Movie franchises seem to exist best as trilogies, before the inevitable reboot (I hate that word), but some movies have gone on to have a third sequel. In almost every case, the forth part is a weak cash-in which rehashes elements from the first three and adds very little to the story of the first three films. Are there any that are actually good films in their own right?
The best I can come up with is Thunderball, which, while not one of the best Bond films, is ok, and managed to not kill the franchise stone dead.
Second choice: I think of the Rocky film series as consisting of one legitimately great film (the first, of course), and five sequels that are all implausible, disposable, if entertaining, tripe. And of the five sequels, Rocky IV is the most implausibly entertaining of them.
ETA: holy cow, I was ninja’d in both of my picks. :smack:
I think Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is quite good, but not many people seem to agree with me.
Critters 4 is surprisingly good, though. It’s a blatant Alien rip off, but it stars Angela Bassett and Brad Dourif and doesn’t take itself very seriously.
The Thin Man had true sequels, five of them in fact. The fourth overall was Shadow of the Thin Man and it’s well considered, with a 7.3 rating on IMDb.
The fourth Bob Hope/Bing Crosby Road picture, Road to Utopia, gets a 7.6 rating, the highest in the entire seven-movie series.
The fourth Ju-On movie (Japanese series, ignoring the American Grudge series entirely) is pretty good. Not as good as the first or third, but probably third overall - better than the second, or the two thematic sequels from 2009 (none of which are particularly bad, either, though the second suffers from spending too much time rehashing the first).
Godzilla vs Mothra (1964) is considered one of the best by fans. The music and the plodding attack scenes are terrific. The suits were well done and Mothra is a popular opponent.
It was also the last movie where Godzilla was unquestionably the bad guy.
I was coming in to say The Pink Panther Strikes Again (not counting the movie Inspector Closeau, starring Richard Dreyfuss in the title role, as a ‘real Pink Panther Movie’). No matter which way the jury rules,I think it qualifies
