Top 10: Best franchise movies

 

1. Batman Returns (1992) - Tim Burton

 

2. Star Wars: The Last Jedi/Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017) - Rian Johnson

 

 

3. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) - Christopher McQuarrie

 

4. From Russia with Love (1963) - Terence Young  

5. War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) - Matt Reeves

 

 

6. Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) - John McTiernan

 

 

7. Goldfinger (1964) - Guy Hamilton

 

 

8. Skyfall (2012) - Sam Mendes

 

9. Jurassic World (2015) - Colin Trevorrow

 

 

10. Evil Dead II/Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987) - Sam Raimi 

 

Selected from 151 titles labeled 'franchise'

 

Note on qualifications: Only sequels/spin-offs/remakes/reboots. First franchise entries were listed in the Top 10: Best first-of-franchise movies. Something is considered a franchise after more than 3 films; 3 films make a trilogy, not yet truly a franchise. Auxiliary products such as novels and video games do not help qualify. Character-specific films within a larger fictional universe do not qualify (such as Black Panther, Dr. Strange, Aquaman etc.) before there are more than 3 films primarily related to the specific character.

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date        
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date         
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Best epic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  

Best erotic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best family movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

Best films about filmmaking 

Best first-of-franchise movies 

Top 10: Best 'flop' rank movies

Best Twentieth Century Fox titles 

Best French movies

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

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

 

 

1. Great Expectations (1946) - David Lean

 

2. Gandhi (1982) - Richard Attenborough

 

 

3. Dunkirk (2017) - Christopher Nolan

 

 

4. I, Daniel Blake (2016) - Ken Loach

 

 

5. From Russia with Love (1963) - Terence Young  

 

6. Stan & Ollie - Jon S. Baird

 

 

7. The Fearless Vampire Killers/Dance of the Vampires (1967) - Roman Polanski 

 

8. The King's Speech (2010) - Tom Hooper

 

 

9. Philomena (2013) - Stephen Frears  

 

10. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) - Mike Newell

 

Chosen out of 118 reviewed titles labeled 'UK', 'England', 'Scotland' and/or 'Wales'

 

Previous Top 10 lists:

Best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big flop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best big hit movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best biopic movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best car chases in movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best comedies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date        
Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date         
Best debut movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best Danish movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Best Disney movies reviewed by Film Excess to date     
Best documentaries reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best dramas reviewed by Film Excess to date  
Best drama-thrillers reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Best dramedies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Top 10: Best drug-themed movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

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

From Russia with Love (1963) - Several remarkable elements make Young's 2nd Bond an enduring classic

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James Bond returns to action, combat, stylish garbs and sexy women on this fabulous painted poster for Terence Young's From Russia with Love

When the evil organization SPECTRE lures MI6 agent James Bond to Istanbul with a Russian beauty and the chance to procure a Soviet cryptographic devise, 007 is launched on a perilous journey for the Lektor machine, his life and the life of the lovely Tatiana.

From Russia with Love is the first Bond sequel, following Dr. No (1962). It is written by Richard Maibaum (Diamonds Are Forever (1971)) and Johanna Harwood (Call Me Bwana (1963)), based on Ian Fleming's (Dr. No (1958)) novel From Russia, with Love (1957), and directed by returning Chinese-born, British master filmmaker Terence Young (The Secret Agents (1965)).
It is filled with Sean Connery's (The Man Who Would Be King (1975)) Bond brand of sexist one-liners, spy setups, the later heavily parodied SPECTRE organization, gadgets, cool locations such as the memorable lethal spy nest of Cold War Istanbul and the gypsy camp that sees alluring belly-dancing turn into a wild cat-fight, - and the Orient Express.
Add to this Connery, the ultimate Bond, who is in his prime as the suave character here; Pedro Armendáriz (The Uprooted (1960)) in his final part as Turkish gentleman Kerim Bey, beautiful Daniela Bianchi (Special Mission Lady Chaplin (1966)) as the main Bond girl, who just can't get enough James, and Robert Shaw (A Man for All Seasons (1966)) as the blond goon, Grant. - And Lotte Lenya (The Appointment (1969)) as the iconic, lesbian, shoe-knifing villain, Rosa Klebb.
From Russia with Love is more scruffy, suspenseful, colorful and handsome than Dr. No; it relies more on espionage elements than lushly exotic locales and is reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece North by Northwest (1959). It is a spectacle of the rarest order, one that reeks of sex. - And it is certainly one of the top 3 Bond movies of all time.

