Hollywood loves sequels. They make more money, because fans of the original are sure to see them. Most of the time. It makes sense that these would be successful, but every once in a while, there comes a sequel that is such a bad concept that it makes people wonder why anybody thought it would be a good idea. So now I present to you my picks for the top ten worst ideas for a sequel.
To be clear, this is not a list of the worst sequels ever. In fact, I haven't even seen most of these films. Some of them, I haven't even heard of before I did research to jog my memory. Instead, I'm going to talk about what I think is the stupidest concepts for a sequel that were ever actually made.
Also, in order to make this list, the movie need to have a theatrical release. So no straight-to-DVD sequels will be on this list, because I don't know much about straight to DVD movies.
10. Jason X
Jason goes to space! That is the concept of this poorly received tenth entry in the Friday the 13th franchise. Jason Vorhees is cryogenically frozen and thawed out hundreds of years in the future... in space. The franchise has been to some weird places, but this just seems kind of too much.
9. The Taken Sequels
Both of these sequels are going to take this spot, because I can't just single out one of them. The first Taken was a surprise hit which redefined Liam Neeson's career. But did it really need a sequel? How could members of his family get taken more than once? Even though they do give a decent reason (the family of the people Neeson killed in the first one are out for revenge), this just feels kind of forced. Then they made a third movie, in which nobody gets taken. While I guess this would make sense for the story, it raises the question of why they would still call the movie Taken.
8. The Hangover Sequels
This series follows pretty much the same trajectory as the Taken franchise. It puts out a badly received sequel where the same thing somehow happens twice (if this happens twice, you have a problem), and then a third movie that has almost nothing to do with hangovers. I ranked these movies higher because while Taken 2 at least tried to explain how the same thing could happen again to the same people, The Hangover Part 2 makes no such attempt. Lightning just strikes in the same place twice. Also, while the Taken sequels stayed consistent in tone throughout, The Hangover franchise seems to gradually change from a fun, raunchy comedy, to a dark, violent one.
7. The Rage: Carrie 2
This is one of those movies that I haven't heard of until I did research for this list. Carrie was a classic horror movie from the seventies, and in 1999 somebody decided to make a sequel. Apart from being over twenty years too late, this sequel also does not have the title character of Carrie in it. This movie was a bomb that was panned by critics and audiences alike. 6. Blues Brothers 2000
This sequel was released in 1998, almost twenty years after the first one. It was also long after original star John Belushi's death; he was replaced by John Goodman. So in short, this didn't exactly have box office hit written all over it. It was also criticized for not having the same feel as the original. You can't make a sequel without one of its most iconic stars
5. Son of the Mask
Speaking of which...
Son of the Mask was a sequel to the Jim Carey comedy The Mask, shot without Jim Carey. Replacing him was Jamie Kennedy, a man who half of you people reading this probably have no idea who he is and the other half probably dislike him. Anyway, he is not a good replacement for Carey, whose performance pretty much made the movie. He plays alongside a creepy CGI baby and a creepy CGI dog, who are also affected by the mask. When I watched the trailer above, I couldn't help but think of somebody in the theater watching it, thinking "Yes, we're finally getting a sequel to The Mask!", but then slowly finds out how bad it is. Anyway this movie was a critical and financial bomb, with eight Razzie nominations (more than any film that year) including Worst Picture, and won for Worst Remake or Sequel.
4. Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd
Oh look, another sequel to a Jim Carey movie without Jim Carey.
This prequel shows the main characters of Dumb and Dumber when they were in high school, and was released almost ten years after the original. Neither Jim Carey nor Jeff Daniels appear in this film. This film ranks higher than Son of the Mask because both Carey and Daniels are even more important to the movie than Carey was to The Mask. Why would they think that people would see a Dumb and Dumber movie without it's stars.
3. Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
The Blair Witch Project was a major hit, which (unfortunately) popularized the found-footage horror genre. Most of the reason for this was because of the marketing gimmick which made tried to make people believe that the footage shown actually happened. So, of course, by the time this movie was released, people already knew that this was not real. Also, the sequel ditched the then interesting found-footage format, in terms of a bigger, more traditional horror movie style. What could go wrong? The movie was nominated for five Razzies including Worst Picture and Worst On-Screen Pairing for Any Two Actors, and won the award for Worst Sequel or Remake.
2. Birdemic 2: The Resurrection
This is a sequel to the notorious independent film Birdemic: Shock and Terror. For those of you not familiar with that movie, it is a thriller where global warming causes birds to attack people, and it's apparently really bad.It held on to the number one spot on the IMDB Bottom 100, until 2014 when it was beaten by Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas, and (I have just found this out now) again recently by some film called Kod Adi KOZ. So why make a sequel, you may ask. Because in recent years, it has gained a cult following as genuinely so bad it's good. But did they really think that they could capture that same charm on purpose? Well, it didn't work, because many fan said that the directors new self-awareness made it less funny. This movie is also in the top ten of the Bottom 100, although surprisingly it actually has a slightly better rating.
1. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
Why was this made? Why? The first Baby Geniuses movie had a 2.5 rating on IMDB, giving it a place on their Bottom 100,and a 2% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus reading "...worse than the premise suggests." It must be pretty hard for a movie called Baby Geniuses to be worse than its premise would suggest! It was also nominated for five Razzies including Worst Picture and Most Painfully Unfunny Comedy, and won for Worst Director Bob Clark. So why make a sequel? Money?
Did you read what I just wrote? That movie had no fan base!
And this movie was also released too late, five years after the original. This may not seem like a long time, but this movie was aimed only at children, who may not remember the original. If you think what I just said was dumb, and that surely some young children would remember the original, let me tell you that I was ten years old at the time of this movie's release, and I did not remember the first movie's existence at all. And I think I actually might have been too old for this movie even then; I sure as hell didn't know anybody who wanted to see this piece of s**t. Why would their actual target audience remember?
This movie managed to get even worse ratings on both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. The Rotten Tomatoes score for this movie was finally able to reach the "coveted" 0%, and the site has also called it the worst summer movie of all time every year on its yearly countdown.
So those are my picks for the worst sequel ideas of all time. It was difficult to narrow it down to just ten with all the stupid and/or unnecessary sequels out there. These movies are proof that not all sequels should be greenlit.
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