Studios have made tons of forced movie sequels to popular franchises just so they can milk that cash cow till it dies. These forced movie sequels represent the worst of Hollywood greed.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
The first Anchorman movie was an absolute roller coaster. It made us laugh out loud and was a shot in the arm for the comedy blockbuster genre. Anchorman 2 tried to do the same but ended up becoming one of those forced movie sequels. It was nowhere near as funny and had little to no re-watchability, something the first movie had in incredible proportions. Anchorman 2 tried really hard to capture the silly spirit of its predecessor but we all know how that ended. Forced movie sequels like that end up going in the annals of movie history on the pages of “How not to make a movie”
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The magic of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies were that it was more or less an enclosed story arc. There was the saga of Will Turner, Elizabeth Swan, and Jack Sparrow and how their tales intertwined to give us an epic trilogy. On Stranger Tides was a totally new story arc. The only returning character that was well-renowned was Captain Jack Sparrow. Not even Johnny Depp could save a story arc if the writers resort to shoddy and lazy writing. On Stranger Tides and the fifth Pirates movies – Dead Men Tell No Tales, are some of the worst forced movie sequels ever made.
Bigger Fatter Liar
The movie Bigger Fatter Liar came in 2017 as a sequel to the Frankie Muniz and Amanda Bynes’ 2000’s flick – Big Fat Liar. When you make a sequel, you try to recreate the magic of its predecessor with a new story arc and plot points. Bigger Fatter Liar neither had the star power or a unique plotline. It was basically a rehashed Big fat Liar movie with a few key details changed. There’s a reason the 2017 sequel movie to Big Fat Liar went totally unnoticed. Audiences had smelled the scent of the studio was banking on the idea of forced movie sequels from a mile away.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
Who knew that in 2002, a movie literally about a wedding would become such a cult-classic. My Big Fat Greek Wedding came in April 2002 and won all our hearts. It was such a sweet and comic tale. We all laughed and fell in love with the Portokalos clan. The sequel – My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 came 14 years later in 2016. And boy was it a disaster. Inserting a rebellious teenager and marriage troubles into the mix only creates a recipe for disaster. What was supposed to be sweet and warm ended up being too cold for our tastes.
Zoolander 2
How can we make a list about Forced Movie Sequels without having Zoolander 2 on the list. The first Zoolander movie had its moments. The orgy, the gasoline fight, and the throwing star being stopped by Magnum being some of those. The film even ended on a happy note, with Derek and Matilda opening reading center together. They have a young child now. The sequel opens with the reading center utterly destroyed and Matilda’s death. Derek then becomes a dead-beat father. Zoolander 2 was a mere shadow of its more successful predecessor.
Now You See Me 2
The magic (no pun intended) of Now You See Me was in its visual sleight of hand techniques. The film was a success because it kept the audiences on their toes with not just good magic tricks but also the enthralling story arc. No one saw that twist coming in the end where Mark Ruffalo reveals himself to be the mastermind. Now You See Me 2 can never be as good as the original because it relies too much on creating gasp-able moments but forgot about inserting good plot twists, the very thing that makes the Now You See Me franchise so intriguing. Forced Movie Sequels do not get any worse than that.
