15 Most Insultingly Bad Sequels To Great Movies

Conventional wisdom dictates that, most of the time, movie sequels are rarely as good as their predecessor. There are exceptions that prove the rule...and then there are movies that go totally the other way, plummeting deep down past even the lowest fan expectations.

These 15 sequels to awesome movies weren't merely content to serve up watchable mediocrity: they delivered unmistakable, flaming trainwrecks that enraged an entire fanbase and tainted their respective brands for years.

Either a product of laziness, complacency or greed, these wretched sequels rank among the worst ever put to screen, and perhaps even retroactively forced you to reconsider how good the originals were in the process.

No matter what this summer's slate of blockbuster sequels serves up, even a worst case scenario would struggle to match the insane ineptitude on display in these films. So, buckle up as we bring all those painful, distant memories back up to the surface...

15. Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997)

Keanu Reeves' 1994 action vehicle Speed is one of the best-crafted and most iconic genre films of the 1990s, and with damn good reason.

Three years later the hilariously-titled Speed 2: Cruise Control hit cinemas, scaling-back the stakes of the original's brilliant "bomb on a bus" scenario by switching the setting to...a slow-moving cruise ship. Reeves, clearly seeing the writing on the wall, opted not to return (being replaced by Jason Patric).

The sole redeeming feature of this horribly conceived follow-up is Willem Dafoe, whose deliciously demented turn as the villainous Geiger very nearly compensates for Patric's carved-out-of-wood heroism.

The characters and dialogue are generally horrendous, it's depressingly low on suspense and fails to crackle with the same energy that made the original such a blast.