Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Sequel Based Series of Movies

This topic was a little bit harder to blog about,  just because its hard to link to IMDb.  :-)   Additionally, I was in the mountains for the week, enjoying the Snow, so I didn't post this on Tuesday.  Thursday is close though.

Sequel based is for 3 movies or more.  Ghostbusters franchise....doesn't count.  There is a little more flexibility in responses though, because they don't necessarily have to be trilogies or the like (as you will see from one of my top 3).  I am sure that I will hear a lot of "Why didn't you include _________?"  Lets be honest....are ALL of the movies in _____ really that good?  The James Bond series is great...but the whole thing?  Star Wars was good....but did you see episode 1?  Superman? The Matrix? Oceans 12?  Get it?

Top 3 Sequel Based Series of Movies

(always in no particular order)
The Bourne Series
The Bourne: IdentitySupremacyUltimatum.  No big secret...Matt Damon is one of my favorite actors of all time.  I don't own a lot of movies on both Blu-Ray and DVD.  These however do fall into that category.  Story, pacing, dialogue, editing, and the fact that Jason Bourne is an absolute BADASS in these stories.  Robert Ludlum has given basis for some great stories...actually makes me want to read the novels now.




The Jack Ryan Series
Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, Sum of All Fears. 4 movies.  3 different actors playing Jack Ryan.  4 totally different scenarios.  Sum of All Fears was the weakest of the four, but it still had a scene that made my stomach turn.  That doesn't happen a lot (See my post on Saving Private Ryan). Best part about this series?  You can watch them in any order at any time and wont be "lost" on the story. (Thats alway important when it comes to showing other people films.)





Back to the Future Series
Back to the Future: One, Two, Three.  True Family Entertainment.  I can honestly say that when I first saw these movies, I got more excited for the sequels to come out.  So much buildup for the next story, yet, they still stand alone as being great films.  Lets add in that they used a Delorean for the time machine.  Best supporting actor though...Crispin Glover as George McFly in the first one.  So funny.





Next weeks Topic: Comedies

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I can see why you posted your picks... and I agree that all 3 of them deserve to be on a top 10 list, and 1 of them deserves to be on the top. For critiques sake, I will not include any of these three in my choices.

1) Die Hard - I still remember sitting on my dad's lap watching the first one, when my mom walked in and started yelling at him about how inappropriate it was for me to be watching it. I also remember my grandfather getting yelled at by my mom when we got back from seeing the second of the series. I remember sitting in your living room and not being able to hear the TV as we watched the third one because you were quoting the whole movie. And do not get me started on the awesomeness of the fourth one. And although the second of the series was mediocre at best, the rest of the series clearly makes up for it.

Batman - I know, I know, Batman and Robin sucked... it was so horrible... So bad, that even the actors have chosen to forget that they were in it. But you also have so many great other movies in the franchise... Batman - Awesome, Batman Returns - Great, Batman Forever - Cheesy but super entertaining, Batman Begins - Wowzers! Dark knight - Belongs in the top 10 movies of all time.

Lord of the Rings - I love to read fantasy books. I love even more being able to see a good adaptation of my favorite books on the big screen. That is exactly what Jackson did with these movies. While there are some specific scenes that infuriated me to see changed or left out, it was still Epic.

Honorable mention - Alien Series, Indiana Jones (Im sorry, I dont remember a fourth one being made...)

The only reason Harry Potter did not make my list (and I am a die hard Harry Potter fan), is because the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th movies were such horrible adaptations.

Steven L said...

again, R. Kevin is Steven....

Christopher said...

HAHA...Die Hard was the same for me. #4 was crap, so it got booted. Batman was Amazing...but once again...#4 was crap. Indiana Jones...OUTSTANDING....yet again...#4 was crap. See a pattern? Even in my own choices...Sum of all Fears (#4) was crap. hahah I wont comment on Lord of the Rings, because i will get railed. I couldnt even manage to sit through the first one. Bored to death. And I didnt read the book. Im not going to knock it though, because everybody swears by it. Good List Steven.

Name said...

Hard one for me, since I had these down a lot better several days ago and haven't thought about them since but here we go:

1. Toy Story Trilogy, bet you don't hear that very often. I thought each one of those movies had genius writing, great voice acting and excellent plots.

2. Die Hard series. I thought each one was interesting and had its appeal, and Bruce Willis is a badass.

3. Lord of the Rings: One of the few movie-from-books crossovers where I liked the movies as much as the books after reading the books. Great actors, and they really brought the series to life.


Note: Loved the Bourne trilogy, very epic. And I want to read all the Jack Ryan novels, have only read The Hunt for Red October but Clancy is a great writer.

Unknown said...

Ok, my turn...not as epic as most of the newer series...but it is more or less of a childhood thing for me..


1. James bond, i have seen a majority of these, and most of them i have as well...they were some of my favorite movies..although this is slightly odd....my favorites were the sean connery bonds...what can i say..BRITISH


2. Indiana Jones,

i know..not the best, but still i was 8 when i saw raiders...i was hooked....if you look at some older pics of me you will see that i used to go around with a fedora and a satchel... and i still have a 6 foot bullwhip on my coat rack..:)


3.Star Wars,


I know...extremely predictable, although the prequels were...ehhhh....th eoriginal series is the reason i am in to movies...i watched the bonus disk that came with the dvd set and i saw filmaking evolve, star wars is how most modern animation even was created,(george lucas created pixar) and also because they are really well made films....

yeah thats it

Steven L said...

Let me set you straight here Neil, if that is your real name... George Lucas did not CREATE Pixar.... In the beginning, they had worked up a model of how they wanted to work it... They sought out Lucas in hopes that he would financially back the project. He worked for a few years with the developers of the 3nd generation of CGI creations, until he sold he rights in the company off to Steve Jobs, who by the way arbitrarily called it Pixar shortly after becoming the majority shareholder in the technology.

And also to comment on Lucas "creating" modern animation is also a long shot. Go back 40 years to the beginnings of Disney's animation and animated cell creation. If you follow his evolution of animation you will see that it had many similarities to the CGI'd images you see today.

Christopher said...

HAHA Outstanding. Young and old are chiming in. Tomorrows post will be an EASY ONE!!!!