection 2, Toy Story 2, Superman II, The Dark Knight, The Color of Money, The Bourne Supremacy, Aliens and Star Wars.

From a money-making standpoint the most successful is Terminator 2: Judgement Day which grossed an amazing 400% more than the original.

I’m more interested in the bad sequels and there are a bunch to choose from.  The Jaws movies really dropped off after the original and Jaws: The Revenge was dreadful.  So too were The Next Karate Kid, Caddyshack II, Blue Brothers 2000, Speed 2, The Sting II (with Mac Davis), Teen Wolf Too, Weekend at Bernie’s II, Home Alone 3, Wall Street 2:Money Never Sleeps, Hangover 2, and Sex and the City 2.  All bad as was that Major League movie I mentioned in the beginning.

Consideration for the worst sequel has to go to Staying Alive with John Travolta back as Tony Manero six years after Saturday Night Fever, this time trying to make it on Broadway.  He should have stayed in Brooklyn.

What do you consider to be a bad sequel? Leave your nominees in the comment section.