The 22 Worst Movie Sequels of All Time

May 6, 2009

This morning I posted a Question of the Day on Twitter: What is the worst movie sequel of all time? I definted worst as having the largest decline in quality from the preceding film – therefore awful sequels to awful original films don’t count (unless they’re incredibly worse than the preceding film). I also said that the sequel isn’t just the second in the series – it is any movie that precedes another. And that, I said, included prequels.

I received hundreds of responses. Here were the top responses (two movies under one number denotes a tie.)

The Matrix Reloaded

The Phantom Menace

The Godfather 3

Highlander 2

Caddyshack 2

Spider-Man 3

Batman and Robin

Speed 2: Cruise Control

Son of the Mask

Grease 2

Exorcist 2: The Heretic

X-Men 3

Troll 2

Halloween 3: Season of the Witch

Superman 3

The Sting 2

Lost Boys: The Tribe

Ocean’s 12

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

American Psycho 2: All-American Girl

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation

Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd

The Two Jakes

Neverending Story 2

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Nightmare on Elm Street 2

Honorable Mention

Teen Wolf Too

Cruel Intentions 2

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Starship Troopers 2

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (touche)

Blues Brothers 2000

Revenge of the Nerds 2

I also got a few responses that surprised me, including more than one vote a piece for Spider-Man 2, Toy Story 2, and Godfather 2 — all movies which I think are probably better than the film that preceded them, and a bunch of votes for Gremlins 2: The New Batch, which I also like quite a bit.

My personal choice for the worst sequel of all time is The Two Jakes, the sequel to Chinatown. I hate the Godfather 3 as well, but Two Jakes is incredibly poorly done, boring as hell, and based on an absolute classic. I’d rather sit through three showings of Godfather 3 back-to-back than a single showing of Two Jakes.

A few other movies I thought deserved more votes were Arthur 2, Escape from L.A. and Stayin’ Alive, all awful sequels to terrific films (Arthur, Escape from New York, and Saturday Night Fever, respectively.)

More Questions of the Day on Twitter, and their results, coming soon. To take part just follow me there.

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Category: LISTS, Uncategorized

Tagged: LISTS, Worse Movie Sequels

http://www.jamesgunn.com James Gunn

Land of the Dead would count as a sequel to Day of the Dead, not Dawn of the Dead.
http://peacoatnate.wordpress.com/ npettz

attempt to*
http://peacoatnate.wordpress.com/ npettz

If the Land Of The Dead remake counts as a sequel to Dawn Of The Dead, it gets my vote. And that’s not an attempt you kiss your ass, James.
Wolvesinthewoods

Oh, I trust you.
And I further trust you’ll forgive me if I don’t run out and see the film to test your theory. Sounds like you wouldn’t wish the thing on your worst enemy … (In fact, if it is truly worse than Highlander 2, suggesting a viewing is probably a violation of the Geneva Convention. And Dick Cheney you are not.)
http://www.jamesgunn.com James Gunn

Wolves – No apologies necessary. However, the one chink in your Highlander argument is that, sure, I like Chinatown more than Highlander – but I also like Highlander 2 way more than Two Jakes. It’s just less boring.
Wolvesinthewoods

I hear ya James. I will point out that there is a “Jewish guilt” vs. “Catholic Guilt” problem here.

Allow me to explain… (mutherfucker am I pretentious):

You see, both Jewish and Catholic guilt ends up in the same place: You are Shit. However, catholic guilt is aimed at “look at how close to the pit of hell you are” … where as Jewish guilt is aimed at “Look How Far You are From Being a True Mensch.”

Both have the same result: feel like crap, kid: you’re tooooo low on the ladder that God wants you to climb. (Ain’t it grand what we do to the kiddies?)

So, returning to sequels: You are looking for the gap between the first and second films, thus, the measure is relative … And, therefore, the gap can be caused in two distinct ways: (i) the first film is heavenly and you CAN’T live up to it (Jewish guilt) or the sequel is pure HELL(Catholic Guilt) and the first film SEEMS brilliant by comparison . Thus, The Two Jakes is perfect because Chinatown is a transcendent film. On the other hand: HIghlander 2 is UNFATHOMABLY stupid — a complete non sequitor and almost incoherent; in short: pure f-ing hell to watch. Therefore, the original Highlander need only be slightly above average to make the disparity HUGE.

