Everybody makes mistakes, even a three-time Super Bowl winning football coach like Bill Belichick. If a man like Belichick can cause a series of fatal game-changing events due to one bad coaching call — as he did during the fourth quarter of last night's game pitting his New England Patriots against the Indianapolis Colts — then you shouldn't feel too bad about breaking your mother's favorite vase or skipping out on "Drag Me To Hell" while it was in theaters. Alright, maybe you should feel bad about that last one.
But the Patriots head coach isn't alone in his ability to turn a single blunder into a catastrophic calamity — it's a storm that comes into port quite often in the hills of Hollywood. In fact, the following five film franchises have all seen similar collapses due to a fourth quarter fumble.
BATMAN & ROBIN
In 1997, the superhero movie genre almost died a dastardly death due to "Batman & Robin," the Joel Schumacher-directed fourth film in the live-action "Batman" franchise. Rather than building off of the gothic Gotham created by Tim Burton in his "Batman" films, Schumacher and Warner Bros. opted for a heavy reliance on the cheese, poison-proof rubber lips, fluorescent everything and superheroic nipples. It's nothing short of a miracle that "The Dark Knight" was eventually allowed to happen.
INDIANA JONES & THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL
If Belichick made a blunder in last night's Patriots game, then the trifecta of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Harrison Ford nuked the fridge by pursuing their fourth "Indiana Jones" feature film. "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" certainly could have been worse — after all, it did offer a pulse-pounding experience, but mostly because fans were terrified that Shia LaBeouf would wind up with Indiana's moniker by the film's conclusion.
THE MATRIX RELOADED & REVOLUTIONS
Maybe it's because the movies were filmed back-to-back, or perhaps because there was just no reason to turn the original "Matrix" into a trilogy in the first place — either way, the Wachowski Brothers couldn't dodge a bullet with "The Matrix Reloaded" and "Revolutions," two films that effectively de-merited the groundbreaking initial film in many fans' eyes. Between a dessert-induced orgasm and Trinity dying twice, there's no question that the decision-makers behind the "Matrix" sequels should have taken the blue pill.
STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE
Don't get me wrong — I absolutely loved "The Phantom Menace" when it first arrived in 1999. I saw that film ten times in theaters if only for the climactic lightsaber battle at the end, maybe the best in the entire franchise. Still, I have to admit that the first prequel set the low standards for the remainder of the trilogy for two very specific reasons: baby Anakin Skywalker singlehandedly annihilating the Trade Federation, and Jar Jar Binks doing anything. Not even Darth Maul's badass double-bladed lightsaber could erase that pesky Gungan from pop culture history.
X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
When Bryan Singer fled the third "X-Men" film for "Superman Returns," he took all of the mutant franchise's signature quality with him. Director Brett Ratner was widely blamed for the problematic "X-Men: The Last Stand," but equal blame should be put on a twitchy screenplay that unceremoniously killed several lead characters. That's not even mentioning the inaccurate title choice, as several "X-Men" sequels are already in the pipeline. Even with the commercial success of that film and the subsequent "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," most "X-Men" fans feel that the ball was dropped on "The Last Stand."
Can you think of other fourth quarter disasters in Hollywood? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter
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