Related posts:

Terence Young: Top 10: Best franchise movies

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

Dr. No (1962) - Bond # 1 is one attractive package
Other films in the Bond franchise: Spectre (2015) - Mendes' second Bond delivers Skyfall (2012) - The overly celebrated third pout from Daniel Craig as Bond in slick production
A View to a Kill (1985) or, Once a Gentleman, Always a Gentleman!  Diamonds Are Forever (1971) - Connery's last Bond adventure is a colorful romp
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (spoof comedy - not an official part of the franchise)

Cost: 3 mil. $
Box office: Reportedly 78.9 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[From Russia with Love premiered 10 October (London) and runs 116 minutes. Connery was paid 54k $ and a 100k $ bonus for his performance in the film. The elaborate chess set cost a huge 150k $ to construct. Shooting took place from April - August 1963 in Turkey, including Istanbul, Italy, England, including London, Scotland and - the shots of rats - in Madrid, Spain. The production was rushed to completion just the year after the first Bond film, and several remarkable problems occurred: Armendáriz was diagnosed with inoperable cancer during production: He completed almost all of his scenes without delay, in pain, and took his own life when he could no longer act. Young crashed into the ocean in a helicopter with the art director and a cameraman in Scotland, but was rescued and completed the day's shooting. Days later, Bianchi's driver fell asleep during their commute, and the actress' face was bruised in the accident, barring her from shooting for two weeks. A boat rented by the production sunk in Turkey's Bosphorus strait, and the final explosion got out of control, burning one person's eyelids and seriously injuring 3 stunt men. The film went over schedule and budget: Its original budget of 2 mil. $ seems to have ended up vastly over its limit, if the 3 mil. $ final cost is accurate. The original international gross is listed as 12.5 mil. $, double Dr. No's take, becoming the most popular movie at the British box office of 1963. With many later re-releases, the film's North American gross has risen to 24.7 mil. $ (31.3 % of the reported international gross of 78.9 mil. $). Original reviews were a mix of praise and ridicule. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and won a BAFTA, among other honors. Young returned with The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965). Connery returned in Woman of Straw (1964). The next Bond movie was Goldfinger (1964), with Connery, directed by Guy Hamilton. Young directed one more Bond movie; Thunderball (1965).  From Russia with Love is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of From Russia with Love?

Dr. No (1962) - Bond # 1 is one attractive package

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Sean Connery strikes an unusual pose on this poster for Terence Young's Dr. No

QUICK REVIEW:

Dr. No is the first James Bond movie ever, based on Ian Fleming's 7th Bond novel of the same name.

Agent 007 is sent to Jamaica, because one of his colleagues in the British intelligence service is reported missing there. The clues lead him to the island Crab Keyes, where the evil genius Dr. No has a lab that makes something unspecified which produces nuclear radiation. SPOILER - Bond blows that up!

The concept for the following 22 Bond movies to date, (movie # 24, Spectre (2015), will be released later this year) is impressively determined already here from the solid get-go, and Dr. No is an instant pleasure as the slightly chauvinistic male agent fantasy that the Bond character and universe is.
Sean Connery (Time Bandits (1981)) is perfect and very dashing as the suave gentleman hero without any ties, except for his employer, and Ursula Andress (Clash of the Titans (1981)) is beautiful and perfectly lovely as Honey Ryder, one of the series' most memorable Bond babes. Canadian New York-actor Joseph Wiseman (The Valachi Papers (1972)) is the titular, ice-cold villain, whose gimmick, - often a physical defect, which most of the Bond villains have, - is his crab-like steel hands. He isn't among the series' most exciting, and there are parts of Dr. No that draw out a bit.
Ken Adam's (Barry Lyndon (1975)) spectacular sets are a main attraction already from the first film here, and John Barry's (Howard the Duck (1986)) legendary theme also gets imprinted forever in our audial memory in Dr. No.
Much has happened for James Bond since the film: In Dr. No, 007's mission really gets hairy as he arrives to the island of Dr. No in the dead of night. - And lies down to sleep!
The film is written by Richard Maibaum (Thunderball (1965)), Johanna Harwood (Call Me Bwana (1963)) and Berkely Mather (The Long Ships (1964)) and directed by British, Shanghai-born master filmmaker Terence Young (The Valachi Papers), who would later direct two more of the franchise's best films, From Russia with Love (1963, # 2) and Thunderball (1965, # 4).

Watch the original, corny-fun trailer for the glitzy Technicolor movie here

Cost: 1.1 mil. $
Box office: 59.5 mil. $
= Mega-hit
[Dr. No was given its relatively low budget by United Artists, who were not certain what kind of an animal they would have on their hands and therefore rolled the film out without great confidence in North America, at first on double-bills and on a limited number of screens. The film would go on to gross 16 mil. $ (27 % of the total gross) in North America, from a reported 19 mil. admissions. The film was pushed by an elaborate PR campaign that included tie-ins to various products. Dr. No is also infamous for booming the sales of bikinis, through its scenes of exotic Swiss beauty Andress in the two-piece.]

What do you think of Dr. No?