Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick has released 36 years after the original and its 96% Rotten Tomatoes rating reflects that it was well worth the wait. While a Top Gun sequel has been justified, there are several other movies that were released after long gaps and didn’t live up to the legacy of the first.
Fans on Ranker have voted on the films that were pointless additions, ranging from horror to comedy, and many other genres. Whether it’s a sequel to a science-fiction story like Independence Day or a slapstick feature like Dumb and Dumber, it’s interesting to see why these entries were so needless.
The Odd Couple II (1998)
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon returned after 30 years for The Odd Couple II, which carries the same outline as the first. Their characters, Oscar and Felix, reunite when they learn their children are getting married and have to go on the road to attend the ceremony.
There didn’t seem to be any need for a sequel to the 1968 original since it was about the two protagonists living together. Turning their dynamic into a road buddy comedy three decades later didn’t have the same charm. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau made several films together in the interim years, so it wasn’t as if fans hadn’t seen them share the screen either.
The Strangers: Prey At Night (2018)
The original The Strangers is ranked among the greatest slasher movies, which makes it peculiar as to why the filmmakers didn’t make a sequel when the hype surrounding the series was still hot. The Strangers: Prey At Night came a full decade after the first entry and received mixed reviews from critics.
It was criticized for rehashing the outline of the original, swapping the victims from a couple to a family. The movie didn’t follow up on the previous entry’s cliffhanger either, leaving little reason to justify a sequel 10 years later.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016)
It’s hard to believe that this movie turned 20 in 2022, with its sequel taking 14 years to arrive. My Big Fat Greek Wedding was a sleeper hit about Toula Portokalos as she wed a man out of her family’s heritage, focusing on the way her family hilariously butted in with their wedding preparations.
The sequel didn’t replicate the original’s success mainly because the jokes became dated, as the sitcom style of My Big Fat Greek Wedding wasn’t big with audiences anymore. Moreover, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 has around the same template, with the family now interfering in Toula’s daughter’s life.
Psycho II (1983)
1960’s Psycho remains massively popular as an all-time horror classic and it took 23 years before a sequel was commissioned. By this point, nothing could stand up to the legacy of the original, with Psycho II receiving a mixed response for presenting the same plotline with aged characters.
Viewers were shocked by the revelation of Norman Bates’ conflicted mind that convinced him his mother was part of him in the first movie, but that shock value wasn’t good enough the second time around. Psycho II wasn’t something fans were clamoring for either since the original still holds up well.
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)
The first Independence Day is an alien invasion movie with great replay value. But it was successful because of its release at a time when big-budget action extravaganzas were few and far between. 20 years after the 1996 release, the MCU had made big-budget features commonplace, and Independence Day: Resurgence wasn’t nearly as welcome.
The plot is similar to the first, in that aliens arrive and cause mayhem on Earth in an attempt to subjugate the population. Since viewers saw that in the previous feature, there wasn’t much interest in watching another adventure. Moreover, the absence of Will Smith’s star power hurt Independence Day: Resurgence’s chances further.
The Two Jakes (1990)
Jack Nicholson’s turn as private investigator Jake Gittes in 1974’s Chinatown was massively successful, garnering 11 Oscar nominations. It’s still seen as a neo-noir masterpiece and would have stood on its own had the sequel not arrived 16 years later in 1990.
The Two Jakes was directed by Nicholson himself and featured another mystery for Gittes to solve. While it wasn’t critically panned, the long gap between the sequels for a small-scale movie series meant that viewers had lost interest in the character’s adventures. To date, The Two Jakes remains Nicholson’s last directorial effort.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)
1987’s Wall Street was set in 1985, at a time when ‘80s excess was all the rage and Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is Good” motto sounded cool. 23 years later, Gekko’s ideology didn’t work after the 2008 recession, with many still reeling from it when Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps arrived in 2010.
The gap between the movies hadn’t done many favors to Gordon Gekko’s popularity among mainstream audiences, and many weren’t aware of the character. While Wall Street received great reviews and fetched Michael Douglas the Oscar for Best Actor, the sequel opened to a more mixed response.
Dumb And Dumber To (2014)
Jim Carrey was at a career peak during 1994, starring in Ace Ventura, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. 20 years later, the comedian had mostly been away from the big screen when Dumb and Dumber To premiered. While the first film’s slapstick comedy about a pair of dimwitted friends was charming, it wasn’t as funny to see them acting childish as middle-aged men.
Dumb and Dumber To’s premise is about the friends looking for a kidney transplant, only to reveal that they were just pranking each other the whole time. The over-the-top comedy wasn’t popular with modern audiences and the sequel turned out to be a needless addition.
Zoolander 2 (2016)
While there are certainly likable characters in Zoolander, they have a one-and-done quality that doesn’t suit sequels. The moronic but lovable model duo of Zoolander and Hansel were surprisingly popular with audiences in 2001, at a time when Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were hot off successes like Meet the Parents and Shanghai Noon.
The pair were still notable names 15 years later in 2016 but hadn’t appeared in a string of blockbuster comedies in a while. Zoolander 2 also suffered from a bizarre plot of celebrities being assassinated after using Zoolander’s signature look. Many felt the sequel relied too much on celebrity cameos and it wasn’t a big deal since social media had made stars easily accessible by then.
The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)
Stephen King’s Carrie took the world by storm in 1976 when horror movies weren’t as open with showing brutality onscreen. 23 years later, The Rage: Carrie 2 looked to cash in on the continued popularity of the original, but bowed to negative results.
The film is about Carrie’s younger half-sister who has around the same powers and goes on a similar rampage against people that have wronged her. The majority opinion was that the sequel relied too much on callbacks to the original and there was no justification for it to exist apart.