Best Threepeats
Tim mentioned an L A Times story that that quoted Christopher Nolan asking, “How many good third movies in a franchise can people name?â€
So let’s put it to you. How many threepeats are there? I don’t necessarily mean a trilogy. But ones that had at least three solid films in a row.
While I love the first Star Wars trilogy and think the third Godfather is a bit unfairly attacked, the fact is that neither 3rd part was remotely as good as what came before. And neither of the Raiders sequels were in the same league as the original. However here are the ones I’d pick that were.
Lord of the Rings – Is there anyone who’d disagree here?
James Bond – While the third film (Goldfinger) is arguably the weakest of the initial Connery films I think the first 5 films were all very solid. Plus, truth be told, the camp in Goldfinger was in the books. It’s hard to know what to do when one of your main characters is named “Pussy Galore.”
Bourne – While the third film is, in my view, much weaker than the other two it is still a solid film.
Trois Couleurs – Kieslowski’s trilogy isn’t completely even but they are all solid.
Posted on October 29, 2008, in Film. Bookmark the permalink. 38 Comments.
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Harry Potter #3 was better than the first two.
I thought Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was quite good. Of course you can’t top Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Last Crusade was quite good.
Return of the King was spectacular.
I remember being dazzled by ROTJ. Total cinematic euphoria. I was just a kid.
Now I don’t see that movie through quite the same eyes. But I suspect in some ways we’ve been spoiled and that it’s harder now to surprise/awe an audience.
Reading that linked article, all I can think is … if only Heath Ledger was still alive …
He was amazing.
Jack Ryan – Does that count since Baldwin and Ford swapped? I think it still does. (And, as you did with Bond, we’ll ignore later installment(s).)
And I really liked Return of the Jedi. The Emperor is just so smug. “You want this, don’t you?” Love it!
While I’ve not seen the first two, I think “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” is a great third in a trilogy.
3 films where all were strong? Tough one.
I’m the one to disagree on RotK, truthfully I was bored stiff by both the 2nd and 3rd LotR movies. Oh look, here’s yet another giant CGI battle scene.
Back to the Future? Close, but no. X-Men? 3rd was the weakest. Godfather? Ditto. Matrix? The didn’t make a 2nd & 3rd movie. You hear me? They did NOT make them.
Die Hard? While I love the movies, I just don’t know. Maybe the winner? Definitely up there.
Return of the Jedi is probably the easiest one I can name, but for the freaking muppets it would be an awesome movie, but Ep 4 and 5 blow it away still.
Indian Jones, yes for the 3rd film, but all 3 films weren’t solid.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? Now we’re talking, probably who I give the gold to for the whole series, with Die Hard and original Star Wars silver and bronze, respectively.
The winner for the 3rd movie in a series being the best movie? – Evil Dead series. Army of Darkness, Hail to the king, baby!
Is Saw III any good? First two were pretty entertaining.
Actually, Goldfinger is probably my favorite Bond movie.
How about Blade? Am I right folks?
Hello?
Austin Powers!!
Jack Ryan is a good one. Clear & Present Danger is one awesome movie.
I still maintain that Bourne Ultimatum is the best of the three (based on rewatchability), though there are those that dare disagree with me.
I’m not a movie watcher, but this thread brought to mind the Polish French “Three Colors” trilogy – Blue, White and Red. Is this too far out of the mainstream for what you’re talking about? Have any of you seen these?
Doh. Saw the last line of the post. Never mind. Feel free to delete.
I agree with Dan. Azkaban is by far better than the first two Potter films. But considering superhero movies, Nolan is right. Spider-Man 3? Sucked. X3 wasn’t up there with the other two, blade 3 was kind of a disaster, and Superman 3? Well…
The problem with Harry Potter as a threepeat is the first one was pretty lackluster. (I liked the second one but the fourth and on sucked royally)
I need to rewatch the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s been a while. Last time I watched it I remember thinking that Peter Jackson really needs to go re-edit the first one to make the extended edition flow a little smoother.
Sergio Leone’s “Man with No Name” trilogy is a great one. Even if technically it’s not really a trilogy everyone thinks of it as one.
X-Men III makes me wish Singer had stuck with X-Men rather than making Superman. Ratner…just…sucks.
The third Die Hard is horrible. The recent fourth one was fun although it’d have been better had they skipped that ridiculous fight with the jet at the end. The second one is good once you can suspend disbelief enough to imagine that not one person on the east coast could radio those planes. (Yeah, it’s a big suspension of disbelief…)
Blade was awesome. The second I enjoyed although it was pretty flawed – particularly in the action scenes. The third film was unwatchable.
Austin Powers probably counts.
BTW – no way Back to the Future fits. The second one was fun, but a distant to the original. The third one was pretty mediocre.
Susan,
Saw III was the best one in my opinion. Besides being entertaining, it presented some moral questions that I’m not used to seeing in the horror genre. Usually it is just about how close can we get to making the audience throw up – and Saw III came very close to that goal as well. Definitely the goriest Saw.
I have not seen Saw V yet though. So my comments are based on I-IV.
