Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies

 

1. Alien (1979) - Ridley Scott 

 

 

2. Godzilla/ゴジラ (Gojira) (1954) - Ishirô Honda

 

 

3. Back to the Future (1985) - Robert Zemeckis

 

 

4. First Blood (1982) - Ted Kotcheff

 

 

5. Saw (2004) - James Wan 

 

 

6. Dirty Harry (1971) - Don Siegel  

7. Halloween (1978) - John Carpenter

 

 

8. American Pie (1999) - Chris and Paul Weitz

 

9. Blade (1998) - Stephen Norrington  

10. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - Gore Verbinski

 

Selected from 39 reviews labeled 'first of franchise'

 

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
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Best films about filmmaking 

What do you think of the list?
Which first-of-franchise movies would make your personal Top 10?

First Blood (1982) - Stallone and Kotcheff's powerful Vietnam War classic

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Sylvester Stallone, a star so great at the time that his first name is simply left out on the top of this poster, poses with a machine gun against a thundering sky on this dramatic poster for Ted Kotcheff's First Blood

John J. Rambo, a Green Beret veteran of the Vietnam War, gets into a deadly fix back in his own country, when an uncouth sheriff targets him, and his survival skills and commanding officer get involved in the affair.

First Blood, written by Michael Kozoll (Hill Street Blues (1981-87)), William Sackheim (The Competition (1980)) and co-writer and star, great New-Yorker filmmaker Sylvester Stallone (Zookeeper (2011)), based on the same-titled 1972 novel by David Morell (The Naked Edge (2010)), and directed by great Canadian filmmaker Ted Kotcheff (Life at the Top (1965)), is an excellent Vietnam War movie. I esteem it at level in quality with Michael Cimino's great The Deer Hunter (1978), only whereas Deer Hunter is a war drama, First Blood is a war actioner.
Stallone is terrific as Rambo, a character who experiences getting treated as trash in the country he went to war for, and one that allows him to react by striking a proper punch again; (First Blood was released after his three first, wildly successful Rocky boxing movies, which came out in 1976, 1979 and 1982.) First Blood is gripping because it portrays so forcefully how completely inefficiently society treated, - and in some cases still treat, - returned war veterans.
In First Blood's supporting parts, Richard Crenna (Joshua's World (1980)) plays Rambo's colonel with subtle refinement, and Brian Dennehy (Welcome to Paradise (2007)) is good as the mean sheriff.
First Blood is a true classic. 

Related posts:

Ted Kotcheff: Weekend at Bernie's (1989) - Kotcheff's morbid gaga silliness 
Mentioned movie: The Deer Hunter (1978) - Cimino's great, colossal Vietnam epic 

Play this video to listen to a great piece from Jerry Goldsmith's score for the film

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 125.2 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[First Blood was released 22 October (USA) and runs 93 minutes. Morell's novel's rights were sold for 75k $ in '72, and several big names tried to put together a film of it, before Stallone and Kotcheff began filming, among them Richard Brooks, Martin Ritt, Sydney Pollack, John Badham, John Frankenheimer, countless stars and writers, and reportedly 18 script versions. Stallone decided that Rambo must survive at the end of the film. Shooting took place in British Colombia, Canada from November 1981 - ?. More than 50 of the firearms that were imported into Canada for the shoot were reportedly stolen from the set. The film opened #1 to a 6.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for 3 consecutive weeks and spent a further 4 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#2-#3-#3) and grossed 47.2 mil. $ (37.7 % of the total gross). It was the 13th highest-grossing film in North America of the year. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. It was neglected completely in terms of awards. Kotcheff returned with Uncommon Valor (1983), and Stallone with an uncredited walk-on in Staying Alive (1983) and a starring part in Rhinestone (1984). First Blood started the Rambo franchise that continued with Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988) and Rambo (2008), all with Stallone, who canceled a 5th Rambo film in 2016 and said that he was retiring the character. An animated series, Rambo: The Force of Freedom, was released and canceled in 1986, and an Indian remake is in the makes for a late 2018 release. First Blood is certified fresh at 88 % with a 7.1 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of First Blood?

Weekend at Bernie's (1989) - Kotcheff's morbid gaga silliness

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One of the festive posters for Ted Kotcheff's Weekend at Bernie's

Weekend at Bernie's is a beloved dark comedy by writer Robert Klane (Weekend at Bernie's II (1993)) and director Ted Kotcheff (First Blood (1982)).

Two aspiring, young friends at a New York insurance company get lucky with a business find and get invited to their boss Bernie's luxurious vacation house. But when they find Bernie dead upon arrival, they decide to keep it a secret.

Bernie's allegedly started a trend of 'dead-person-comedies' and became a popular hit that attained near-cult popularity through endless TV reruns and video and DVD (and in 2014 Bluray) releases in the years following its theatrical release. A trivia note that is almost too obscure to mention is that it is revealed in one Friends' (1994-04) episode to be Rachel's (Jennifer Aniston) favorite movie.
The film starts out great, and the two protagonists played by Andrew McCarthy (Less Than Zero (1987)) and Jonathan Silverman (Death Becomes Her (1992)) have good chemistry and energy. - In particular the scene of SPOILER Silverman's date, who comes home to his parents, (his father gets played by Kotcheff), is a riot.

One of the other upbeat posters for Ted Kotcheff's Weekend at Bernie's

The details:

The first scenes of the two friends' handling of dead Bernie are also quite funny, but then after a while it is clear that this will be the joke for the remaining more or less an hour of the film; their carrying, driving, boating and dragging poor, dead Bernie around everywhere. It becomes too silly and our two heroes become too idiotic at some point, losing our investment in them. Needless to say, the plot also becomes unlikely beyond any measure, and Bernie's develops from the farcical into a screwball-like crazy-comedy. Somewhere along the way, it begins to come off as a one-trick-pony, which squeezes every possible morbid variation out of its gimmick.
Terry Kiser (Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)) plays Bernie, which must have been difficult. Unfortunately, it is hard not to focus on the jerks and other ways that his 'corpse' moves, which a real one naturally wouldn't. (His skin color also stays almost the same throughout.)
All these objections aside, Bernie's is a good enough time, if not entirely deserving of any classic status.

Watch the trailer here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 30.2 mil. $ (US only)
= Box office success
[Bernie's spun a 1993 sequel, and was reportedly financially successful, although its reputation would make one think it bigger at its time than the case actually was. I have not been able to find any international gross figures, (beside that it made 400k £ in the UK and that 600k paid admission to see it in Germany.) This Variety article reports that Kane and Kotcheff sued Fox and MGM about a year ago, claiming that they have lost "at least hundreds of millions of dollars" due to the companies' neglect to pay them profits for Bernie's. I have found no conclusion to this truly wild accusation yet.]

What do you think of Weekend at Bernie's?
Other 'dead-person-comedies' possibly inspired by it, or which may have inspired it?