The Ten Worst Sequels of All-Time

For every great movie made in Hollywood, about five to ten busts exist. Nothing ruins a legacy and destroys credibility like a horrible sequel.

It’s a given fact, top ranking executives in Hollywood are some of the most greedy and money-hungry people in the world. They take a story that was never designed to turn into a sequel or completely revamp the story just to squeeze a few more dollars out of the American public.

Remakes are generally just as bad (and could fit another Top Ten list), however this list is focused to the 10 Worst Sequels of All-Time.

Note: Horror flicks don’t count because the first one usually sucks anyways.

10. Transformers 3

This sequel isn’t even out yet (only in development) but it already has me screaming at the top of my lungs. Sure people seemed to love the original and even more flocked to the first sequel (the box office numbers were incredible), but that doesn’t mean this money making machine is all that much quality. The first and second Transformers had the usual Michael Bay antics, amazing special effects and little story or character depth. Maybe all this poor story telling will finally catch up with him on the third (and hopefully last) Transformers.

9. Weekend at Bernies II (1993)

Okay so maybe it’s a great idea and story line for one movie to haul around a dead guy. But for two movies? Weekend at the Bernies II never got started thanks to a plot that you couldn’t take any further. Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy are in the Virgin Islands this time and away from our DVD collections.

8. Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Is there any doubt that Jake Lloyd will be remembered as the intergalactic Jonathan Lipnicki? The dread kicks in during the opening scroll with its eye-glazing backstory about Trade Federations and taxation routes. We didn’t wait 20 years for a lecture on supply-side economics! Right off the bat, Liam Neeson saves the life of Gungan minstrel Jar Jar Binks and it all goes down as something that Lucas should have never done but needed to fatten his pockets all over again.

7. Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd (2003)

How do you recapture something that wasn’t all that much quality in the first place? Sure Jim Carrey is a man with a thousand faces and wild antics, and the kid who played him in the sequel had a surprisingly eerie resemblance, but NO, NO, NO! I liked the first one as much as the next guy, but even someone as dumb as myself knew this was a horrible idea. Let’s just say it didn’t disappoint.

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2006)

Even the title of the second sequel to the Pirates lacked originality. What do you get when you have three characters, one of them desperately needing to get killed in the plot (Orlando Bloom anyone?) and a story that waits 20-30 minutes to introduce the real star of the film? Instead of focusing on Depp, the guy who made these films, Disney attempts (poorly) to put a conclusion on the rocky romantic relationship of Bloom and Keria Knightley. That and they try to  make Knightley more badass with every sequel.

5. The Sting (1983)

Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s 1973 original won a Best Picture Oscar and had a terrific story. The Sting 2 gives you a scam you can see driving down Fifth Avenue. Jackie Gleason and Mac Davis did little to replace the on-screen chemistry of Newman and Redford and the sequel suffered horribly.

4. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The sad thing is they didn’t stop with Reloaded. Revolutions followed and possibly was even worse. The sequel takes a sheer nosedive from the original into one of the poorest sequels despite years of hype. Sadly many successful “epics” now feel the need to do a trilogy despite the overwhelming evidence that they should just stop.

3. Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

The filmmaker couldn’t even get the year right with this one. Let’s see, it’s called “Blues Brothers 2000″ yet we’re going to release it in 1998. What did they think, the year 2000 in the title gives it even more appeal? The lack of a John Belushi truly made Dan Aykroyd a sell-out for still wanting to do this picture and boy did he pay dearly for it.

2. Caddyshack II (1988)

What do you do when the first film is regarded as one of the greatest comedies of all-time and few even remember that a sequel exists? Meet Caddyshack II, a movie that was quickly forgotten thankfully. The sequel lacked Bill Murray, Rodney Dangerfield, and Ted Knight and struggled to even get Chevy Chase to do a cameo. It sucked. Plain and simple.

1. Staying Alive (1983)

Picking up several years after Saturday Night Fever, Travolta’s Brooklyn disco Casanova Tony Manero is now a struggling Broadway dancer. Rejection has hardened his charm into a cocky, misogynistic swagger. After a one-night stand with a snooty dance star (General Hospital‘s Finola Hughes), he lands a part in the cheesy Satan’s Alley. The director describes the musical as ”a journey through hell that ends with an ascent to heaven.” Staying Alive is a sequel that ignores everything that made the original great, which of course may be the biggest insult of all.