The best and worst sequels to sports movies

The second “Mighty Ducks” movie builds upon the underdog sports story of the first film in a clever way. Certainly it’s clever for a kid’s movie from Disney clearly just looking to cash in on the success of the first film. Many of the Ducks, plus a few culturally-diverse ringers, are Team USA and the Junior Goodwill Games. Naturally, Iceland are the big baddies. There is a knucklepuck, though. It’s a silly movie, but it was fun for kids in the ‘90s.

Even those who were kids in the ‘90s and who enjoyed the first two “Mighty Ducks” movies were largely disenchanted with the third movie. There’s basically no Gordon Bombay and we go from the world of an international hockey tournament to…a high school. Specifically, the intraschool squabbling between JV and varsity. Yeah, they were out of ideas.

Is pool a sport? It’s close enough to include the movie that won Paul Newman an Oscar. Directed by Martin Scorsese, “The Color of Money” sees Newman reprising his role as “Fast Eddie” Felson from “The Hustler.” Now, he’s teaching the ropes to a young hotshot played by Tom Cruise aka the only kind of role Cruise played for a minute there in the 1980s. It’s not as good as “The Hustler,” but “The Color of Money” had too much talent working on it not to succeed.

Golf is definitely a sport, but we wouldn’t mind not considering it one to avoid having to think about “Caddyshack II” with any real substance. “Caddyshack,” while flawed, has a lot of great jokes in it and four excellent comedic performances. The only one of those four to show up for “Caddyshack II,” though, was Chevy Chase, and he does the bare minimum in a pared-down role to cash his paycheck. The whole thing is a slog.

Fans of Hong Kong action cinema likely need no introduction to the “Ip Man” series, or to star Donnie Yen. Yen plays the titular Ip Man, who was a grandmaster of the martial art of Wing Chun. The “Ip Man” movie takes history seriously, and they also take martial arts seriously. It’s for fans of fight scenes that think Bruce Lee’s movies were too over-the-top.

Speaking of martial arts movies that lack substance and nuance. The second “Karate Kid” movie is not without its value, but the third one is out of ideas. A common complaint about “Part III” is that it just rehashes stuff from the prior two movies, but just does a worse job. To that end, “The Next Karate Kid,” which was no masterpiece, at least benefited from some fresh energy.

“Major League” is a classic, and “Major League II” really shouldn’t have worked all that well. For one, it’s PG after the first one was R. Wesley Snipes was replaced by Omar Epps in the role of Willie Mays Hayes. However, the movie successfully makes hay out of the idea of, “How does the team who had out-of-nowhere success handle that success?” Plus, Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn was still around, and that’s what really mattered. Now, the third movie, “Back to the Minors?” Yeah, that one is a disaster.

The hubris of trying to make a sequel to “Ski School.” There’s barely enough movie in the first one! “Ski School” is an ‘80s snobs vs. slobs comedy, but it came out in 1991, so it was already behind the curb. It eked by on quasi-retro vibes, but “Ski School 2” has nothing really going for it. Even the star of the two films, Dean Cameron, said of it, “I said to the producer and the writer, 'This movie is so stupid, we will have a great time making it.’” That’s not really a recipe for success.

Even though the sequel lost arguably the two most-important characters from “Bad News Bears,” it still managed to make something work. The kids have an opportunity to play a game at the Astrodome for a shot to play the Japanese Little League champs, but they have to take it upon themselves to make it there. Eventually William Devane pops up as the new coach, playing the estranged father of team star Kelly Leak. “Breaking Training” at least gets credit for one of the best “One person rallies an entire crowd” sports movie moment.

We tried to avoid direct-to-video movies, but when arguably the best sports movie in history has a sequel starring Stephen Baldwin and Gary Busey, you have to call it out. Shockingly, waiting over 40 years and then throwing together a cheap sequel didn’t bear much fruit. Now, of course, the Hanson Brothers did show up, but back in the day, you could have offered the Hanson Brothers 30 bucks and a pizza to show up at your nephew’s 10th birthday party, and they would have done it.

On the ol’ internets we were seeing “Inside Out 2” listed as a sports movie, and in need of more good sports sequels, we decided to roll with it. The film is focused on Riley adjusting to both her adolescent emotions and her new hockey teammates. It’s about sports to a not insignificant degree. It also made over $1 billion and was the highest-grossing film of 2024, so there’s that.

Even changing sports couldn’t yield any life for “Teen Wolf Too.” The first “Teen Wolf,” frankly, has like four fun moments in it and a ton of filler. “Teen Wolf Too” replaces high school with college, basketball with boxing, and Michael J. Fox with Jason Bateman. It’s that last one that really lets you know there wasn’t going to be any value in this movie.

You know, when you have a sentient car, it really gives you a leg up in competitions. Herbie is Disney’s surprisingly-successful Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own. Helen Hayes, who was nicknamed “The First Lady of American Theater,” was in this movie. What a weird world. “Herbie Rides Again” was enough of a success that it yielded another sequel, the delightfully-titled “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.”

Look, “Space Jam” isn’t good, but at least it isn’t stupid. “A New Legacy” is stupid. LeBron is a better actor than Michael Jordan, but everything else is worse. The plot is nonsense (even compared to the first one!), the action inert, the jokes wholly not working. Well, score one more for MJ in the GOAT battle.

“Rocky” won Best Picture, and then it yielded sequels that have been a mixed bag. The same is true for sequel spinoff series “Creed.” “Rocky III” is the best movie post “Rocky.” Yes, “Rocky IV” is fun, but it’s silly as all get out. “Rocky III,” with Mr. T as the villainous Clubber Lang, works better as a movie, not as a goofy, fun time.

“Air Bud” is dumb, but it’s a movie for kids and it has a golden retriever in it and we could have accepted its existence. We would have let them have one movie about a dog playing sports. However, they couldn’t leave well enough alone. The dog played football, soccer, baseball, and volleyball. Five movies in the course of six years, and then a bunch of truly braindead spinoffs about puppies going on adventures. “Air Bud” has yielded perhaps the most-inane franchise in all of film, and that’s saying something.