As I said earlier: I was priviledged to have forewarning about The Two Jakes. So I can’t speak to that. Might well be the worst. And now that somebody mentions Hannibal … that’s up there too. (Though the book Hannibal was worse than the movie, believe it or not … {{{{Hannibal and Starling get MARRIED in the book!}}}}…

In any event, I was totally inspired to pontificate in your general direction. I apologize for the length and girth of my remarks.

Love,
Wolves
http://www.twitter.com/renesugar renes

Speed 2 was bad. It was on a cruise ship and there was no iceberg.

Hannibal, the sequel to Silence of the Lambs, was bad. They jacked up the gross out factor and didn’t do much else. That scene with Ray Liotta’s brain exposed and Anthony Hopkins taking slices off of it with a scalpel is the gift that keeps on giving.
http://www.jamesgunn.com James Gunn

Again, a lot of you guys seem to be missing the point… it’s not about the worst movie that’s a sequel, it’s about the worst movie in relation to the movie preceding it. To say something like Breakin and Breakin 2 have as big of a gap as say, Godfather II and Godfather III doesn’t make sense.

That said, Howling 2 should be on here.
The Critic Wannabe

I’ve been on record (perhaps not here) in saying that I think Matrix Reloaded is a very good film. However, that being said, Matrix Revolutions completely and utterly deserves a spot on this list. As does Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Superman Returns (or as my dad so eloquently put it – “I haven’t seen Superman 4, but I have to believe it’s better than Superman Returns.”)
Arkansylvania

Species 2 has to win my vote for Worst Sequel right off the top of my head (not that the first installment in the Species series was that great). The penis and vagina monsters at the end really put it in its own category. Howling 2: Your Sister Is A Werewolf has the distinction of being the only horror movie sequel that was so wretched the producers had no choice but to change tactics at the last minute and release it as a comedy. Sybil Danning with hairy boobs was definitely no what the audience was expecting.
LadyFrontbum

Mila Kunis is hot.
That is all.
gatorfoley

Breakin 2 would have to be the worst in my opinion
Bill Pardys Doppelganger

Gremlins 2: The New Batch is a great movie, think that’s one of Joe Dante’s best.

Also, Halloween 3: Season of the Witch is not so bad, if only for a shirtless Tom Atkins.
Just Linda

I like Grease 2. And I want a coooool rider!
Wolvesinthewoods

Thanks for the love, James. I never saw Two Jakes because I was warned and loved Chinatown so much… couldn’t sully it.

I thought of an odd one. And it’s a real fu*k!ng spolation of a great little film: CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK.

Pitch Black was a kinda brilliant little scifi story about something real (redemption from a horrible choice). The sequel was a sprawling shitmess of stuff that made me want to crawl out of my skin and stab knitting needles through my eyes.
http://www.tohrima.com/ Aisuru304

But James, it doesn’t matter how bad the film really is. Just having Bruce in it bumps it up to greatness. Or at least that is what I am going to claim.
tonicat

One of the worst sequels has to be the prequel Ginger Snaps Back!!
IMO Ginger Snaps is one of the most awesome movies and while Ginger snaps 2 kinda suck, Ginger Snaps Back was just a hole of suckyness…
http://www.jamesgunn.com James Gunn

Escape from L.A. is a complete abomination, as are quite a few Bruce Campbell movies (including Spider-Man 3).
http://jbishop.tumblr.com cinefreak7

Most of these I can definitely agree with but Halloween 3? Halloween 3 is AWESOME. Just because it doesn’t feature Michael Myers doesn’t make it a bad movie (if you were gonna vote for a bad Halloween movie, look at anything from #4 and beyond).

And I’m actually a big fan of Oceans 12. I actually like it better than Soderbergh’s original — because he was kinda doin’ his own thing with that one and not so worried about the whole remake thing. Plus he shot it like some sort of artsy European movie, and I love it.
http://www.tohrima.com/ Aisuru304

How can you possible say that Escape From LA is bad! Bruce Campbell has a small part in it so that automatically gives it 4 stars and 2 thumbs up.
http://www.jamesgunn.com James Gunn

For those of you wondering about Jaws, I think the series declined step by step — probably the biggest drop in quality was from 1 to 2, so it makes sense it isn’t on the list.

I don’t think I got a single vote for Be Cool, which is interesting, as I know most people hated that movie and loved the first one.

Personally, if I hear a sequel is awful, I usually won’t see it. So, I loved the first Matrix and yet never saw Reloaded. Also never saw any of the Pirates of the Carribean movies after the first one. Nor Indy 4.

