The best and worst movie franchises

Cafe Society
1

Here’s what I’m looking for. Any movie franchise you want to nominate MUST have at least 3 movies to it, and to nominate it for the best of all time, ALL movies have to be taken into consideration. You have to be willing to watch all of the movies in sequence at one sitting if possible. You can’t skip a movie, or fast forward some of the less interesting parts.

For example, The Godfather would qualify, since there were 3 parts, but the third Godfather was so bad to me, that I couldn’t vote it the best, even if the first two movies won best picture oscars. The third installment makes the trilogy something i never view straight through

I’d also like to make a rule that the movies must have the same principle actors in the lead roles.

So, The Dirty Harry franchise is ok, but the James Bond franchise is not.

Only one franchise can be split in two halves (at least i cant think of another), and that is the two Star Wars trilogies.

Also, what makes them good or bad is entirely subjective, but if you would describe why you made the choices you did, it would be helpful.

They don’t have to be oscar winners, but the films should be consistent from film to film in their entertainment value.

My choices:

Best:
The Back To The Future trilogy - good fun, and great stories and acting.

The Die Hard franchise - these are just entertaining action movies, and each one is enjoyable without taking itself too seriously.

The Toy Story franchise - what can you say? Each story was great as a stand alone movie but the common thread connecting them also makes them great.
Worst

The Jaws franchise - the original Jaws was great, even with the crappy shark prop, but Jaws 2 and Jaws 3D were beyond bad.

The** Dirty Harry** franchise - Dirty Harry is a classic crime movie, and Harry Callahan is one of the great characters of the genre, but each successive movie was worse than the previous movie. And Sondra Locke didn’t help either.

The Smokey and the Bandit franchise - the original is still one of those movies I’ll watch if it is on, but II is all but unwatchable and III IS unwatchable.

2

Nitpick: Jaws did not feature the same lead actors.

3

Best:
Lord of the Rings: it was basically made in three parts, so it’s very watchable back to back to back.
You might add The Hobbit, but I haven’t seen it yet.

I’d say the Christopher Reeve Superman series, but it really got lame quickly after #2.

4

Best: The original Star Trek franchise. Three great movies, two good ones, and only one disappointment.
The Motion Picture (1979)
The Wrath of Khan (1982)
The Search for Spock (1984)
The Voyage Home (1986)
The Final Frontier (1989)
The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Worst: The Star Trek Next Generation franchise. Great TV series, but stiff, boring movies. One decent film and three snooze-fests.
Generations (1994)
First Contact (1996)
Insurrection (1998)
Nemesis (2002)

Middle: The Star Trek Generation Y franchise. Started out great with a lens-flaringly spectacular reboot, but brought on the stupid quite early. Unless the third installment is Wrath of Khan good, I do not see it completing its five year mission.
Star Trek (2009)
Into Darkness (2013)

5

Best: Star Wars

Worst: Start Wars

6

I am guessing that you have not seen the last one. :smiley: The recent movie is doubly disappointing because the fourth movie was surprisingly good.

7

The Best: Toy Story. All three movies were top notch (assuming you limit the franchise to theatrical releases).

The Worst: Twilight. Because it was consistently bad and because it had pretensions.

8

Best:

Harry Potter
James Bond
Riddick - yes, I love all 3
Lord of the Rings

Worst:

Twilight
Star Trek Next Generation movies

9

Best:

The Godfather - Yeah, the third one wasn’t all that great, but it wasn’t that bad, and I and II are both among the top films of all time.

**Rocky **- I’ll admit that I’ve only seen the first 4, so if the last two really, really sucked, please correct me.

10

Nothing to add that hasn’t already been mentioned for the best.

Worst: The Resident Evil series.

I was just watching the Red Letter Media “Half in the Bag” episode dedicated to these movies, so the series is on my mind.

11

Best: Toy Story & Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood spaghetti western trilogy

Worst: Twilight

12

The acting and story of the 2006 film Rocky Balboa is actually quite good, but it was undermined by Stallone’s vanity. We’re supposed to believe that Rocky is a punchy, gone to seed former boxer trying to ride on his former fame, greeting patrons at his restaurant who want to hang around the “champ”. A fine idea, but former boxers don’t generally employ $500 a session eyebrow shapers.

13

*The Jason Bourne movies. *Main reason: Matt Damon.

I’ve always thought that *The Bourne Identity *is one of the tightest spy novels ever, and have been known to reread the beginning on a regular basis. But when they announced that wussy little Good Will Hunting was going to play the intense-yet-vulnerable amnesiac assassin… well, I was as skeptical as when they told me Mr. Mom was going to don the Bat-cowl. But, damn, he pulled it off!

14

Best:
The Harry Potter series, because they managed to make them incredibly consistent (especially from #4 to the end). Not a poor one in the bunch, leading up to a satisfying conclusion.

The 3 Christopher Nolan Batman movies managed to bring a fully realized vision of the character in a world that made him believable. The series peaked with #2, but the other 2 were still good movies.

Close, but no cigar:
Iron Man 2 was lame, but the other two were great.
X-Men have been mostly good, but the WTF plotline of X3 is a big buzzkill.

Worst:
Transformers. Just…no.

15

I know. However, I always viewed the shark as the main character. And even though the shark always died, they all looked basically the same. :D. But, if you want to kill Jaws, I’ll think of another stinkeroo franchise

I have hot seen the last one. And I am disappointed to hear that it does not live up to the standard set by the first 4. The best part of the DH series, IMO, is it never seemed to take itself too seriously. Just fun action. I guess I’ll rent the last to see if it doesn’t meet that standard.

16

Best: The Before Sunrise/Before Sunset/Before Midnight trilogy.

17

Rocky was one I mulled over, but quite frankly, after III, the stories were weak and they were just money grabs for Stallone. Except for Rocky Balboa, which was actually a pretty decent movie. The problem with Stallone is that he took HGH to keep up his physique, and his face has morphed into something that looks like it was on fire and someone beat out the flames with a rake.

Not for this thread, but a movie called Shade, which stars Stallone, is one of the worst makeup movies of all time. Every character looks like they are painted, and Stallone is the worst. His face is uncomfortable to look at.

Good call on the Leone/Eastwood trilogy. That has the rare “last movie is best” quality.

18

Ug, toy story? I never watched the third. The second was so unbelievably corny it turned me off forever, and since the Disney purchase, i could tell with cars 2 they were just mining pixars franchises for money.

Best: mad max (hah first!)
Worst: the mummy

19

If Star Wars can be split up, why can’t James Bond be split up based on the lead actors? I’d make the case for the Sean Connery era, and give an “almost” to the Timothy Dalton era.

20

Lord of the Rings:

  • transferred the source book really well (apart from two minor irritations: dwarf tossing and skateboarding)
  • committed ensemble cast
  • fantastic locations and sets
  • moving music
  • great sequences (e.g. when Arwen mourns the passing of Aragorn)

I’ve watched the trio of Extended Editions (11+ hours) in a single sitting twice now. It doesn’t get any better than this.

Jason Bourne:

Much better than Bond (which should have stopped after Connery left.)

Chronicles of Riddick:

  • Vin Diesel carries off menace with a touch of humanity
  • the plots are different, but gripping
  • fine sci-fi ideas (rare eclipse; necromongers)

I admit I haven’t seen the third one yet. :o But the first two are repeatedly watchable and therefore I trust the series!