10 Best Fourquels

The other day I wrote an article about what are I thought were the 15 best "threequels" or third installments of a movie franchise of all time were(To view it, click here http://rantingaboutmovies.blogspot.com/2017/02/15-best-threequels.html).
After writing that article, I started to think what are the best "fourquels" or fourth installments of a movie franchise.
So, I've decided to do another list, this one consisting of what I think are the 10 best fourquels in movie history.

10. Thunderball(1965)

When adjusted for inflation, Thunderball is actually the highest grossing James Bond movie of all time.
Anyway, Sean Connery's fourth outing as agent 007 includes a number of memorable moments from the franchise including the climatic underwater harpoon battle scene, Bond killing a would-be assassin with a harpoon, then quipping "I think he got the point" and the famous jet-pack escape in the film's prologue.

9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire(2005)

The Harry Potter franchise continued its path toward a darker, more serious tone as this was the first movie in the franchise that earned a PG-13 rating .
The film does a good job of telling the audience that Harry, Ron, and Hermoine are no longer children as they deal with romance as Harry and Ron are jealous that their crushes do not attend with them to a dance known as the Yule Ball and have to face death as a friend of Harry, Cedric Diggory, played by a pre-Twilight Robert Pattinson, is killed during the movie.
Plus, we finally get to see a glimpse of Harry's arch-nemesis: Lord Voldemort.
8. Jurassic World(2015)

22 years after Jurassic Park, we finally get to see what a functioning dinosaur theme park looks like in Jurassic World.
Of course, the park comes into danger when their new creation, the Indominus Rex, escapes and creates chaos throughout the park, forcing Chris Pratt to save the day.
While the film might not have much of a story, it is still good popcorn entertainment thanks to Pratt's performance as well as the action sequences including the climatic battle between the Indominus, a T-Rex, and some velcioraptors.
Plus, Bryce Dallas Howard pulls off an impressive feat as she is able to run around with high heels on.

7. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol(2011)

One of the issues that film critics and some fans of the first three Mission Impossible movies was that it was focused too much on Tom Cruise and not the team, unlike the old TV show(For you kids out there, Mission: Impossible was a TV series that ran from 1966-1973 on CBS
However, in Ghost Protocol, the other members of Cruise's team get to shine as the IMF is disavowed after being framed for an attack on the Kremlin in Moscow.
This forces Cruise's Ethan Hunt to rely on only three other agents: Benji Dunn, the film's comic relief done very well by Simon Pegg, Jane Carter, played by the very sexy Paula Patton(why did Robin Thicke cheat on her?) and the mysterious analyst William Brandt, played by Jeremy Renner.
The film also features a spectacular stunt in which Hunt has to climb the outside of the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai, which Cruise performed without a stunt double.
6. Live Free or Die Hard(2007)

12 years after his last adventure in Die Hard with a  Vengeance, Bruce Willis' John McClane returns to save the United States from cyber-terrorists who have hacked into the federal government to create chaos throughout America.
The film has incredible action, including the tunnel scene which ends with McClane driving a car off a toll booth and into the air to explode a helicopter because he was out of bullets, another great sidekick in computer hacker Matt Farrell, played by Justin Long, and the theme that being a hero isn't all that is cracked up to be as McClane is divorced and tries to repair the relationship with his estranged daughter, Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who uses the name "Generro" like her mother did in the first Die Hard.
5. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home(1986)

Some fans might be turned off by the film's environmental message to save the whales, but the fourth entry of the Star Trek franchise is one of the best because of the comedy that ensues as the crew of the Enterprise are like a fish out of water(sorry about the pun) in 1986 San Francisco resulting in numerous funny moments including Chekov's search for the nuclear "wessels", Kirk and Spock being rejected by a bus because they did not know what the driver meant by exact change, and Scotty using a mouse as a device to talk to the computer.
4. Rocky IV(1985)

This is the Rocky movie where Rocky(Sylvester Stallone) goes to Russia to avenge the death of Apollo Creed(Carl Weathers) at the hands of Ivan Drago(Dolph Lundgren).
Having a hard act to follow in Rocky III's Clubber Lang(Mr. T), Lundgren does a good job of potraying the cold, heartless Soviet boxer with classic lines like "If he dies, he dies" when he knocks out Creed and of course telling Rocky "I must break you" before their fight.
While critics panned the movie, Rocky IV became the highest-grossing film of the franchise and was the highest grossing sports film of all time until The Blind Side in 2009.
3. Toy Story 4(2019)

When Woody, Buzz and the rest of the toys were donated from Andy to a little girl named Bonnie at the end of Toy Story 3, many thought that was the end of the Toy Story franchise.
But Pixar was able to come up with another fantastic entry in this magical franchise that gave fans once again the laughter and emotion that comes with every Toy Story.
In this installment, Woody(Tom Hanks) has been regulated to the closet of his new owner, Bonnie, but yet spends the film trying to make her happy when her toy that she made named Forky runs away and Woody attempts to bring him home because he doesn't want Bonnie to be upset.
Along the way, he meets with an old friend in Bo Peep(Annie Potts), that had been given up years before by Andy's sister, and finds a new purpose in his life: to search for lost toys and find them a owner who will love them.
2. Mad Max: Fury Road(2015)

It's not just the fact that this movie earned 10 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director for George Miller and that is has a rating of 97% by critics(86% by fans) on Rotten Tomatoes, but the fact that the Mad Max franchise could succeed without Mel Gibson and that an action movie can be made without an overdose of CGI.
Director George Miller says that 80% of the effects were not CGI in creating his masterpiece in which Mad Max, now played by Tom Hardy, helps Imperator Furiosa(Charlize Theron)and the five wives of Immortan Joe escape in an armored truck known as the "War Rig".
Essentially, the whole movie is one long chase, but it works and helps us all get beyond Thunderdome.
1. Avengers: Endgame(2019)

While it is the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this is the 4th Marvel movie under The Avengers moniker and considered by many Marvel fans as the best movie out of the entire 22-movie saga.
Following the events of Infinity War where Thanos wiped out half of the universe, the remaining Avengers(Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Ant-Man, War Machine, Nebula, and Rocket Racoon)go back in time to collect the Infinity Stones that Thanos used in the previous film to reverse the damage he did and bring the other half of the universe back to life.
The movie features some surprise cameos from characters from previous movies such as Tilda Swinton's The Ancient One from Doctor Strange and Rene Russo, who played Frigga, Thor's mother in the first two Thor movies.
The movie also features some of the most memorable moments in comic book film history such as Captain America wielding Thor's hammer, the return of the heroes who turned into dust in Infinity War just in time for the final battle and Iron Man's "I am Iron Man" line.
While there will be more Marvel movies, Endgame  provides an satisfying conclusion for some major characters while setting up more fun in the future for the MCU.