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As for X-Men, I actually thought the first one was the weakest. I almost didn’t get around to seeing the other two. This would have been a shame, as #2 in particular was really well done.
I just saw Saw II twice (ha) in a row (on tv—once with my son, again with my husband) and the second time was so much better. Instead of being all scared of what was going to happen next, I could actually see all the foreshadowing and clues everywhere—and there was a ton. I’m disappointed now I didn’t see the twists coming (all three of them) but it’s hard to concentrate on that stuff with your hands over your eyes for half the movie.
What? Goldfinger is not just the best Connery Bond film, it is almost universally considered the greatest James Bond film by film critics and Bond fanatics.
But what do I know, I hated all of the LOTR movies. Hobbits are lame.
Come on Matt. From Russia With Love is vastly superior to Goldfinger as is Thunderball. (Although there is one icky scene in that latter that definitely displays the sexual sensitivies of the time)
Goldfinger is just campy.
Thunderball is NOT vastly superior, Clark. Woe upon ye.
I can see the argument for From Russia With Love.
Goldfinger did get a 96% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.
From Russia with Love, 97%.
The three Wallace and Grommit shorts are all home runs.
Does Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Waking Life count as three related films?
Ahh, Grommit. How did I overlook that one?!
The 2nd, 4th, 6th, and 8th Star Trek movies were all good. The 3rd was probably the best of the odd-numbered ones.
I don’t think LOTR really counts, BTW, since it was really one movie released in three parts rather than three separate movies.
Right, but that is really what a trilogy is.
All three LOTR films were filmed at once. I don’t think there’s ever been another big-budget Hollywood trilogy made that way. Usually second and third movies only get greenlighted after the first movie proves successful.
I think that was the case for every Hollywood series mentioned in this thread. Even The Matrix and Star Wars were released as stand-alone films and only became trilogies because they were so successful.
Goldfinger established the Bond formula and iconography:
The Villian… Auric Goldfinger
The Girl… Pussy Galore
The Henchman… Odd Job
The Car… Aston Martin
The Catch phrases… “No Mr. Bond, I want you to die.”
The Theme Song… Goldfinger by Shirley Bassey
The Gadgets…
The Sexy opening title sequence…
Really, every single Bond film since 1964 has essentially been remaking Goldfinger.
Plus it was the first monster Bond blockbuster. Crowds in England and the U.S. went nuts for Goldfinger. It spawned major merchandising… toy Aston Martins, lunch boxes, action figures, board games, etc.
Entertainment Weekly, Ask Men, Total Film, Roger Ebert, and tons of other online places rank it as the best Bond film. It is the only Bond film to make the American Film Institute (AFI) top 100 Thrilling Movies.
A few years back there was a Bond special (the one hosted by Liz Hurley?) that went through the Bond history and asked all of the critics/experts to discuss Bond, etc. At the end, each was asked which was the best film — everyone answered Goldfinger.
I’m not saying Goldfinger is bad. Just that it’s the weakest of the main Connery films. (Ignoring Diamonds are Forever which was more tongue in cheek and setup the future Roger Moore films) I do think that Goldfinger is the campiest of all the Connery films.
BTW – I think that everyone points to Goldfinger as the best precisely because of the Bond iconography. But as a film in and of itself I think several others are better. However if you were to ask, “what’s the archetypal Bond flick” then you have to answer Goldfinger. Which is the only reason I can imagine why it’s treated as it is. (Except for Ebert who loves camp)
Toy Story 3 will be amazing.
Here’s hoping. It’s an interesting premise – Andy is all grown up and giving the toys to charity. My son loves Buzz Lightyear so anything with more Buzz will be great for him.
BTW – I thought of some more.
Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy. If you haven’t seen it see it. Remember it’s from the very early 60′s so it’s done in that style of grand filmmaking but definitely doesn’t have the style that developed in the late 60′s and early 70′s. But a great trilogy.
An other one. The Mad Max trilogy. While I always found the first film to be seriously overrated and the third was a tad too Hollywood they are a solid trilogy.
And one more. The Pink Panther series. (Pink Panther, Wait Until Dark, Return of the Pink Panther, The Pink Panther Strikes Again and then the only so-so Revenge of the Pink Panther. (There were a few more attempts that, minus a living Peter Sellers, really sucked)
Jaws 3 anyone?
Sorry, Clark, but I don’t think Beyond Thunderdome qualifies as a solid movie. I wanted to put Mad Max on the list, but its third is, as you say, “too Hollywood.”
Rocky III wasn’t good, but Rocky IV was fun.
Rocky III actually holds up much better than I expected. So I’d count that one. Rocky IV was embarrassing if in a guilty pleasure kind of way. Rocky V the less thought about the better. Rocky VI I just saw a couple of months ago and it was actually pretty good. More of the vibe of the first two Rocky’s although clearly not as good. But very enjoyable. And much better than that last Rambo movie.
Rocky IV was awesome, Clark. Now way could that movie work today, but when it came out it was perfect. How many times have you heard someone quote, “I must break you”?
I watched Rocky III a few months ago. It was…weird.
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