And I would personally never put Batman & Robin on the list, because I despise the first Batman movie so much (though I thought Returns was better.)

Wolves, I missed your Highlander graphic earlier. Will put it up now.
http://peacoatnate.wordpress.com/ npettz

lefreke – Men In Black II wasn’t THAT bad. It was a decent follow-up to the original.

freakinmayhem – I agree that Matrix Reloaded gets a little too much crap, but I disagree with your comment about the first film. The Matrix is a pretty deep concept.
http://myspace.com/freakinmayhem freakinmayhem

Will someone please tell me what’s so bad about Matrix Reloaded? After a slow start, I thought the movie was a blast. It has two great fight scenes, an awesome car chase, fun new characters, Monica Bellucci’s cleavage, and some interesting ideas. The movie got a blacklash from people who thought the first was soooo deep and meaningful (which it wasn’t) and got a follow up that was just a fun action film (which the first Matrix was). btw, I think the scene in the blog picture is the best fight scene in the entire trilogy.
suicideblond

I know its too late, but I have to just say Eddie and the Cruisers II had no business being made. It changed the whole vibe of the first one with its inaneness (hope that’s a word.)
lefreke

Unless I missed something, everyone missed: Men in Black 2, Battle for Planet of the Apes, Conan the Destroyer, The Fly II, Blues Brothers 2000, Be Cool, Basic Instinct 2… Hell the list goes on. I liked, not loved Matrix Reloaded (I’m a sucker for special effects). My vote would be Phantom Menace for how it bastardized the original trilogy.
Maddy_Bauer

Yeah my phone fucked up and missed 2 updates – I wasn’t online. I was tweeting from work. Oh how I work hard! :-P.
http://peacoatnate.wordpress.com/ npettz

Maddy – Prequels count, as stated in the official rules at the beginning of the blog : )
Maddy_Bauer

I wanted to say the new Star Wars but didn’t think they counted as even though they were made later they were actually prequels! I’d have defo voted Star Wars 1-3 as worst ever sequels but does it really count?

Am I being too techincal?? :-P

Also, Scooby Doo 2 was better than 1 in my opinion – I really didn’t like the end of Scooby Doo 1. If Scrappy Doo had been blown to smitherines then maybe! lol. It probably shouldn’t count in this through your own rules; there wasn’t a huge enough difference between them both quality wise! Just my two cents.

Other than Toy Story (I preferred original marginally more) I agree those are better than original sequels.

People!!! Gremlins 2 rocked! How could anyone vote for that??? The New York number alone was awesome!

Oh God, I forgot about ‘Stayin’ Alive’! I guess it’s probably a good thing to stay forgotten! :-P.
http://peacoatnate.wordpress.com/ npettz

The “touche” next to Scooby-Doo 2 made my day. You’re a good sport, James!

I would have to go with The Dark Knight.

Okay, okay. In all seriousness, I think Superman Returns was pure crap and didn’t need to be made. I also think HP and The Goblet of Fire was horribly made/directed.

Depending on who you talk to, The Blair Witch project is often considered a good film, but maybe that’s just based on its innovation and profit. Regardless, the sequel (though I have not seen it, thankfully) is supposedly terrible.
http://www.twitter.com/katiecrampton Katie C

Damn it! I didn’t check Twitter in time to get my vote in. But, for the record, my vote for Worst Sequel is “The Feast: 2″

The Feast was absolutely awesome!! Not only was the sequel one of the worst things ever created, it’s even more disappointing that it’s made by the same people. It just makes you say, “what the fuck?!?”
If you haven’t seen the first one, go watch it! If you haven’t seen the second one, consider yourself extremely lucky.
Tracy!

