Ten Worst Sequels Ever: Revenge of the Truly Awful Jun 09 '02    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Movies 1776 From $8 Alias - The Complete Fifth Season From $20 The Bottom Line One of the great irritations of film history is when Hollywood takes a classic movie and ruins its legacy with a truly awful sequel. Here are the ten worst offenders. There's nothing more irritating than having Hollywood take a much beloved film and churning out a horrible follow-up. It's happened time and time again. In no particular order are ten of the worst follow-ups ever. 10. Caddyshack II: The original Caddyshack featured the combined comedic genius of Rodney Dangerfield, Ted Knight, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray. With dozens of classic lines and outrageous scenes, Caddyshack is one of the greats of film comedy. Now take that first film subtract any cleverness, any genius, any witty one-liners, any funny scenarios, add in a bunch of no-name hacks, and you get one pathetic sequel. Ugh. 9. Superman IV: The Quest For Peace: Superman feels bad about the Cold War. How sweet. To make things interesting, let's throw in a villain he's battled twice so far and a Hemingway and deduct 75% of the special effects budget. The public will still love the Man of Steel. Right? Uh, no. 8. Big Top Pee Wee: The Big Adventure is over and while the public is still in love with it, let's produce a weak follow up where our protagonist goes to the circus. Hilarity will prevail. Right? Wrong again, buck-o. 7. Urban Legends: The Final Cut: The first film was a masterpiece of classical horror scenarios told in a very modern way. A real whodunnit, the viewer was never sure who the killer was. It even left room for a sequel, but the makers of the second one decided to disregard that opening and strike out into trite and stupid territory. They even ignore the title and not include any urban legends. What they did include is Joey Lawrence. A recipe for disaster? You're right on the money. 6. Highlander 2: The Quickening: The original was an epic of good versus evil, centering on a magical race of immortals who battled throughout history until there was only one. Now, this scenario pretty much excludes any sort of follow-up, but that fact didn't dissuade Hollywood, which promptly brought back all the dead people from the first one, turned the magical immortals into aliens, and embraced none of the epic quality of its predecessor. Truly horrifying. It's horrid reputation is justified. 5. Batman and Robin: Director Joel Schumacher lets his nipple fetish fly, as he turns the Dark Knight into the Sarcastic Knight, makes Robin a pouting biznitch, adds in a sluggish Batgirl, gives Alfred a terminal disease, and casts Ah-nuld as a mush-mouthed Freeze. Cartoony and silly, you'll feel every painful minute of this piece of shiznit. 4. Return of the Swamp Thing: What happened? The first Swamp Thing was a tight thriller that proved how effective a small budget and large breasts could be on screen. The makers of the sequel plant their tongues firmly in their cheeks and produce a nearly unwatchable sequel where Swampie falls in love with Heather Locklear, and Dr. Arkane, the bad guy from the original, is back for no reason at all. I get sick just thinking about it. 3. City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly's Gold: The classic original was about a group of people coming to terms with their lives and finally finding peace with themselves while out in the middle of the wild wild west. The second one is about these same men running after a bunch of gold only to find that it's fake. Add in a long lost brother who's the splitting image of dead Jack Palance, and it's no wonder this sequel tanked at the box office. 2. Weekend at Bernie's 2: The first one was hardly tolerable, so what does Hollywood do? Well, come out with another one, of course. Guess what. Bernie is STILL dead. No, he's not started rotting yet. That would ruin the Hollywood magic. You see, this time, our two protagonists must drag Bernie's worthless carcass around a different setting. Hilarious, right? Wake me when it's over. 1. Godfather III: I loved the first two Godfather flicks, and I can even see much to recommend in the third one, but when compared to the awesome legacy of the first two, the third pales so badly. The story is a good one, but Sophia Coppola single-handedly ruins this film with her putrid performance as Mary Corleone. What was Francis thinking? I don't think he was. So sad to see the Corleone saga end like this. I'm sure I've missed a number of real bad ones out there, and feel free to share them with me. But in the meantime, do yourself a favor: avoid these films like the plague any time you visit your local video store. Trust me on this one.

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