The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel opens in theaters this weekend and we're still having a hard time believing that this is a real movie. Not because we think it will be bad (the first one is charming enough), but because it's a sequel to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. And it's actually called The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Sequels are inevitable. Film is a business, and if something works the first time around, of course the people with the deep pockets are going to try it again until it stops working. That's how it works. But some sequels are just a little more unlikely than others. Some sequels don't seem to have the right to exist. Others are just plain bizarre. Many sequels completely miss the point of the previous film, casting the newly created series in a strange light. The collection of titles below is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to sequels that are baffling in their existence (in ways both good and bad).

Oh, and one quick rule: direct-to-video or made-for-TV sequels were disqualified. Sorry, Bambi 2 and The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission.

Alien: Resurrection

At the end of James Cameron's Aliens, the planet that hosts the Xenomorph menace that has been plaguing Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley is nuked into oblivion. At the end of Alien 3, Ripley (and the final alien inside of her) are melted in a big tank of molten steel. This series didn't just end, it ENDED!!!... with three exclamation points. But that didn't prevent Alien: Resurrection from coming into existence. The much maligned fourth film in the series found Ripley (and the aliens) getting cloned hundreds of years after they were killed off. Unfortunately, this resuscitation came a little too late, resulting in some unfortunate brain damage. No movie featuring the aliens has been up to snuff since.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 2: Judgment Day had the perfect ending. The bad guy was killed. The SkyNet-driven apocalypse was prevented. The good Terminator let himself be destroyed to prevent any chance that its kind would come into existence. It closed the book on the series in just about every way, hitting all of the right thematic notes. And then Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines drunkenly barged onto the scene a decade later, shouting "None of that mattered! Look at me!" To be fair, Terminator 3 is not as bad as some claim, but it's preposterous and goofy and has no respect whatsoever for how James Cameron chose to end Terminator 2. It's actually kind of astonishing how few sh*ts it gives.

The Last Exorcism Part II

Let's ask the obvious question regarding The Last Exorcism Part II: how can there be a second exorcism when the first film's title makes it pretty clear that it's the last one? More specifically, how can this second final exorcism be a thing when the exorcist from the first film didn't survive to see the end credits and, therefore, isn't in the sequel? So this isn't even a continuation of the previously established final exorcism. It's a new exorcism all together. So it's not a last exorcism. This movie is dumb.

The Blues Brothers 2000 and Fantasia 2000

A strange thing started happening in the late '90s. Sequels to decades-old classic movies began to hit theaters, and in an attempt to signify their hip newness, they were branded with "2000" because in those days the idea of living in the new millennium was cool and crazy and exciting (ask your parents about those simpler times, kids). So that gives us a chance to lump Fantasia 2000 and The Blues Brothers 2000 together into one bizarre package. They do have one thing in common: they're both sequels made without the involvement of a key player in the original film's success. The fact that they made another Blues Brothers movie without the late John Belushi is kinda' skin-crawling. The fact that they made another Fantasia without the lunatic ambition of Walt Disney is just plain shocking (the original was a notorious bomb in its day). Neither of these movies (one bad, one pretty decent) have any right to exist.

Psycho II

They waited until a few years after Alfred Hitchcock's death to make a sequel to his legendary horror classic, Psycho. And, to be fair, the results aren't that bad! Psycho II is a perfectly competent slasher mystery with its fair share of twists and turns and a delightful kooky performance from Anthony Perkins. But that doesn't answer the big question: why? Why make a sequel to a bonafide classic two decades after it came out without the involvement of the man whose unique vision is the only reason for the first film's success? Money is the answer, of course, but we're getting metaphorical here. Even with the pleasures it provides, few sequels are as wholly unnecessary as this one, which attempts to provide a more traditional structure to a character who was created solely to serve the cinematic equivalent of a masterful sick joke.

Staying Alive

Popular culture has remembered Saturday Night Fever as that colorful disco movie where John Travolta dances. So do yourself a favor and watch it again. It's a pitch black movie, a painfully human drama set in a very specific time and place that is frequently at odds with questionable choices that the characters make. Naturally, the sequel throws all of that moral ambiguity out the window and just keeps the dancing, resulting in a movie that is lesser in just about every way. Staying Alive is a bad movie and a bad sequel, but the improbability of its existence really comes into focus when you realize that it was written and directed by Sylvester Stallone. Yes, the star of Rocky and Rambo is directly responsible for the film that torpedoed Travolta's career for a decade. You can't make that craziness up.

Rocky Balboa

Speaking of Sylvester Stallone and unlikely sequels, let's talk about Rock Balboa, the final film in a series that went from outstanding to trainwreck over the course of its initial five entries. When this film was announced, the knives came out. They said Stallone was a washed-up has-been, a joke. This movie was an attempt to use audience nostalgia for one final shot at relevance and nothing more. Heck, Rocky V featured Stallone's lovable boxer retiring thanks to brain damage. How could this movie actually exist? But it does exist and it's probably the second best film in the entire series, capturing the simplicity and humility of the first film while steering clear of the excess that ruined the rest of the series. How is a fifth sequel this good? That's impossible, right?

Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning, Final Destination 5, Wes Craven's New Nightmare, Halloween III: Season of the Witch and Scream 4

It's not surprising when a horror franchise milks its own success until it runs dry and crashes and burns in a quiet whimper. But these films all have one thing on common: they followed a definitive "final" entry. Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning came after Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter. Wes Craven's New Nightmare came after Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare. Final Destination 5 came after The Final Destination. Halloween III: Season of the Witch is a weird case -- the first sequel killed off most of the major characters and part three continues with a brand new story (the original cast would return for part four). And then there's Scream 4, a sequel to a trilogy that concluded with a film that was all about the importance of trilogies. These aren't just sequels. These are resurrections of franchises that loudly proclaimed their own deaths and got defibrillated.