I actually like Batman & Robin, I own it on VHS and in fact I had a Mr. Freeze action figure when I was younger.
Wolvesinthewoods

Ooops, thats: http://twitpic.com/4o7k9 . But I still feel all hella.
Wolvesinthewoods

I can’t believe you didn’t use my Highlander graphic http://tinyurl.com/cyqwm2. I feel hella-unloved. Hella.
http://www.twitter.com/manostorgo manostorgo

Awwww, I was just keeeeding about Scooby-Doo 2. Out of all of these, based on your criteria I would actually say that Rambo 2 is the crappiest sequel in terms of distance in quality from its predecessor. Which is pretty funny since Rambo 2 is more iconic of the character. Its a Costco hamburger compared to the Morton’s steak that was First Blood.
PootieTang

How can any of the Jaws sequels not be on this list? I might be willing to allow a pass for Jaws 2 since I was real young when I saw it and didn’t realize how much it sucked until I was older but Jaws 3-D or 4? Or was everyone else bright enough to never watch them in the first place? I’d also throw Men In Black 2 and Fright Night 2 on that list. Didn’t even know they made an American Psycho sequel..I don’t doubt it blows but Mila Kunis is looking nice in the pic.
zombeaner

I know it only got an honorable mention, but I LOVE Gremlins 2. I think The New Batch is superior to the original.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602890821 Philip Davetas

UltramanJ, have you ever tried to do a frame-by-frame tracking of the shark’s impalement at the end? Man, you will die laughing. Also, what’s funny about Jaws: The Revenge is that you can tell they’re on a set at some points when you see the ocean waves splash up against the painted sky when they’re trying to kill Jaws. But the best part of Jaws 4 was that this was the flick that Michael Cane won the Oscar (for another flick) and didn’t show up because of the filming of this masturpiece. Yeah, I said masturpiece with a “u”.
http://www.blacknerdcomedy.com BlackNerd

Whoever said Gremlins 2 is a bad sequel is STUPID! The whole point of the sequel is to parody the concept of the sequel, and it does a fantastic job. It’s literally one of my favorite movies of all time. DON’T HATE ON GREMLINS 2, FOOLS!

Oh, and James, I like Scooby-Doo 2, monsters cameos a-plenty.
dunnybocter

The Two Jakes and Matrix Reloaded were the first two that popped into my head. I was pleasantly surprised to get to the end of your post and see that I was indeed correct about The Two Jakes.
http://www.myspace.com/ultramanj ultramanj

I’m still sticking with Jaws 4, the shark was tracking people to destinations in which the characters had flown too. And they even addressed this by suggesting the shark was sensing them; sensing them from New Jersey to the Bahamas. And there are two separate endings to the film, both of which were stupid.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602890821 Philip Davetas

Man, my vote was for Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut although I see a lot of nice things in the Richard Lester version. Love Donner, but I saw no real reason for him to re-cut Superman II without a finished version.
http://www.timstotz.com TimStotz

When I tried to watch the Two Jakes, I was young and just realizing that Jack could be an awesome actor. I had not even Seen Chinatown. I kept thinking to myself, “This has to get good soon; this has to get good soon.” Never did.

Have you seen the trailer to this about the cult status of Troll 2: http://www.buzzfeed.com/lindseyweber/best-worst-movie-ru ?
http://www.jamesgunn.com James Gunn

Skip – Caddyshack 2 is #5.
SkipMcgee

What about CADDYSHACK 2
If your talking about the drop off in greatness between one and two, i mean they couldn’t even get DANGERFIELD??

but i feel bad because i guess they tried?
opsin

While possibly an unimaginative vote on my part, I’m glad to see the Matrix Abortions won out. They were such a let down.
That said, had I known there was even a sequel to Chinatown, I might have given the mere thought of such an abysmal idea a vote…
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=602890821 Philip Davetas

I don’t know. In order to hate Scooby 1 and 2 you’d have to hate them both consecutively I would think. I happen to think that the second was more fun than the first, but I liked both of them anyway. And shit on me for forgetting The Matrix Reloaded. And how can one hate the Exorcist II: The Heretic? It’s got that trippy Ennio Morricone score! Man, there have been so many cuts of Highlander 2 how can they all be worse? Wasn’t there one called The Renegade Version? Man, I own Speed 2: Cruise Control on DVD. Hell, I own the super special four-star Fox edition. Hey, Sandra Bullock in a bikini. It’s all there is. But at least I recognize the craptrocity of it all.
http://www.artificialgraphics.com AI_Joe

No saw King Kong Lives, which is the closest one will ever get to seeing giant ape porn.
http://www.jamesgunn.com James Gunn

Hugel – The Matrix Reloaded got a little over 30 votes, and each one dropped a vote or two from there. The honorable mentions got 5 votes a piece.
http://www.myspace.com/missmadamn Caryl

There are a lot of movies listed I forgot about! I didn’t think real hard on it, though. I was late viewing the question! Good answers!!
http://www.johnnyhugel.com hugel

It would be interesting to see how many votes each one got.

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